Galatians 3:22 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? ESV
One of the greatest lies foisted upon mankind is this: one comes to God in faith only to spend the rest of his days living according to the rules – trying to please God. Few truly realize that God is only pleased by faith.
God didn’t make Himself known to men so that He could adapt to their culture; He made Himself known that they would adapt to His. Paul made the point to the Galatians that the key that unlocked the door to true relationship with God was the point of hearing the truth, not keeping the demands of Jewish Law. God’s grace breathes freedom; the Law imprisons with regulation.
It seems that governments nowadays try to outdo one another by coming up with ridiculous laws and regulations that are impossible to keep; the more stringent, constricting, and crushing, the better. Faith allows sloppiness and messiness because that is how people are and how relationship with them is. Law cannot tolerate sloppy and messy and tries by rule to eradicate humanness and the unpredictable. Endless regulation ignores everydayness and demands flawless perfection. That is so not God who calls us to peace and freedom being who we’re going to be through loving and living faith in His Son.
So Paul’s question to me is this: Pablo, did you come to know God by keeping the rules and presenting yourself as a rule-keeper or did you hear the truth and did it set you free to walk in a loving trust relationship with Him? His second question is: now that you’ve come to faith, do you have to live by the rules to keep it?
Father in Heaven,
I have believed the Law for so long; I too now cry, Abba Father, trusting that I am set free from trying to please You by keeping the rules; and living simply in the freedom I have in Jesus Christ to love You. Amen.
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