Am I All That?
Well, am I?
“For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he
deceives himself.” Galatians 6:3
I found myself in the book of Galatians a couple of days
ago. I was reading about the truth of
the Gospel; about not being enslaved again to the law; about not believing any
different Gospel other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it got me thinking.
I love that Jesus died for me. I love that He rose and lives and moves and
EXISTS. I love that He is my Mediator and
my Savior and my Lord. I love the TRUTH
of the GOSPEL of Jesus. And my heart rejoiced as I read….because it convicted me
again of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And I kept reading.
The people of Galatia believed in Jesus. They loved Him and rejoiced in the gospel of
the truth. Just like me! And then I read Galatians 1:6-9. These people, who loved Jesus, just like me, began
listening to a different gospel; a distorted gospel; a contrary gospel!
When I think of distortion, I think of silly putty. Do you remember that stuff? I think of getting it and flattening it
out. Then, I imagine taking the flat
silly putty and pressing it to a newspaper. The words on the newspaper get transferred to
the silly putty. But it is backwards!
And then, I imagine taking that silly putty and pulling and stretching it. What
happens to the words? They get distorted.
They get blurred. They get hard
to read. It really does make the truth ‘putty
in your hands’.
That is exactly what was happening in Galatia. They had the TRUTH
of the gospel of Christ, but someone got them believing a distorted version of
the truth, thus making it untruth. They
began trying to do it on their own. They went to the law to save them, instead
of clinging to Jesus, the Savior. (Gal.
3:3; 4:9; 5:1)
They were being re-enslaved to the law. Paul said that by doing this, they would be cursed
(Gal. 3:10-14); they would not be justified (Gal. 2:16); they would be deceived
(Gal. 6:3); and they would reap corruption (Gal. 6:8) Yikes.
I kept reading, because this all made me so sad and angry and
frustrated. I mean, seriously, how could anyone who has experienced Christ want
to move away from that freedom and salvation and sweetness? I kept reading, hoping for changed
hearts.
And as I was reading, I noticed several contrasting ideas.
Hagar versus Sarah
Sanai versus the New Jerusalem
Flesh versus Spirit
Law versus Grace
I thought about Hagar; about Abraham; about Sarah. God made Abraham a promise. God told Abraham that he would be the father
of many nations. (Genesis 15:1-6;
17:1-6) His wife, Sarah, was old and did
not bear him any children. So Sarah gave her maid, Hagar, to Abraham in order
to have children. When Abraham was 86
years old, Hagar gave him a son, Ishmael.
This caused Sarah to be jealous of Hagar. As a result, Sarah treated her badly. When
Abraham was 99 years old (13 years later), and Sarah was 90 years old, God told
Abraham that the promise of many nations would not come through Ishmael, but
through a son that Sarah would bear.
Yes, go ahead and laugh…..it was even humorous to Abraham and
Sarah. But a year later, they had a son,
Isaac, just as God promised. And it
indeed was through Isaac that many nations came. Isaac is in the lineage of Jesus.
I thought about Sanai; the “law mountain”. It was at Mount Sanai where God gave Moses
the Ten Commandments. It was at Mount
Sanai where the people were not allowed to touch without being killed, where God
came down and spoke with Moses and where the people trembled when they saw the
lightening and heard the thunder and loud trumpet. (Exodus 19) Then I thought about the New Jerusalem. I thought about Hebrews 12:18-24.
I thought about flesh. It decays
and ages. It misleads and gets me into
trouble. I thought about the Spirit,
about His fruit (Gal. 5:22-25); and how against that fruit, there is no
law.
I thought about the Law, and how un-saving; how condemning it is. The law cannot save. I thought about grace, that it is a free gift
from God (Romans 6:22-23) I thought about the Grace of God and how faith is intrinsically
tied to it. (Gal. 3:12; Hebrews 11:6)
Then Paul tells them that by leaning towards the law and away from
grace, they, in essence declared that Christ died for nothing, and grace is nullified! (Gal. 2:21)
That grace in not valid; that it does not have any credence or
power! Again, yikes.
And then I had a drastic thought; a catastrophic thought: Do I, just like them, do any form of
that? Do I, just like them, lean away
from grace in my own life? Do I try to
do it all myself, as Hagar; at Mount Sanai; in my flesh; trying to live in
law? Yes. Yes, I do.
I do it every time I step out of faith and try to solve a problem
without consulting God; without listening to God; without waiting on God. I do it every time I make my faith about
accomplishing tasks or fulfilling a checklist instead of living in the truth of
the gospel of Christ. I do it every time
I forget Christ in any equation in my life.
I do it every time I put myself above God. I do it every time I put myself above
others. I do it every time I try to take
the best seat, assuming I deserve it. I do
it every time I try to live my life without Christ in the center of it
all. I do it on some level every time I………!
And then my next thought: How
arrogant and vain am I? How could I imagine that I am even capable of it? Am I all that? Seriously!
Am I? Do I really think that I am
strong enough, disciplined enough, knowledgeable enough, powerful enough or
thorough enough to pull it off? How can
I try to equate myself and my ‘abilities’ with the awesome, powerful, all-saving,
free gift of grace and eternal life? Why
do I not remember that He is God and I am not?
(Galatians 6:3)
And then: Why would I even want
to attempt to do it all by myself? Am I
all that? Seriously! Am I? Why would I want to try to secure God’s
promise on my own? (like Hagar &
Sarah) Why would I want to live by the
Law? Why would I want to stand afraid and
trembling at the foot of Mount Sainai when I can kneel confidently at the foot
of the cross and at the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14-16) and be in freedom at Mount
Zion, the New Jerusalem? Why would I
hand my flesh that kind of falsified power?
Why would I want to be enslaved and shackled like that? Being a slave for Christ means freedom! Why would I trade that in for a false
security? Why would I want to be cursed
or deceived? Why would I want to prevent
God from justifying me? (I can’t justify
myself!) Why would I want to reap
corruption over eternal life?! I wouldn’t,
and yet, against my better judgment, I often try.
So how do I go full force into the grace of God? How do I go all the way into embracing the
truth of His gospel? How do I prevent
myself from nullifying the grace of God:
By fulfilling the whole law; yes, the WHOLE LAW, of Jesus Christ, that
is, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the whole law of Christ.”
(Galatians 6:2) And, “For we through
the Spirit, by faith,
are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything,
but faith working through love.” (Gal. 5:5-6) Or
as Jesus Himself said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The
second is like it, ‘You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the WHOLE
Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 25:37-40)
God brings me to His grace with my complete and utter humility before
Him, total surrender to Him, acknowledging my dependence on Him for not only my
salvation and justification, but in my day to day living. My every breath and step and action is because
of and for His glory. It is because of
Him I live and move and breathe and EXIST.
It is by Jesus that this whole world is held together. It is only by His power and strength and will
and might that I have any abilities or gifts or talents or success at all.
“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities –
all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all
things hold together. He is also the
head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in EVERYTHING.”
(Colossians 1:16-18)
Because Jesus really is ALL THAT!
By Tamara Vanderdasson
August 28, 2012
