Lord I believe...help my unbelief~ Galatians 3.1-9
11/25/2009 12:04:51 AM
Galatians #9 in series
1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
6Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."7Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." 9So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Galatians 3.1-9
Let’s bring it down to where we live. . .
When I was in college, I attended a Bible study with some other students who were Pentecostal. One night, one of them said to me, “If you really want to know the power of God in your life, you must be filled with the Spirit--” [okay, I accept that, and I believe that. . .]--and if you are filled with the Spirit, then you will speak in tongues—that is the evidence.” [is he reading a different Bible than me??] The guy might as well have pulled a physical room divider between the two of us because in his mind, it had to be ‘faith + speaking in tongues’.
Or, how about this? Daniela is born and raised in an Italian Catholic family, but as she starts her own family, she decides to attend the nice little church down the street. . . ‘great children’s programs, and she loves the music. Her mother says, ‘but you have to have your babies baptized in the Church, or if something happens to them, they might not go to Heaven. ‘Faith + ceremony = assurance’. Really??
These are contemporary examples of how we can be transported right back to Galatia, and feel we must add something to our faith in Jesus Christ. Many times there is nothing inherently wrong in the practice or ceremony, like infant baptism, or water baptism at the age of consent, but neither can be seen as requisite for God’s grace. I know that I do not wish to labor under a tally system, trying to rack up points for doing ‘good things’ for God. . . that just isn’t how He works!
God has established a basis for righteousness, but it is not upon works; it's not upon obedience to the law, but it is upon our faith in Jesus Christ. Paul is teaching the new Christian converts about the ‘FAITH + nothing’ principle. Legalism or folks who teach ‘faith + some kind of works’ certainly creeps into our Christian experience today as well.
Paul held Abraham up as an example of one man’s faith. Abraham’s actions were based on what he believed. Abraham believed God, and it was the belief that God accounted for righteousness—
“Lord, I believe. . . help thou my unbelief!”