The Great Grace of God~Galatians 6.11-18
11/24/2009 11:45:51 PM
Galatians #26 in series
Good Day, Friends~
Today we come to the end of Paul’s letter to the people of Galatia, written to the churches Paul had established on his journey through what is present-day Turkey:
Paul writes~
“NOTICE WHAT LARGE LETTERS I USE AS I WRITE THESE CLOSING WORDS IN MY OWN HANDWRITING.” (Was it Paul’s poor eyesight, or was he writing large for emphasis? That we do not know . . . but either way, it is attention getting--what was the Spirit of God leading him to write to close this important letter?)
“Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want to look good to others. They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. And even those who advocate circumcision don’t keep the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples.
As for me, may I never boast about anything except for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.
From now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” Galatians 6.11-18, New Living Translation
Pray with me, won’t you? “Dear Father, please let us take from Paul’s words—words which were breathed into him by the Holy Spirit—what You would impress on our hearts. May Your truths breathe life into us this day. Amen”
From the outset of this important book, Paul’s purpose has been clear---keep the main thing the main thing. Do not let people touting religiosity compromise the pure relationship you have been offered in Jesus Christ. We read earlier,
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of
slavery. Galatians 5.1
In Paul’s day, it was the Jewish teachers trying to put the new believers back under the Mosaic Law; two thousand years later, in America, and across the world, different things bind us and keep us from intimate relationship with the Lover of our souls. What binds you? Is it the pain that was inflicted on you by someone ‘of the cloth’ in your growing up years? Listen to me—that person is wounding you daily by keeping you from the love of Jesus Christ! Or, are you bound by the delusion that ‘all roads lead home’? If you believe something hard enough, if you are sincere enough, well, God knows that. . . it doesn’t matter whether you call God ‘Allah’ or ‘Buddha’ or you believe that you are a little god yourself, at least you believe in God—‘and that’s what matters.’ NO! Stop right there. . . there is one God, one true and living God, and all other roads do not lead to Him. What has kept you from Him? That is the thing that has you enslaved, my friend. It is against that thing that keeps you from God Paul has been warning us.
He said,
“The cross of Christ alone can save. . .”
If there were any other way, God would have spared Jesus.
Paul said, “What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation~”
Are you being transformed into a new creation?
“..if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”* Have you traded old ways of thinking for new ways of thinking? Have you stopped believing lies about things spoken to you, and instead taken up what God has said about you and to you?
In a rigorous physical workout, athletes, novices, and dieting exercisers alike are taught to take their pulse . . . take your spiritual pulse, dear ones---are you alive? Are you alive in Christ? Are you becoming renewed daily by His Spirit? Paul, writing to the Corinthian church said, “though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”** To all who are surrendering themselves to God’s transforming power, He promises mercy. . . ‘Your mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.’¨
Here is a beautiful song on that very thing: “New Every Morning” by Big Daddy Weave
Paul closes his remarks to the Galatians in much the same way he greeted them-- May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. . . And in the end, it really is all about the grace, isn’t it? What’s so amazing about grace? Only everything.
May you be aware of the great grace of God extended to you this day~ Amen.
Christine
*2 Corinthians 5.17 **2 Corinthians 4.16 ¨Lamentations 3.22,23