Abraham’s Faith

Galatians 3:10-14

10For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.”

11Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

12However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.”

13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us–for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”–

14in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

I think Paul’s point here is clear. It is something that I feel gets overlooked a lot. You see, we try to save ourselves by “being good” (yes, even those of us that are Believers) and then we cry out when we don’t get anywhere with it. If we live according to the law, we must live by all of it. We don’t get to pick and choose. Even the best of the best could not live fully by the Law (look at Paul’s testimony in Acts).

We like to pick parts of the Law that we are comfortable with following and use that as “proof” that we are “good”. The point of the Law was to show man that he cannot be godly on his own. Hence, Christ doing it for us (God incarnate) because He knew we couldn’t do it from the start, yet we still try to do it. Whether consciously or subconsciously, we all try to fulfill the Law in some way. It is in our nature, we want to be our own god. We must resist these urges and sacrifice ourselves daily to the One who saved us all!

In verse 12, Paul says the Law is not of faith. Faith is what saves us, so why do we try to do otherwise? Don’t get me wrong, good works have their place. They are what we GET to do to SERVE and WORSHIP Him…not to justify our own goodness. If that’s why you do good things, they aren’t good, they are self serving and worthless in God’s eyes. He’d rather you be honest about your selfishness than hide it behind a facade of humility.

How did you live today?

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