Galatians 1-3
December 2, 2014


It has been said that once we choose to see something in a certain way, it's hard to see it any other way.   Similarly, once we learn a behavior, it's hard to behave differently.   Probably that's why we teach our kids to brush their teeth, be polite and get to bed on time.  Failure to do basic things will produce a less than satisfactory member of society.

It must have been hard for the Jews to change their behavior.  All of their lives, and for at least 1500 years prior, they had been taught, and had practiced the law.  The law said that if you do certain things, you will be in God's favor.  Don't kill other people, don't steal things, wash before you go into the temple, you know ... a whole list of actions.  Actually there were many lists.  Even the lists had lists.  Their zeal to be righteous turned into a zeal to "do everything on the list, in the order it was prescribed".    Over time, it got so bad that it didn't even matter if the list made any sense.   You could literally follow the lists, do harm to other people and still be considered good.   Things became crazy...kind of like the laws and the PR craze in America.

Along comes Jesus and teaches that even if you do everything on every list, you still won't get into heaven.  What a crushing blow this must have been.  Even typing it I feel like saying "well then, what's the use of following the law at all?"    But Jesus goes on to teach that heaven is EASIER to obtain, not harder.   All we have to do is believe in the one that God the Father sent to us...that's Jesus.   If we accept and truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died for our sins, then all our sins are forgiven....before we do a single thing on a single list.

This is like finding a "back door" that gets you through the most difficult maze you can imagine.   This is finding a "stargate" (my apologies to those of you who are science fiction challenged) that leads right to heaven.   We are transported from the line of people who are destined to go to hell to the front door of heaven itself.  No work, no struggle, no effort.

It's almost so easy, that it doesn't seem real.  Even today people seem to have a hard time accepting grace.  After all, we've all been warned about "getting something for nothing".   There's usually a catch, so "let the buyer beware".

But Jesus never said that it was free, or that it was easy.  He only said that it was free and easy FOR US.  He paid a terrible price for our freedom.  There was nothing easy about it, and the cost..?   Surrender your life.   Lay your life..not just any life, but a perfect, eternal holy life....lay it down for the imperfect, undeserving and corrupt humans.    That's expensive, folks.

No wonder the Jews struggled to accept the idea that salvation was different than what they had believed.   They practiced that your "earned it" by being good.   You needed to belong to the order, earn your way up through the ranks and then you would eventually achieve salvation.    It's hard to set that aside and accept the new teaching  "all you have to do in order to be saved is to believe in the one that God the Father sent".  

Paul has seen the truth, and he spends the rest of his life repeating it.  He will basically preach two things 1.  Grace by faith in Jesus   2. Good works as a response to God's benevolence.     He won't accept #2 before #1, and he won't accept #1 without #2.  They must be together, and they must be in that order.   He will call everything else heresy.

You and I are fortunate,  We live in a time where we have been taught "Grace" from the earliest age.   We shouldn't have the baggage that the Jewish people had (and still have, to some extent).   It should be far easier for us to enter into salvation that it was for the people of Jesus' day.   And still there are those who struggle to accept it.

My advice?   Quit trying to make this hard.  Quit trying to make it complicated.   It was designed to be simple, direct and easy to do.    Accept that Jesus is who He said He was, and agree to follow His teachings.   Allow Him to be in charge of your life, and you won't ever regret the decision.

I promise.


PR