February 18th - Reflection

Galatians 5:2-6 (NRSV)
Faith working through love
Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.
Reflection
Here we go with the goody goody. They are sickening Christians that go on and on about how they did this and that and paint a picture of what wonderful people they must be. Yuck! As if God must be so honored to have you set foot in church and grace him with your presence. Double Yuck!

Salvation does not come from Jesus plus the law. The law points us to our sin. Salvation comes only through Jesus. The goody goody misses the entire point if the assumption is that through their good works then God saves. It's not our acts of righteousness that save us, it's Jesus final act of salvation.

Don't cheapen the price Jesus paid for your sin by petty little goody goody acts that are usually self-serving acts of kindness at your own convenience directed towards being righteous. Look at the Law and you will see...You deserve nothing but death and damnation and hell!

Again the law points us to sin. The law stuffs our nose into the stench of our sin and makes it obvious. We need Jesus! We need a Savior! And, thanks be to God, we have Jesus! Salvation comes only through Jesus. Once we realize this, the only thing that counts is faith working through love. And this is because, now that we have smelled the odor of our own sin, we can also smell the sweet perfume of God's grace through that loving act of Jesus life, suffering, death and resurrection for you and for me. Thanks be to God!

Prayer
Thank you Father for sending Jesus to save me from my sin. Send now your Holy Spirit, I pray, that I may live the life you would have me live. --- Amen