GraceCreates

By Jon Walker

I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Galatians 3:2–3 (NIV)

The apostle Paul, who struggled with legalism, taught the Galatians that the law was only put in charge to “lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law” (Galatians 3:24–25 NIV).

The law is not in charge of our lives; it is meant to show us the futility of trying to earn our way into God’s good graces. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we begin living by faith and not by sight, the sooner we’re guided by the Spirit of God within us and not by a list of rules or religious traditions.

We are transformed, not by the law, but by the Spirit of the living God writing his will in his own hand upon our hearts, where it cannot be lost, diminished, forgotten, or ignored (2 Corinthians 3:3).

This isn’t some heady, intellectual argument. When we think and act and live like people who have to earn the favor of God, then we’ve re-written the gospel and declared the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ invalid.

We declare the gospel invalid when we give the lists more authority than the Lord, or when we focus on the how more than the “wow!” We declare the gospel invalid when we give the letter of the law more authority that the Holy Spirit of God, or when we live independent of the Holy Spirit, rejecting any commandments at all.

We are fools, like the Galatians, who are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and embedded with the Holy Spirit only to return to the errant belief, exposed by our behavior, that godly goals are reached by extra-human effort (Galatians 3:1–5).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34–35 (NIV)
 
Love is salt to the thirsty. People don’t become thirsty for rules; they become thirsty for the streams of living water that flow from Jesus through those who carry Christ within (John 7:38; John 4:10).

We are the salt of the earth, but we lose our saltiness when we lose our love (Matthew 5:13). And the whole world is watching how that love plays out, particularly from one believer to another. If people filled with Jesus-life can’t get along and show the most basic tenets of love for each other, then why should the world be interested in having Jesus in them?

If we let Jesus-love flow through us, flooding the lives of those within our Christ-community, then the world will see a love so authentic and contagious that it attracts them to the Jesus in us.

We prove Jesus-life is in us by the way we love one another, not the rules we keep. The people of this world are thirsty for love, not lists. They’re thirsty for acceptance, not condemnation. They’re thirsty for the love God gives through us.

There’s a tendency to teach that Christian saltiness is about preserving society from decay; therefore, we emphasize the rules and regulations. But salt is also a purifying agent: God-love purifies by using the blood of Jesus to scrub the nastiness of our sin away.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.