majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in Galatians 2:21,
"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be
gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"
Paul presents his case to the Galatians: salvation is by faith, not by
works of the law. Here he tells his hearers that if they could become
right before God's justice by doing works of the law, Jesus Christ
suffered and died for nothing. If sinful man can redeem himself by
doing things to "earn" God's approval there would have been no reason
for Jesus Christ to come to planet earth, take on a body, and then
offer it as a sacrifice on behalf of sinful man through a miserable
death.
But Jesus Christ did die for something! For you and me! As Paul points
out in verse 16, "by observing the law no one will be justified." We
are simply unable to secure a right standing with God on our own. But
the good new is, Jesus Christ did die for us and we can have that
right standing with God by placing our trust in him!
No law keeping can add to that. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was a
perfect and complete work. I can't embellish it or add to it. I can't
make it any better. His sacrifice is a perfect sacrifice and any
attempt to add to that only has the effect of communicating a distrust
in the "finished work" of Jesus Christ. The sacrifice he made stands
alone as the only and fully sufficient work to redeem us from the
wrathful judgment of our heavenly Father.
This is an important point for me because I know that if my eternal
destiny required a certain performance from me, I just could not make
it into the resurrection of life. I'm just not that good enough. As
the writer of Hebrews says, I enter into that rest, and celebrate the
wonderfully full-measured sacrifice of Jesus Christ for all the sins
of all people for all time, including mine!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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