The Galatians were confused on how
to obtain right standing before God; on one hand, Paul is telling them that it
is by faith in Jesus Christ and by faith alone that they can be made righteous
in the eyes of God. On the other hand,
there is an opposing group of Christians that are telling the Galatians that
their simple faith in Jesus is not enough; they must follow the Jewish
traditions and Law in order to remain righteous in God’s eyes. In order to support his position on this
topic, Paul reminds the Galatians that Abraham, the father of things Jewish,
was seen as righteous in the eyes of God because he simply believed (Gen
15:6). If you read through the story of
Abraham’s encounter with God in Genesis 15 (then referred to as Abram), you
will see that Abraham received his blessing and righteousness from the Lord the
moment he believed…that is it. The Law
of Moses was established a long time after Abraham was counted as righteous –
his righteousness was not dependent on the Law or honoring traditions. It is also important to see that Abraham did
not go through a process of making himself right before he believed, and it can
also be assumed that Abraham most likely had very little understanding of God
and the big picture of who he was/is.; he simply trusted that God’s promise were
going to be true for his life and he believed.
So often we
feel like we have to make ourselves “right” or “righteous” before we can
encounter God, or we feel like we have to follow a formula in order for our
belief to be true and “stick.” Sometimes we may even feel as if we don’t know
enough about the Bible or theology to put our full trust in Jesus. This is
simply not true. When we put our trust in
Jesus, we are inviting Him into our lives to make us “right.” The reality is that there is no way to be
right or righteous or to fully understand without putting our trust in Christ.
Questions to reflect
on:
1)
Think back to the time before you put your trust
in Jesus? Or, if you haven’t yet fully put your trust in Jesus, what areas in
your life did/do you feel like you wanted/want to improve upon?
2)
In what ways have you felt like you don’t
measure up to the “Christian standard”?
How does the story of Abraham’s simple belief encourage you that your
faith is enough?
3)
Have you ever felt disqualified because you are
not a Bible expert? Does this ever prevent you from exploring more of God or
His word? Does this ever stop you from sharing your faith with others?
No comments:
Post a Comment