Living your best life by faith!
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This week in ONE CHAPTER A DAY we spent the week in the Book of Galatians. Paul starts his letter in the usual way, identifying himself,
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia:
Then, he offers the Galatians a blessing from God,
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
He wastes no time getting to the reason for writing,
6 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—
The Galatian church was confusing pure gospel Paul proclaimed to them. So in His letter he clearly lays again a foundation of justification by faith alone in Christ.
15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
He is very clear with them. Justification before God is through faith in Jesus Christ—nothing more, nothing less.
This is not a new thought. Remember on Good Friday.
32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.
39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The thief on his right was a law-breaker in every respect. Then he came to believe in Jesus. Faith in Christ was His only virtue and by his faith alone he was justified. At the end of the day he went to paradise with Jesus.
Let me take to one more place, Acts 16, where Paul and Silas Are in prison, in a jail in Philippi.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
He wanted to know what He needed to do to be saved. So Paul and Silas tell him.
31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Good news Jailer. You don’t have to do anything to be “saved.” All you have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus.
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Christ came in
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
When faith comes, we are simultaneously redeemed from the curse of the law. But that’s not all. We are adopted as sons and daughters by faith, AND by faith we become heirs of eternal life.
ONCE we are “saved by our faith” what do we do from now until the time we receive the fullness of our inheritance? Paul spends the remainder of his letter, addressing the matter of our sanctification. How we shall live our new life by faith in Christ? How do I live my best life by faith?
It starts here Galatians 5:1.
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Freedom defines our faith-life from now on. We are no longer bound by the curse and condemnation of the law. We are free from the Laws obligation, which means you can wake up every morning grateful to God the Father that Christ has done everything for your salvation.
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
And if redeeming us from the curse of the law wasn’t enough, God has given us the Spirit to make sure we hold on to our faith alone in Christ to the finish line, eternal life. Peter announced to crowd on the day of Pentecost.
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We were given the gift of the Spirit in our baptism. Tomorrow, in ONE CHAPTER A DAY, we’ll read these words from Ephesians chapter 1,
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
The Holy Spirit with us guarantees our redemption. You aren’t meant to walk this life of faith alone, so don’t, Paul invites.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The Holy Spirit walks with you so that you can face your greatest foe, you, your sinful self. Luther suggests we need return to the grace and power of our baptism every day,
The old Adam in us is to be drowned and destroyed by daily sorrow and repentance, together with all sins and evil lusts; and that again the new man should daily come forth and rise, that shall live in the presence of God in righteousness and purity forever.[1]
After all,
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
You can stop living for you, to please your fleshly desires. Your sin was buried with Christ in your baptism. You were Raised, freed to walk in the newness of life, to live in the freedom of the Gospel to “Go and sin no more” to live
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, we are free to live our lives by faith, to live a life that is pleasing God, not because we have to, to be saved, but to live by faith a life that is pleasing to the ONE who saved us.
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law for us. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for living in us and walking with us, so that we may live by faith a life that is pleasing to God our Father, not setting our minds on the things of the flesh, but walking by faith, regenerated in our baptism to walk in the newness of life in Jesus’ name. Amen.