Trying to be Justified

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.

As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. --Galatians 5:1-15

My father is part of a weekly men's Bible study that has met together for a number of years. They're a great group of guys who challenge one another, think, discuss, and pray together every week. They don't always agree -- which is a good thing! We need to be challenging what we hear from our brothers & sisters in Christ, our pastors, evangelists, and authors. Since we have the opportunity to read the Word for ourselves, and be in relationship with a living God, then we can judge if what we are being told speaks to the truth we know. Sometimes it is the still small voice in us that is the best mediator.

One man in Dad's study was arguing a point a few months ago - and ultimately said something along the lines of, "I wish there was just a clear list of rules so we knew what was wrong and what is right." Apparently they had been discussing some social issue, behavior, condition, or choice -- and found themselves on both sides of the issue. My dad responded by explaining that God had already tried that.

It's true. The "law" has been tried. Jesus came to abolish the law and offer a new covenant and a new commandment: a relationship with God - and a pretty clear instruction to love our neighbors as ourselves. We can either keep arguing about who is in and who is out (who is circumcised and who is not) or we can move past that and work on forming ourselves into the image of a God whose justice is only outmatched by His grace.

Christian bumper stickers drive me crazy. Lots of "Christian" things drive me crazy. For example, I have no idea why the church wants to be identified by their stand on homosexuality above all else. It makes me incredibly sad. In a world where marriages are often unhealthy, broken, or shallow -- why is the church focusing on who shouldn't be in love --- instead of what God has to say about love in the first place? Besides, the Christian community is doing a poor job of maintaining marriages - since the statistics for divorce run from 40-50% in Christian and non-Christian marriages. Perhaps that is the case because so much of our energy is devoted to creating boundary markers and feeling incredibly righteous about the side of the "law" we fall on.

Jesus spent a lot of time talking about gossip and judgment -- but I have rarely seen Christians carrying signs and pasting bumper stickers that have anything to do with that. Jesus had a lot to say about the use of money & talent -- but those things don't seem to find their way on signs either. The Bible I read talks a lot about divorce -- but I don't see churches dividing over whether or not their pastors are divorced.

Paul said, "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

If that is the only thing that counts -- then we need some new PR people in the Christian community. What we represent needs to be the love of God --- not our own desperate need to be "right" or the limitations of a law that was declared dead over 2000 years ago.

The only thing that counts is FAITH expressing itself through LOVE.

Now that would be a great bumper sticker.