“I would like to learn just one thing from
you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you
heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now
trying to attain your goal by human effort?”
Galatians 3:2-3
When my golf shots start taking on an unwelcome pattern – a consistent slice, for example – I stop, think about the fundamentals learned from my swing coach, and slow things down ... and my shots begin again to go where they’re supposed to go. But then what happens? You guessed it! With the ball flight looking good again, I get enthralled with my own success and start swinging like a madman. The result is not pretty.
Fundamentals work. Be it in sports, business, music, science – you name it – the fundamentals work. It’s when we get away from the basics that things go awry. Often, we can self-correct, but sometimes we need someone to steer us back toward what works.
The churches in Galatia had started well in the faith, but veered severely off the course. “Swinging like madmen,” they needed someone to guide them back to the basics. The Apostle Paul was that someone. (I can picture their bumper stickers now: “Paul is my swing coach.”)
So what mistake did "the coach" see the Galatians making? Bad habits had replaced the fundamentals. Having received salvation by faith, the believers were inexplicably hacking away at sanctification through their own effort. It is a flaw still common today, and the result is not pretty. In fact, nothing is more repulsive to an unbeliever than a Christian who feels compelled to display a piousness of his or her own making. God’s not impressed with it, either. "Double bogey."
And to what fundamentals did Paul redirect the Galatians? “The righteous will live by faith.” When we simply believe in “Christ crucified,” his righteousness is credited to us as righteousness. His Spirit lives in us and works through us in a freedom deeply compelling to a world that still seeks it. No longer laboring over our own right standing, our spirits soar. "Eagle!"
We are not saved by our own effort, nor can we sanctify ourselves. God does both; it's called grace. Think of it as "Kingdom fundamentals."
When my golf shots start taking on an unwelcome pattern – a consistent slice, for example – I stop, think about the fundamentals learned from my swing coach, and slow things down ... and my shots begin again to go where they’re supposed to go. But then what happens? You guessed it! With the ball flight looking good again, I get enthralled with my own success and start swinging like a madman. The result is not pretty.
Fundamentals work. Be it in sports, business, music, science – you name it – the fundamentals work. It’s when we get away from the basics that things go awry. Often, we can self-correct, but sometimes we need someone to steer us back toward what works.
The churches in Galatia had started well in the faith, but veered severely off the course. “Swinging like madmen,” they needed someone to guide them back to the basics. The Apostle Paul was that someone. (I can picture their bumper stickers now: “Paul is my swing coach.”)
So what mistake did "the coach" see the Galatians making? Bad habits had replaced the fundamentals. Having received salvation by faith, the believers were inexplicably hacking away at sanctification through their own effort. It is a flaw still common today, and the result is not pretty. In fact, nothing is more repulsive to an unbeliever than a Christian who feels compelled to display a piousness of his or her own making. God’s not impressed with it, either. "Double bogey."
And to what fundamentals did Paul redirect the Galatians? “The righteous will live by faith.” When we simply believe in “Christ crucified,” his righteousness is credited to us as righteousness. His Spirit lives in us and works through us in a freedom deeply compelling to a world that still seeks it. No longer laboring over our own right standing, our spirits soar. "Eagle!"
We are not saved by our own effort, nor can we sanctify ourselves. God does both; it's called grace. Think of it as "Kingdom fundamentals."
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