Get the appGalatians: The Life I Now LiveНамуна
Nobody was born a Christian. We were born dead in sin and ‘lived’ a fleshly life: an independent ‘I can do it on my own, God!’ kind of life. Some have a fleshly appetite for licentious pleasures. Others have a fleshly appetite for respect from the religious community. Either way, this independent living is not really living at all. It is spiritually dead.
At some point, if you are a Christian, God got a hold of your life. By His Spirit, He drew your gaze to Christ on the cross. He poured out His love into you, and He did something inside of you. This is the transformation Paul passionately defended: the New Covenant. Yet this new heart, with new desires and the Spirit dwelling within, is all dwelling within our flesh – which is why we are all conflicted people. We long to please God, but our flesh always turns back, trying to live independently from God.
Paul did not want the Galatians to lose the gospel by merely adding in a self-focused ingredient of performance. There must be no turning from the New Covenant back to a perversion of the Old Covenant, either for salvation or for growth in godliness. Why turn from Christ to yourself? Why stop living by the Spirit and start living by your own effort? The law was never designed to create righteousness. It was designed to expose your unrighteousness. The law was given to show that you were dead in your sins and you need God to do something in you. Why would you turn your back on God and go after a religious approach to life that is all about yourself?
Even in the last verse (v. 18), Paul reiterates his point. It is about grace, not law. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, not me. It is His work within us (in our spirit by His Spirit – His grace), not our work.
If we let Galatians grip us, then we will be passionate about Christ and the cross. We will be stirred by the Spirit inside us, drawing us closer to our Abba. And the fruit will be a holy community of believers driven not by dutiful determination, but by delight in our fellowship with the Trinity. We will not be self-focused but others-focused. The gospel changes everything: it gives us a whole new kind of life to live!
Reflection
Thank God for the life He has for you!
About this Plan
Paul wrote the book of Galatians to Christians who were tempted to add good works to the gospel. Although we might not want to admit it, adding to the gospel is a great temptation for us too. So be encouraged as Peter Mead takes us through these devotions, be reminded that Christ is everything, and that the gospel is all we need for our lives now in Jesus.
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