Wednesday,
October 27, 2021
Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was
made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let
me ask you this one question: Did you
receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed
the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you
be? After starting your new lives in the
Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have
you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? Galatians 3:1-4
My mother did not have the greatest sense of direction. We dropped Dad off at the airport and Mom
drove the forty miles home. It took a
little longer than expected. I was 10
years-old, so it seemed like two days; it was more like 6 hours. Mom took a wrong turn and wound-up in
Connecticut; we lived on Long Island. It
was odd for a person who’d been born and lived her whole life in a 60 mile radius
to turn the wrong way. But it was night,
and things look different in the dark.
When my Dad heard the story he must’ve wondered, how
could she do that? She’d been on
those roads dozens of times. Did someone
cast a spell on her? Did a prankster
switch the road signs?
In retrospect, Paul the Apostle must have wondered
why the people of the Galatian churches lost their way on a familiar street…Faith
Street. Paul had brought the Gospel
message to those folks, and taught them well with powerful understanding of the
Spirit and God’s plan. But as soon as
Paul left town, there were false teachers (those who had made it their life’s
mission to follow Paul and “correct” his mistakes). These false teachers twisted Paul’s teaching
and convinced the Galatian folks to re-enter the world of works-salvation,
instead of grace. They told them to
return to try being perfect by human means.
But the truth of genuine orthodoxy is that there is no righteousness inside
us, or in anything we can do, that can be good enough for God’s standard, which
is perfection. His righteousness isn’t
earned with the good things we can do…it is a gift, God’s grace-filled
forgiving of our sinfulness. The only so-called
“work” we can do is that of repentance – understanding and acknowledging that
we are only fit for Heaven when we realize and admit that we’re not fit for Heaven.
The Galatian believers fell for the oldest
deception Satan has in his tool bag – questioning God’s grace and love. Paul asked them to recall that release of
inner turmoil and worthlessness they’d received when they first fell in love
with Jesus. He wanted them to see how that
wrong turn they took towards the darkness made the loveliness of Christ fade away
like Paradise in the rear view mirror. Just
as Mom and her two sons were headed towards Connecticut instead of Long Island,
the Galatian believers weren’t headed towards home anymore; they were circling
the drain of lost faith.
For You Today
If you have been a believer for a long time, or new in the
faith, or anywhere along that timeline of the pilgrim’s journey, there is good
reason in the example of the Galatian church’s folly to help you pay attention
to the road signs. God will lead you
today if you stay in love with Jesus. That
will keep you far away from the drain that swallows faith.
You chew on that as you hit the
Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title and Other Images:
Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
