God Forbid That I Should Boast

Readings:
Psalm 24
Galatians 6:11-18

Focus:
Galatians 6:14: "God forbid that I should boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world is crucified to me and I to the world!"

I regularly find myself proud of my accomplishments. I find myself wanting to talk about them to people. I'm sure the temptation occurs to many of us.

The conversations don't always go the way I envision, though. People aren't nearly as interested as I think they ought to be. Actually, they're much more lively when I ask them about their accomplishments.

This is a reminder to me that it is not a good thing for me to boast. And in fact, there is only true value in what God has done for me. That is what is worth boasting about. Anything I have done fades away in the face of God's magnificent gift of redemption and salvation; my achievements are, as Paul says, garbage in comparison.

God forbid that I should boast of anything else!

The Fruit of the Spirit

Readings:
Psalm 22
Galatians 5:13-26

Focus:
Galatians 5:22-23a: "But the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control."

When we go through life just letting ourselves live without paying attention to what God might want, we end up making a lot of mistakes and living pretty selfishly. We get irritable, we do things that benefit ourselves instead of benefitting other people, we are thoughtless, and so on.

But when we ask God to direct our days, the Holy Spirit guides what we say and do. And that is when the qualities listed above start to show up in our lives.

I know that I am not very good at many of those things on my own. I am glad that I can have the fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life because of God, since I can't do it myself!

All One Person in Christ Jesus

Readings:
Psalm 17
Galatians 3:19-29

Focus:
Galatians 3:28: "There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female, for you are all one person in Christ Jesus."

This is one of the greatest and most liberating statements in Christianity. In Christ all distinctions are gone. We are all the same in his eyes. He does not have favorites.

Although the Jewish people had been God's chosen people, the Greeks--and people of all other nationalities and races--were shown to be equally chosen by God after Christ came. Slaves were given equal love and brotherhood to freemen. (Christians later led the movement for abolition, and today they are in the forefront of the fight against slavery.)

Although society had given a special place to men, it was to women that the risen Christ first revealed himself. And the church gave leadership positions to women.

There is no distinction between people, between the conditions they find themselves in, in God's eyes. All that matters is whether or not they give their allegiance to him.

Faith Is Counted as Righteousness

Readings:
Psalm 15
Galatians 3:1-9

Focus:
Galatians 3:6: "Look at Abraham: he put his faith in God, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness."

In the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul is arguing with the Christians in Galatia about whether or not they need to observe certain ceremonial laws in order to be saved. Paul's argument is that ceremonial laws are unnecessary. Only faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation.

Paul brings in the example of Abraham. Abraham was not righteous in every deed that he did. Abraham sinned. But he put his faith in God. Because of this, despite the sins he had committed, God counted it as if Abraham were righteous.

That's the way it works now, too. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God counts it as if we were righteous.

Only through Faith

Readings:
Psalm 13
Galatians 2:11-16

Focus:
Galatians 2:16a: "Yet we know that no one is ever justified by doing what the law requires, but only through faith in Christ Jesus."

This is the heart of the gospel, and it can never be repeated too often. No one is ever justified--saved--by obeying the law. It is only by having faith in Jesus Christ that one is saved.

Christianity is not about following rules, or about being right. Christianity is about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Later, after having that relationship, Christians live in obedience to God out of gratitude for what he has done. But it is not that way of life that saves people. It is when a person puts her or his faith in Jesus Christ that that person is saved.

God has made it easy for us! That's how much he loves us.

The Gospel is Revealed

Readings:
Psalm 11
Galatians 1

Focus:
Galatians 1:11-12: "I must make it clear to you, my friends, that the gospel you heard me preach is not of human origin. I did not take it over from anyone; no one taught it me; I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."

The Apostle Paul wasn't just a great thinker who came up with some deep ideas about God and about how to live life. He actually had a life-changing encounter with Christ, and it was from that encounter that he learned about Christ and about God.

Paul started out as Saul, zealously persecuting believers in Jesus Christ. But on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians there, he met Jesus Christ in a vision, and after that he turned his life around. After that he changed his name to Paul and devoted his life to preaching about Christ.

Paul didn't just preach about Christ. He encountered persecution himself. He risked death multiple times. He was threatened over and over, but he didn't stop. This encounter he had with Christ was worth more to him than anything else, and he knew that everyone else needed to have that value in their lives. That made it imperative to him to keep preaching.

Paul didn't just write about philosophy. He wrote about a life-saving relationship with God, a relationship he learned about through a personal revelation he received from Jesus Christ himself.

This is no mere viewpoint we read about in the Bible. This is life itself.