If there’s one undoing of our human limitation – it is the inability to be consistent. We begin a routine and get bored after one week. We make rules, yet break them ourselves.
We say one thing, but our body language conveys something else. We uphold the highest standards, yet operate by the lowest standards. Sadly, our flesh never concedes to defeat. Today, we learn from the Galatians.
Hello! Good evening my friend. How’re you doing? Welcome to this week’s edition of The Jesus Therapy Seven. It’s my earnest prayer that as we seek to know God more, our lives will take the perfect form necessary to fulfil His purposes, in Jesus’ name, Amen!
Wednesday, 13 March 2024
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
- Gal. 1:6-7
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
- Galatians 3:3
Are you so foolish and senseless? Having begun [your new life by faith] with the Spirit, are you now being perfected and reaching spiritual maturity by the flesh [that is, by your own works and efforts to keep the Law]?
- Galatians 3:3 AMP
The Galatians’ undoing was trying to perfect their salvation through the law. They were setting themselves up for failure because the law brings a curse! Paul the Apostle summarized the Book of Galatians with a powerful expression – Man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus (Gal. 2:16).
His point was that receiving the life of Jesus and sustaining the Christian life must be done by faith. We do not receive salvation and slip back into regulations. Anything that is not by grace through faith is a different gospel which perverts the gospel of Jesus.
We turn to a different gospel when we apply self-help
We turn to a different gospel when we try to be righteous by works
We turn to a different gospel when our Christian path becomes a broadway
We turn to a different gospel when we water the imperative for total submission to God
We turn to a different gospel when we entangle ourselves in unequal yoking
We turn to a different gospel when we assume grace is a license for indulgent living
You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?
Like Paul asked the Galatians, God also frowns when we take our eyes off Him to trust in our efforts. The Galatians were being lured into circumcision to become acceptable to the Jews. Paul knew they could not keep up with that rat race, so he reminded them “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
In other words, “Remember what the law says. Can you bear the consequences? Are you sufficient for these things? Why cling to bondage when we have been made children of the freewoman?”
The charge to continue in the Spirit is not limited to salvation, but our day-to-day Christian walk. If we have begun by the Spirit, there would be temptations to continue in the flesh. Chiefly, the tests we encounter come to check our loyalty and influence us to attempt to finish the good work God has started in the flesh. There are many instances:
Praying while still striving to lobby our way through an opportunity.
Waiting on God but impatiently birthing Ishmael in the process.
Living by faith only in the face of lack. Once the means are present, we abandon faith and cling to our limited earthly resources at the risk of being cut off from the inexhaustible resources of heaven.
What grace gives, grace keeps.
Is there anything you have begun in the Spirit but are trying to sustain in the flesh? In a world that is always on the move, God is more interested in our “Following His leading” (Gal. 5:18), even if it means waiting for Him to act. It may take a distasteful experience to understand this, but this message is timely for anyone who wants to enjoy God’s rest.
Goodbyes
…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Prayer:
Lord, I wait for your mercy
I look to you for perfection
Keep me in your love
Help me to have simple faith in you
Guide me in the way of truth
lead me by your Spirit till your glorious work is complete.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Till next time,
Wednesday, God willing.
Amen!
"And the Just shall live by Faith". Thank You Jesus Therapy Seven for this great piece. Indeed, the Help of God is to those who can't help themselves.