How to be perfect . . .

 

 

READ Galatians 1-5

Several cult members who go door to door have asked who taught me the spiritual truths I shared with them. They did not believe that Jesus reveals truth to His people; it must be learned from others. This was Paul’s topic when he encountered false teaching:

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ . . . . But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles . . . (Galatians 1:11–16)

At that time, the Christians who heard it were amazed saying, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me. (Galatians 1:23–24)

Today’s reading strongly defends the Gospel. New Christians were being told they had to do this or that in order to be saved or in order to maintain their salvation. Some of them fell for this lie and like people before them, found out they could not keep those laws. They forgot that such actions on their part would not be effective even if they could do them! Law-keeping is not the Gospel.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:15–16)

Paul explained to them about new life in Christ and that new life involved death to the old life, yet even that is not possible for anyone to make happen even as law-keeping was not within their ability. Salvation is through faith in Christ and a huge part of that is dying in Him so we can live in Him:

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:19–21)

As for those who had experienced this incredible new life but were now trying to keep it by laws and rules, he told them that was not the way of the Gospel either:

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Galatians 3:2–6)

This does not mean the laws of God are bad. We are the problem; we were imprisoned under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:21–22)

This reading lists the differences between sin and grace by how a person lives. That list includes some extreme examples, yet even less severe sin or effort to ‘do things my way’ instead of being ‘led by the Spirit’ puts my life under that control of the flesh, that very life force that was crucified with Christ. (Galatians 5:18–24)

It is that same flesh-life that motivates false teachers to put rules on people. They want to boast of their power. However, as Paul said, those who walk by faith deeply desire to boast only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to us, and us to the world.

Lord Jesus, this is the good news that sets me free from the bondage of trying to run my own life. I thank You for that. Even though I sometimes stumble and fall or thoughtlessly disobey You, I’m so glad that You saved me, and keep saving me, and will someday welcome me into eternity as a sinless and perfect child of God.