Year in the Bible Daily Reading:
Genesis 45-46; Psalm 108; Galatians 2 Listen to Today's Reading
Galatians 2:17-21
Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down…...What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “lawman” so I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. Galatians 2:17-21 (MSG)
I began by reading this translation laughing. Of course, we all know we are not “perfect”, though some of us try to be. But I like that the phrase is “not yet”. There is hope? Yes, and that hope is in Christ. Thanks be to God!!
I don’t know about you but I know I sometimes try to “be perfect” but what does that really mean? And what does that mean in the moment? Living up to other’s expectations? I don’t think so. Living up to what we believe God wants us to do and be? But how can we know what that is, even though we have read scripture faithfully? And living in the 21st century is significantly different from living in the 1st century AD...if not more complicated then certainly not the same world.
I wish I could say with Paul that I have been “crucified with Christ” and that my ego is no longer central. It seems whenever I review my recent actions, I have to admit that part of me is always front and center and I have to find a way to push myself out of the way to see what really is or should be happening. I have to remind myself frequently that the middle letter of SIN is I. So in a nutshell, I am often going back to the old ways of being first or seeking someone’s approval or something else; and without Christ’s forgiveness I would be lost.
That is why it is so important for us to ask for forgiveness and to try to see all things in the light of God’s grace.
Why is it that we so often think that what we are doing affects God’s love for better or worse in our lives? Or that we have to measure up to some invisible standard? Why do we think we have to “earn” God’s favor, gaining points we can add to our life’s summary? I think it must be because we are human, because we know that we are not without sin, even when we are trying to do right. In our culture, we are taught that there is rarely anything worthwhile that is truly free. It’s so hard for us to believe that such a great thing as God’s grace and love does not require anything from us. But having received this amazing gift, we then want to naturally respond by loving God and others in return because Christ now lives in each of us. When we set up a conscious, or unconscious, list of rules to follow in order that our lives might be exemplary, we are doing the very thing that God does not want of us and we fall back into “sin” because we are no longer trusting in God for everything, including our very souls. God only wants our open hearts to trust in the Holy Spirit to lead.and bless us along our journey in this life until we enter into the next.
Questions for Reflection:
- When have you been aware that what you were doing was “trying to be perfect”, something to “earn” God’s favor?
- When were you simply doing what you knew God would want you to do, no matter what, just because of God’s grace?
- When you look at yourself through the lens of Jesus Christ, what do you see?
- When you look at another person through the lens of Jesus Christ, what do you see?
Prayer:
Loving God, Merciful Savior,
Thank you for loving us so much we can hardly comprehend it. Help us to remember every day that we have been baptized into your grace and that we don’t have to “be perfect” but that you, the Christ, live in us. Forgive us when we try to do things on our own without thinking about what you want us to do or be. Thank you for making us right before you and use us to be a blessing to others. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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