Happy day-after Memorial Day, friends. Hope the long weekend was restful and/or productive.
I wanted to share with you a quote that we discussed this morning at our Tuesday morning Bible study. We've been walking through the book of Galatians, and have been wrestling with how we sometimes approach our relationship with God as though it rests on our ability to do all of what God commands in his laws - vs. approaching our relationship with God on the basis of what only Jesus can do and has done for us.
I'm starting to read a book on parenting that takes some of these principles from Galatians and applies them to the relationship between parents and their children. Now, you may be a parent, or you may not be. But, this quote (and the biblical principle behind it) applies to all of us:
When the apostle John (or Jesus) talks about keeping God's commands as a way to know whether or not we love Jesus, he is not using the law as a way to motivate. He is simply stating a fact (1 John 5:2). Those who love God will keep on keeping his commands.
The question is how do we keep God's commands? What sustains a long obedience in the same direction? Where does the power come from to do what God commands?
As every parent knows, behavioral compliance to rules without heart change will be shallow and short-lived. But shallow and short-lived is not what God wants. God wants a persistent obedience from the heart. How is that possible?
Long-term, sustained, gospel motivated obedience can come only from faith in what Jesus has already done, not fear of what we must do. Any obedience not grounded in or motivated by the gospel is unsustainable. No matter how hard you try, how "radical" you get, any engine that you're depending on for power to obey that is smaller than the gospel will conk out in due time.
Depending on where you're at on your spiritual journey and in your relationship with God, that quote may strike you either as confusing, frustrating, encouraging, or freeing. It's been great to journey with those in the study on Tuesday mornings, as we have each encountered all of those feelings and had all of those reactions at one time or another.
The truth in the quote above illustrates this challenging passage from Galatians 2:19-21:
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
So, how about you? Are you crucified with Christ today, or are you still holding on in some way to your own (in)ability to do what is required of you?
Grace is what only God through Jesus can do for you. My prayer for you today is that you allow yourself to freely receive it.
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