So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” Galatians 3:11 So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith—this is no new doctrine! And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: “Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law.” One of the squares on my patchwork quilt has another version of Galatians 3:11. It says The Just live by Faith. I believe a lot of things, including the weather report, but I fail to believe the Word of God. I am saved by faith and faith alone. When I try to live on my effort, it becomes a sticky mess. I get confused and disoriented about who God is why Christ came. I am cursed when I live by rules and not by faith. The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. There’s a difference between living by rules and living by faith. In faith, I am carrying out what I hear God’s voice saying to my heart. In a spirit of prayer, I remember his words to “do my job and trust the call.” Living by faith means I dare ask him for specific things in his name; I dare to ask him for the earthly impossible; I dare to ask him to move that mountain; I dare to ask him for healing for my friends and family. When I live by faith and not by sight, I send someone to collect all of the answers God is giving. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.” Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written: Everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 15:10:07 +0000
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