A Glance at Galatians Pt 5

Pt 5 :: Justified by what?

Galatians 2:15-21, I feel is the heart beat of Galatains. I can´t take my eyes off the significance of these words and how, if grasped, can change your life. Most of us wouldn´t call ourselves pharisees - those proud, harsh religious folk that just stay in their religious bubble and outwardly do what seems all the right things and not be involved in any secular things what so ever. Or maybe that sounds more like us then we think.

When you think of works, what do you think? We know that doing good works won´t justify you, we know that we are justified through faith in Jesus. Thats what Galatians says, but what does that mean? Does it mean we never do good works? But what about the law, im not a Jew therefore I am not under the law.

I think there is a twist in this. We are not under the law, infact if your a gentile - you were never under the law. But there is a tendancy to rely on our works then have faith in Jesus. You see, having faith and loving Jesus should from that flow abundant joy and good works - but those good works should not be what justifies us and what makes us proud.

Think about when you read your bible. How do you feel? You either feel very good with yourself for managing to make time to read it out of your busy day or you feel guilty because its been months since you last read it. And we think that these feelings affect our relationship with God. This is a danger that every Christian faces - we base our spirituality on what material things we do. When we hear others that don´t read their bibles, we start to put on our spiritual badge and remind ourselves..."well I get up at 5am everyday to read my bible..." Suddenly a spring of pride and bad attitude flows and we start looking more like that Pharisee, because infact the point of reading our bibles is to know Jesus more and to treasure him, not to gain points.

One of my favourite quotes from Relay 1 was :: "If you think that 5 quiet times in a row is excellant, then you need to compare it to Jesus on the Cross - which is better?" I think it puts everything into perspective and means that it is good and wonderful that we are justified because of Christ and because of having faith in Him and not by works or deeds, but because of Jesus. It means we stop looking at ourselves and stop asking ourselves how we feel, how are we doing, what good things am I doing, instead we can start focusing on the One that matters most.