Right With God – Galatians Part 8

Scripture: Galatians 5 (Link) 1 So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law…4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive everything promised to us who are right with God through faith. (Galatians 5:1, 4-5 NLT) Paul’s little letter to the Galatians is jam-packed with truth! It’s also jam-packed with tension: The tension between freedom and slavery, the tension between Old Covenant and New Covenant, the tension between law and grace, the tension between rules and relationship. The reality is that we also face tensions in our daily lives. One of the tensions Christ-followers face—perhaps not in theory, but certainly in practice—is how do we know what God really wants, how do we know if God is pleased with us at any given time? How do we know at this specific moment if we are really, truly right with God? If we are functionally trying to please God, to be right with God, by obeying the rules and doing right things, we have fallen from God’s Grace! This means that trusting God to make us right with himself, trusting that he is pleased with us when we simply believe and trust him is the highest level of “rightness with God.” Anything less, anything that depends on what we can do rather than what Jesus has already done is lower level living! If you’ve fallen from Grace-level living to works-level living, lift your head and your heart and trust in what Christ has done to make you God-pleasing and God-right! Prayer: Father, You know how I struggle with this one! I know I’m God-right and God-pleasing by your love, your mercy, and your grace alone. By your gracious Spirit, settle this truth deep in my mind and heart. Thank you. I believe! I trust! Amen!