Scripture: Galatians 5:1 - 3
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”
Observation
Paul is usually very gentle and loving in his epistles calling the recipients of the epistle “saints”, telling them how he thanks God for them. Galatians is a stark contrast, where Paul uses no words of endearment, but instead uses sharp rebuke.
He uses very serious words - “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel” (Gal 1:6).
In Chapter 3, he again uses very sharp words of correction, calling them “foolish”, and asking them “who has bewitched you”. (Gal 5:1-3).
What was their fault? They believed that they needed to follow Jewish rules and customs in addition to believing in Christ to attain salvation - specifically circumcision.
He ends the chapter by reminding them that they are saved through faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross alone - “All of you are God's children because of your faith in Christ Jesus. And when you were baptized, it was as though you had put on Christ in the same way you put on new clothes. Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman. So if you belong to Christ, you are now part of Abraham's family, and you will be given what God has promised” (Gal 5:26-29, CEV).
Application
Salvation cannot be earned by good works. When we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Rom 10:9). He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy (Titus 3:5).
This does not mean that we can live any way we want, after we receive Christ. The Bible has to be read as a whole. Repentance means taking a U-turn from our past sinful life. How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? (Rom 6:2). Grace empowers us to live a holy and righteous life. For the grace of God ... teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age (Titus 2:11-12).
Without holiness no one will see God (Heb 12:14). Our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29). The Bible teaches us to work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12).
The Bible commands us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God (Rom 12:1). That means that we are to offer ourselves to God every single day to do what he wants us to do, and to live a life that pleases him.
The Bible very clearly warns believers of consequences of continuing to deliberately live in sin. I have given 3 examples below. Please read carefully.
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire (Heb 10:26-27).
Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers .... (1 Cor 6:9).
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned (John 15:6).
Let us not be deceived thinking that God has a lenient attitude towards willful sin in our life. He does not. God is our loving Father, and gives us second chances and third chances, and perhaps unlimited chances to repent, and set our lives right before Him. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).
But God is also the righteous judge who has authority to throw into hell (Luke 12:5). Disobedience is not an option.
Prayer
Dear Father, thank you for sending Jesus into my life. Thank your Lord for your indescribable gift (2 Cor 9:15). Thank you for making me your child. Thank you for the blood of Jesus that washes away my sins. (1 John 1:7). Help me to take heed lest I fall (1 Cor 10:12). If there is hidden sin in my life, please reveal it to me. I don’t want to fall short of your standards and miss out on what you have for me. Help me to repent of anything that your Spirit is showing me. Lord, I know that I am not my own, but that I am bought by a price - by the precious blood of Jesus (1 Cor 6:19-20). Help me to offer my body as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to you, which is my true and proper worship (Rom 12:1). Help me to not conform to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of my mind through your word everyday (Rom 12:2). May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord (Ps 19:14). In Jesus’s name. Amen.
- Asha Chacko George
