Oh foolish Galatians!

I find myself at times becoming a Galatian.  It's such a strong tendency to fall back into the law rather than be free under God's grace.  I feel better about myself when I have a list of to do's, striving to fulfill a list makes me feel accomplished and worthy.  That's what the book of Galatians was about.  Paul got word that the Galatians gave up their freedom in Christ to serve the law again.  Paul was ticked.  Go read it out loud, put some cranky attitude into it cause Paul meant for them to receive it that way.

Each January 1, I choose a verse to focus on for the year.  This year I had chosen Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, I no longer live but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."  Everything I say and do, I run through the filter of this verse.  It helps me to get my focus off of me, which the world tends to push us to focus on ourselves to much.  Trying to live selfless is hard work, it's the opposite of what the world teaches.

Recently, I was reading this verse out of the New Living Translation (my favorite translation to read in chunks) but ended up planted on verse 21, "I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless.  For if keeping the law could make us right with God then there was no need for Christ to die."  No need for Christ to die went over and over in my mind and I felt convicted.  When I fall into striving, I belittle what Christ has done, even more so, I make it senseless.  Jesus laid down his life so that we would be free of striving, of earning.  I am worthy and completely loved just as I am.  Anything I do for Him is out of my love for Him, not that the do's are "have to's" but that they are "want to's".

Anytime you hear from someone that thinks there are "have to's" and "required to do's" from God, they have missed His grace and have fallen into religion and fallen out of relationship.  Jesus said, "I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it."  Fulfill is the Greek word pleroo, it means to fill , to make full, to accomplish.  Jesus accomplished all that the law required, and when He hung on the cross, He said, "It is Finished".  He completed it all, so that we could be free, free to love Him and free to love others.

The next time you feel you HAVE to do something, do it out of your love for Jesus, not out of someone telling or you feeling you have to.  There are no "have to's" but only "want to's"!  Live free, and freely love, it's that simple when you trust Jesus.

The coffee house pastor