Remain in His Presence
In my first Hopscotch post I told you we would have to revisit Galatians 5:4. Guess what? After I looked back at Galatians 5:4 I had to read a few verses before and few after. However, if you have a scripture addiction like I do, you must know I had to read the whole chapter. Oh my! It’s a great chapter. Galatians 5 is all about the freedom we have in Christ. Paul not only explains the freedom but he also addresses the ways we still find ourselves in bondage to sin. You should read it! Okay, okay well I may just have to write a lot about this chapter.
For now, I’m going to quickly focus our attention to 5:4. “You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.” I don’t know how much you know about grace but I’m going to give you a quick definition and contrast it with mercy because some people get them confused. Grace means receiving something you did not earn and do not deserve. Mercy means withholding something you deserve (usually something bad). To become a Christian, we must acknowledge and accept the salvation that Christ offers us by grace. Now that we understand grace we can see that salvation is not something have earned or deserve. And quite honestly, there is nothing we can do to earn it. Isaiah 64:6 says, “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Even the good things we do are not worthy of the Lord. In turn, when Christ offers us this salvation by grace he is extending us mercy. He mercifully withholds the punishment of eternal death that we deserve for being sinful people. We will come back to all this.
Moses wrote a couple of books that are located at the beginning of the Bible that are referred to as the law. Jewish people were given the law by God. What do we generally know about the term law? Most of us would say they are rules that we must follow that are enforced by a government or some type of authority over us. Keeping the law signifies someone that is good or righteous, and breaking the law signifies someone that is not good, bad even, and below the law keeper in status. Do you ever find yourself comparing your sins to another? Do you compare all the good things you do to what some else does? People who try to find justification for themselves by upholding God’s laws are people that reject God’s grace. Paul actually says they have “Fallen from grace,” (v.4). He tells us that people that try to uphold the law for the sake of being justified are actually “alienated” from Christ. If a person has fallen from grace that means they are no longer covered by the grace offered. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be alienated from Christ, ever. Also, I need all the grace I can get.
There is nothing we can do to earn our place in heaven. God has provided his own son Jesus, the Christ, as the sacrifice for our sins. By grace, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior we are imbued with His righteousness. That is all the justification we need. I want to make a quick point. Not only do we acknowledge that Jesus is who he says he is, but you must: “Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved,” (Romans 10:9). This confession is turning away from our sins and stepping under the Lordship of Christ. I want to remind you that Satan agrees that Jesus is who he says he is, but he certainly hasn’t made him Lord of his life.
Galatians 5:4 is for those of you that are trying to earn your way into heaven. The ones that work and work to do everything they can to appear good enough for God. It’s for those of you that judge other people by their good works or past mistakes and compare yourself to them. Neither you or your brother can ever do enough good things or obey enough laws to earn a place in heaven. God expects perfection if you plan to live by the law, but because he knew you couldn’t, he provided His son. Jesus is the only one who could live a perfect life and uphold every law.
There is some really great stuff we will have to go over in this chapter. It explains that you can’t live a sin-filled life and expect to inherit the kingdom of God. But for now, I want you to stop working your way into heaven. If you are alienated from Christ you will never make it. Take a deep breath and thank God for all the blessings in your life that you don’t deserve. Thank him for his gift of life. It is given to you even though you don’t deserve it. Confess your sins to him and stop sinning. And above all, sit back and enjoy his presence!