Today’s chapter is Galatians 3

Tom writes:

Like bank robbers planning their career heist, Paul and the Galatians are arguing over how to get what they really want. What is the plan that will yield them the booty? Already this challenges us. Do we know that the booty in life; the satisfaction of all of our desires is only found in the promises of God? Are our hopes fixed on breaking into the right building? Or are we like schoolboy sleuths obsessing over trying to open the safe in the laundrette while the gold repository next door goes unnoticed? Paul urges the Galatians to come back to the right treasure; seek the Spirit who works miracles among us and gives us the benefits of the promises of God. To access the treasure the Galatians had been convinced that they had to dress up in a fake guards outfit, dodge the cameras, enter the complex combination and hope they didn’t get zapped by the roaming lasers. Paul tells them they are crazy. In dense and difficult language Paul essentially tells them that Jesus- in his cross- disabled the alarm and invited anyone with faith in him to just stroll up to the safe. So we simply access the treasures by faith (trust) in Jesus, not by works (fulfilling the convoluted plan).

The Galatians had believed that initially but then, like all of us are prone to do at times, returned to dressing up as fake guards; they went back to the restrictive coping mechanisms of the law when the freedom of the gospel was still at hand. Not many of us are tempted to return to the Jewish Law, but we are prone to erecting other “coping mechanisms” for life with God. We think we need to be a different kind of person, or to have had a different upbringing, or to have been more successful in life. We once again begin to think it is our attributes and effort that enable us to taste the goodness of God. We - like the Galatians - forget that “there is no difference”, that we are all heirs according to the promise if we have faith in Jesus Christ. It is all about Jesus Christ and our receiving of his work. I find I struggle to believe God can really be that good. I find I start to be foolish, thinking it must depend on me… But it doesn’t. The plan was always that Jesus would unlock the door for us to have our deepest desires satisfied in God. God really is that good. So let’s trust in Jesus’ work and allow the Spirit to give us the promises of God.

Question for reflection

Is your image of God as good and as generous as God really is?

Galatians 3 - Friday 28th June