December 23rd - Reflection

Galatians 3:6-14 (NRSV)
The promise of the Spirit

Just as Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you." For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.


For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law." Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for "The one who is righteous will live by faith." But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, "Whoever does the works of the law will live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Reflection
Wow! Some powerful words here from God. The law condemns us. We have all broken a law or two. We are all, under the law, subject to death. But as we look back in time, God came to Abraham with a promise. And Abraham accepted that promise from God through faith. If you believe God's promise as brought to us through the life, death, suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ as your Savior; then you are a descendant of Abraham. Abraham believed in what God told him and lived his life in full belief and understanding that all God told him would take, would take place. Abraham lived his life by faith in God.

We go astray when we live our lives trying to show God we have faith through being good or keeping the law. We go astray when we get confused and think that we have to earn our way to God. This will never happen through ourselves. That's the point. We need God! We can't do this on our own. We need that faith in God that only God can save us from our sinful selves. The law has condemned us and shown us this. You have not kept all the commandments no matter how hard you have tried.

But when God flips it around. When we have faith in God. When we trust that Jesus took on our sin, suffered and died on that cross, becoming our sin, being abandoned by God on that cross, dying on that cross. The price for our sin was paid through Christ on that cross. Paid for all of us once. And then a wonderful thing happened. Jesus came to life in the resurrection. After paying the price for our sin, Jesus came to life, to give us everlasting life. We no longer need fear the punishment of our sin because Jesus took on that punishment and brought life from death through his action.

We have no action that can come close to this. God saves us. We cannot save ourselves. So the flip around is this. If we believe in what Christ has done for us, then we live free from the finality of sin. We are free to obey the law. We are free to live under the covenant. We can believe and have faith, hope and the love of God living in us. No longer fearing sin.

Sure, we will continue to sin and the consequences of sin will be a part of our lives. But even in this we turn to God and walk in the light. Walk in the ways of Jesus, humble and repentant of what we have done, but also believing that the power of the action of Christ far outweighs anything we could ever do on our own.

Advent is that time we prepare for this gift from heaven. This gift of Jesus into our world, and into our small hearts. Abraham looked at the vast amount of stars and believed by faith what God had told him about his descendants. We look to the stars and see the light shining in the darkness. We look and see a God so vast, wide and huge that it seems unbelievable that God would send us a Savior that would be the Creator yet the very one to live in our simple, humble, sinful hearts and make us "good." All through faith we believe. Thanks be to God!

Prayer
Lord, thanks for looking into my heart and seeing something so special that you, the Creator of the Universe, would care to send Jesus into my very sinful being to take on the punishment I deserve. Thanks for taking me from death to life in you. --- Amen