Today’s reading is Philippians 1:1-2:30.

“…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

I can relax today. I don’t have to give myself ulcers worrying about how I’m ever going to be pleasing to God. I don’t have to fret that I’m just not ever going to be good enough for Him. He’s working on that. He is working in me both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Part of me wants to rebel against that. Part of me wants to say, “NO! I will do this.” But a very real part of me has come face to face with exactly how badly it goes when I am trying to do this. I have failed again and again and again. Today, instead of failing, I can just give up. That’s right. I can quit. I can surrender. I can admit I am powerless and only botch things myself, so I’ll just have to surrender my life to God and let Him be in control, simply doing what He says.

No, this doesn’t mean I sit on my backside and wait for the cosmic puppet master to pull my strings. It means I can have confidence to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Because God is working in me. It means all I have to do is learn God’s will and surrender to that. My job is simply to do the next right thing. God is working in me. I can trust that He will get me where I need to go if I simply surrender to Him today.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Galatians 5:1-6:18.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

I want to quit sinning. I want to quit gratifying the lusts of my flesh. I want to overcome those temptations. I’m tired of the strife and turmoil sin causes. I’m tired of how sin wreaks havoc in my relationship with my family, friends, neighbors, etc. I’m tired of how sin destroys my faith in and fellowship with God. I want to get over all this. But I keep coming up short.

Paul explains the key in Galatians 5:16. I need simply to walk by the Spirit. I need to let the Spirit guide me. Instead of trying to be justified by law, which will only cause me to be severed from Christ (Galatians 5:4), I need to seek justification by the grace of God’s Spirit. I need to be led by the Spirit, not law (Galatians 5:18). That means I need to crucify my flesh, with its passions and desires. I need to put it to death and quit letting it lead me. It twists the law and leads me back into sin (Romans 7:8-11). I need to put away my conceit, my reliance upon me and the competition it produces with others. Instead, I need simply to surrender my life to the Spirit today and what He says I should do. Why? Because God’s way works.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

PPS. How do you think we walk by the Spirit?

Today’s reading is Galatians 1:1-2:21.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

I think I get it now. I’ve not allowed this verse to have its full impact in my life. I was baptized, crucified with Christ (cf Romans 6:1-6). Since then I’ve been telling Christ, “Watch this, see how I can live my life for You.” I was certainly sincere in this. I have wanted to serve Christ. I’ve been doing my best. But wasn’t that the problem that led me to Christ in the first place? My best only put me right back into sin (cf Romans 7:14-24). Why would it do any different now?

Paul doesn’t say to tell Jesus, “I’ll do my best to live for You.” Rather, Jesus is saying, “Quit trying to live. I’ll live my best for you.” I need to quit trying to live my life and simply start letting Jesus live through me. What does He want? Do that. Of course, that is going to take faith. Jesus won’t treat me like a puppet. It’s my choice to let Him live through me by my faith. But I have to make a conscious decision to quit trying to live my life, even if I’m trying to live it for Him. Instead, I need to let Him live my life through me. I need to surrender myself to Him, His will, His goals, His life.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Romans 5:1-6:23.

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” (Romans 6:8).

But that is the problem for me, isn’t it? I doubt whether or not I will also live with him. Since I am so wrapped up in how I act and behave and live, even though I died with Him in baptism, I am rarely convinced that I will live with Him. But Paul says I can be convinced. I died with Jesus. I surrendered my life to Him. Yes, I mess up along the way, but I’ve put myself to death and am letting Him live through me. I am going to live with Him eternally.

No, this doesn’t mean I can pursue sin and still have this confidence. But why would anyone think I’m saying that? I don’t want to sin. I came to Jesus to get rid of sin and get out of my sins. That is what He is doing for me. I have died with Him, I can have confidence that I will live with Him.

Today, I’m not going to live in doubt, wondering if I’m going to make it. I’m going to live knowing that I’m going to make it because of Jesus. Praise God!

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Acts 1:1-2:47.

“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37).

Too often for us, this is a boilerplate question. We’ve heard it over and over again. Sermons have been renderd, “What must I do to be saved?” But is that the basic question here? Can you hear the desparation. They had crucified the Messiah, the one they claimed to be awaiting. They thought He would be the solution to all their problems. When He came among them, they spat on Him, beat Him, mocked Him, and killed Him. They cried out, “Let his blood be on our heads and the heads of our children.”

This was a question they were expecting to go unanswered. What on earth could they do? They had killed their one hope. All was lost. And yet, it wasn’t. What a surprise it must have been when Peter actually had a response. He didn’t say, “Too bad for you. You blew it. You stupid morons.” Instead he said, “Repent and be baptized everyone 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” (Acts 2:38).

Gasp! There is something we can do? It isn’t over? Our hope is not lost? Perhaps some of our problem today is the question “What shall we do” is a boilerplate question. It is sermon fodder. It is not a despairing cry. Today, I need to remember how amazing it is that when I ask that question, God has actually provided an answer. Because of what Jesus did, there is something I can do.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Galatians 3:1-4:31.

As if to correspond with Nathan’s comment from Friday’s post, Paul steps up in Galatians 3:25-29 to explain that while we are justified by faith and not works of the law, if we don’t have some works then we cannot claim we have saving faith.

So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Did you see what that said about baptism and faith? It said we are sons of God through faith. We are not sons of God through works of the law, but through faith. However, how do we know we are sons of God through faith? “For” or because when we were baptized into Christ we put on Christ. I know this is not commonly accepted among most religious circles these days. But in the same way that I cannot help but see we are justified by faith and not by works of any law, I can’t help but see that I’m only a son of God through faith if I’ve put Christ on in baptism. I may believe in Jesus. I may think Jesus is great. I might even assent to all the facts about Jesus’ life. However, if my faith doesn’t carry me to surrender to Him in that first step of baptism, then my faith hasn’t saved me. I haven’t put on Christ, I’m still only an outside observer who thinks very highly of Him.

Please notice very carefully what Paul did not say. He did not say that we put on Christ through a prayer. He did not say we put on Christ through speaking in tongues. He did not say we put on Christ through an overwhelming spiritual experience. He did not say we put on Christ by being good enough. He did, however, say that we put on Christ in baptism and that we were baptized into Christ. 

That is only the beginning of a life surrendered to Jesus by faith (cf. Galatians 2:20). However, it is the beginning.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Galatians 1:1-2:21.

These chapters, or rather the end of these chapters, brings up a question for me. Galatians 2:15-21 says no man is justified by works of law. I’m no Greek scholar, but what little I know demonstrates that the article “the” is not in the original text. It doesn’t actually read “by works of the law no one will be justified” but “by works of law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).

My common approach to this passage has been to say that no one will be justified by works of the Old Law. However, now we have a new law that does justify us. I do know there is a law of Christ, to which I must submit myself. Paul wrote about it in I Corinthians 9:21. But what is its place in my justification?

As I read these verses in Galatians 2:15-21 again, I have a really hard time seeing this passage as saying, “by works of the Old Law no one will be justified, but by works of the New Law will everyone be justified.” Instead, it seems to be saying, “we won’t be justified by works of law, old or new, but by faith in Jesus.” Don’t misunderstand, this faith is not merely a mental assent to some facts. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This faith is an increasing surrender to Christ and His will. Yet, when it is done is this just semantics? “No we aren’t save by keeping the new law, we are saved by faith, but by faith we really mean keeping the new law”? I can’t see this as just a semantic wordplay. Paul is saying we aren’t justified by keeping the law. We are justified by faith in Jesus.

What exactly is the point? What does it really say about law? What does it say about the place of the New Law in my justification?

Right now, I think Paul’s point is the same here as it was in Romans 9:30-10:4. Yes, there is a New Law. Yes, Christians submit to the New Law. However, the law’s purpose is not to justify us. Because of our weakness, God cannot provide a law that can justify us. If He could, then law would have done it (Galatians 3:21). All law does is demonstrate how we violate law and therefore are not justified (Romans 3:20). Thus, the more we focus on the law aspect of the New Testament, the more likely we are to sin, rebuilding what we have torn down and proving ourselves transgressors (Galatians 2:18). The problem with the Old Law was it had nothing that justified. Under the New Law, we still see God’s laws, but we have Jesus’ whose death justifies us and sets us free to live God’s will. But how do we attain that? Do we attain that by trying harder to simply keep the legalities of the New Testament? No. We accomplish that by increasing our faith in Jesus. The more we increase our faith in Jesus, the more God will work in our lives, the more God will strengthen us according to the gospel and preaching of Jesus, the more we will actually submit to God’s will.

This seems counterintuitive to me. What Paul seems to be saying is the more we focus on keeping God’s law, the less we will do so. However, the more we focus on believing Jesus and relying on His death, the more we will actually follow God’s law. Keeping God’s law doesn’t justify us, after all, we are sinners and not sinning today doesn’t take away our sins of yesterday. However, Jesus’ death does take away our sin and increased faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior gives us the strength to do God’s will.

What do you think?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Romans 9:1-10:21.

Once again, the reading of scripture throws my own personal concepts on their head. I so want to prove I’m good enough by figuring out how to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. I want to know the ins and outs of every potential rule God has established in this new covenant law and show that I can keep them all. I want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant, you out of all my disciples kept my laws.” But Romans 9:30-33 gives me pause.

What shall we say, then? That gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

The Jews seemed to have the advantage. To them belonged “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises” (Romans 9:4). When Jesus came on the scene, they should have been on top of things, ready to surrender their lives to Him. Instead, they killed Him. Paul says of them in Romans 10:1-4, that they have a zeal for God but they are ignorant. They are ignorant of the righteousness of God and therefore are trying to establish their own righteousness by keeping the law. 

Here is what concerns me about me. Am I doing the same thing at times? Instead of allowing the New Covenant to be a system of faith in Christ by which I gain righteousness through His strength as I believe Him and turn my life over to Him, am I turning it into another system of law. Am I pursuing righteousness by pursuing a law that I think will lead to righteousness? Didn’t the Jews prove that wouldn’t work under the Old Covenant? Doesn’t trying to simply keep a law always end for me in learning that I don’t succeed in reaching that law? Instead of pursuing it by faith, I’m pursuing it by works. I’m sure that I’m saved because of the things I have gotten right and done properly instead of my faith in Jesus.

Am I ignorant of God’s righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus? Have I stumbled at the stone of stumbling, all the while thinking I’m relying on that cornerstone? 

I am certain that this doesn’t mean I get to live how I want. I’m certain this doesn’t mean that serving Christ means giving mental assent to Him and then just sincerely doing whatever feels right to me. I’m certain that if I truly surrender to Christ, I’ll follow the pattern He has established. I’m simply afraid that I get it backwards most of the time. I want to prove I’m good enough by keeping the New Law instead of admitting that I will never attain righteousness by keeping any law and can only have righteousness by increasingly casting myself onto Jesus, believing in Him and living by faith in Him (Galatians 2:20).

I’m concerned that perhaps I too am ignorant of the righteousness of God and therefore am seeking to establish my own righteousness most of the time. I have to remind myself today that won’t work. I can’t establish my own righteousness. Today, instead of seeking God’s law so I can establish my own righteousness, I want to seek Christ, draw near to Him and simply do what He has said to me. Through that means I will attain the righteousness of God. I know it seems counterintuitive, but I’m certain that will work even when my own strength and works would fail.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Romans 5:1-6:23.

What a great reminder I received today:

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:12-14). 

Paul goes on to ask if we should sin because we are under grace and the answer is “By no means.” 

Paul gives a great reminder. I’m under grace now, but that doesn’t mean I can keep submitting myself to sin. Sadly, some become Christians and act as if that means any sins we commit are just wiped clean. They forget the power of sin. Sin destroys and dominates. If we have been set free from sin by Jesus Christ, let us not willingly surrender ourselves to sin again. If we think we can control and enjoy sin now that we are Christians, we are very much mistaken.

Today, instead of presenting my members to sin to obey its lead, I must submit myself to righteousness to obey its command. Since I am under God’s grace, I can actually accomplish this. Apparently, if I’m just under law, presenting myself to righteousness doesn’t work quite as well. However, since I am under grace I can live in such a way that sin won’t have dominion over me. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ who delivers me from the enslavement to sin that I so willingly walked into throughout my life.

But again, that freedom doesn’t mean sitting on my thumbs and just waiting for God to take my sins away. It means surrendering to His righteousness (that comes by faith in Jesus Christ). That’s what I’ll be working on today–surrendering to Jesus’ righteousness.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get from today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Acts 21:1-22:30.

Sin is my problem. I was covered up with it. But I wanted to be holy. I wanted to be righteous. I wanted to be with God and like God. I have a couple of options. I could just say it is impossible and give up, living however I want. I could try to change on my own and try to live perfectly from this point on. I could try to live beyond perfectly striving to pay God back for my past sins while not committing anymore. The problem is that leads me back to option one, trying to live perfectly. I’ve learned that doesn’t work.

Then I read what God did for Paul. In Acts 22: 16, Ananias had told Paul, “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” Paul’s sins could be washed away in baptism. So could mine. So can yours.

What a great thought that we can avoid the wrath of God. We can avoid the eternal consequences of all those sins we committed. God has said, “Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins.” He’ll wash your sins away, but you must be baptized.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS: What struck you in today’s reading?