Wednesday 10 Jun 2009

Wednesday Reading: Galatians 2:15-21
 
Key Verse: Galatians 2:18
18  For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I confirm myself as a transgressor.

Devotion:
At what point do you stop upholding the law? There lies a deep question for which the answer will be entirely different according to whom you are discussing it with... Some people will totally disregard the law because it does not fit in with their lifestyles. Some will make sure that the law stands above all else, including logic it seems. What we need to do is to realise why we have the law and to treat the law as the law and not as God.

The Jews were at the stage where they made sure that the law came before anything and they treated it so zealously that they left God out of their lives because of the law – the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The one thing that Paul reminds us of here that we have to always remember is that we are not justified by the law and not through works of the law. The law is here to show us that we do things wrong. When we see that, we can recognise that we sin. That does not mean that Christ imparts sin on us because we choose to do that ourselves; the law is just showing us where we go wrong. If we continue in the law we are upholding the sin ourselves.

Christ died on the cross so that we could be forgiven for the trespasses that we have committed – we know them because we have the law. The only way that we are going to be forgiven is if we have faith in Christ to forgive us. He has told us that He will. He has shown us He is willing. He died so that we could be forgiven... All we have to do is to have faith that all of that happened for that exact reason. We need to let go of our compulsion to stick with the exact letter of the law and let Christ show us the way to go because that is exactly what He wants to do... We need to let Him show us what we should be doing rather than constantly worrying about what we should not be doing!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you stop yourself breaking the rules?
 
Are you following Christ’s will or your own will?