Do you feel confident that you are accepted by God? Does the answer to that question depend on how long it is since you last prayed or how you’ve behaved towards people that day?
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
(Galatians 1:6-7a ESV)
(Galatians 1:6-7a ESV)
Relying on anything else other than grace in order to be accepted by God is not just a small problem. Counting on my good works is not just adding something to the message of grace, it’s deserting Jesus. It’s Jesus alone or nothing. As soon as I look to something else I’m looking away from him.
Paul calls this a different gospel, before quickly pointing out that there isn’t actually another gospel. Nothing else is good news. Anything else is a crushing weight that forces me to rely on my own achievements. There’s only one message that’s good and that’s the grace of Jesus.
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We somehow find ourselves believing that we were saved by grace but living with the uncertainty and anxiety as if it depends on us. It doesn’t. That’s good news that can set us free.
“His perfect life has now been credited to you. In light of that, do you really feel like you could make God more favorable to you by doing your quiet time every day? Christ’s obedience is so spectacular there is nothing we could do to add to it; His death so final that nothing could take away from it.”
J.D. Greear, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary Like this?
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