Keep At It

Keep following Jesus. Keep doing good.

In this letter to the Galatians, Paul holds up a warning sign. “Don’t fall from grace (by living under the Law)” was written on one side, and “Walk in the Spirit” was on the other.

Walking in the Spirit, you will sometimes fall flat on your face, but you get up and keep going. That’s how the fruit of His Spirit grows in your life.

One of the beautiful things said about Jesus Christ in prophecy is that though all you may suffer, He suffers too (see Isaiah 63:9). He goes along with you in life and delivers you when you stumble and fall. He doesn’t fall, but in His love and mercy, He picks you up, brushes you off, and tells you to begin again.

“Help carry each other’s burdens,” Paul also encourages us. We all have burdens. Some can be shared, but others must be carried alone. Much of our pain occurs in our internal life. We will be discouraged, disappointed, maybe even bitter, though no one else may know our pain.

But some burdens can neither be carried nor shared. You can’t share the weight of sin with anyone else, nor is it a burden you can carry yourself (see Psalms 38:4; 55:6). Have you ever felt like a bird that can fly away from it? Or an athlete that can run away from it? But you can’t because with your sin comes guilt, shame, and consequences.

There’s only one place to get rid of your sin—at the cross of Christ. The Lord Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He alone can lift the weight of your sin off your life. He paid the penalty for it, and He alone can take it from you.

One of the most remarkable verses in Galatians teaches us an undeniable, unmovable, unalterable law that operates in every sphere of life: What you sow, you will reap. If you plant cotton, you grow cotton. So what have you been planting since you accepted Christ? Seeds of sinfulness? It will only grow. Seeds of godliness? That, too, will grow. Just keep sowing the Word of God (see Isaiah 55:10-11). Walk in the Spirit and keep doing good.

Between us and the world, there is a cross. The Cross will shape your conduct more than anything else. You won’t boast in your goodness or faithfulness or anything. You will just glory in the Cross and the One who died there.

The legalizers pulling at the Galatians said you had to be circumcised to be saved. But Paul said circumcision didn’t matter. Only the handwriting of the Holy Spirit across your life matters.

As he closes, Paul points to the marks on his own body as the handwriting of Jesus. “I bear in my body the scars, the stigmata, of Jesus.” If you want to know where those scars came from, read 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 for a long list of what Paul endured for Jesus’ sake. He bore the brand marks of the Lord Jesus on his body and on his life.

The Lord Jesus still writes His name on the lives of His own. His branding iron is on our hearts for eternity. Do you proudly wear His stigmata for His sake?

As a final appeal, Paul entrusts these people he loves to God’s grace.