Sunday Rewind 6.24.07

I hate cleaning house. The dusting...the polishing...the scrubbing. It seems that no matter how hard I try, things never get completely clean, and within minutes, the dirt comes right back again.

That's why my favorite part of staying in a hotel is housekeeping. What a great idea! I mess things up, leave the room, and when I return, somebody has cleaned things up again.

If only I had that kind of service in real life...and I'm not talking about my house...I'm talking about life. As Christians, we're called to be holy. But it seems that no matter how hard I try, I just keep messing things up again. But in Galatians 2:15-21 Paul gives us the secret for keeping our "house" clean..

Paul begins by telling us that the Law is anything but a blessing. In fact, it's a curse. The Law proves that we are lawbreakers. And lawbreakers are under a curse. But God loves us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus to redeem humanity by absorbing the curse in himself. We are not justified by keeping the law, but by placing our faith in Jesus.

To put it another way...we messed up our lives through sin...Jesus' sacrifice cleaned us up again and calls us to be holy...to keep our lives clean.

And that's where a lot of people get hung up. Many people's plan for living free from sin is to construct an elaborate system of rules. They make lists of things they can't do. They make lists of things they must do. Then they live their lives striving to keep the rules.

The problem is, this is just another example of rebuilding the law, a plan which devalues the significance of Jesus' death and nullifies God's grace (v. 21).

Paul tells us that if we want to live a holy life, we have to die. Paul says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (v. 20).

My friends, living free isn't about keeping the rules. It's about living by grace through faith. By grace through faith, we are crucified with Christ. By grace through faith, we bury our old self. By grace through faith, Christ lives in us.

Thanks be to God!