The Galatians of Today
In the days of Apostle Paul, the Galatians had the problem of insisting on fulfilling the requirements of the law despite their knowledge of the freedom Christ gave to all. They tried to become perfect by their own human effort, they also tried to obtain favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years. They had the notion that the death of Jesus alone could not make them right with God. This really caused Apostle Paul great agony like that of a woman in labor pains, but little did he know that history was going to repeat itself.
Fast forward to this day, the same issue is still recurring, we want to be right with God by our strength. This includes, for some, a compulsory attendance of all church services of the week, following rules like "I will not tell lies today", "I will not look with lust at anybody", "I will smile and I won't get angry today", and so on. You see, what Jesus did on the cross is far beyond our own personal resolutions to become better persons. With the Holy Spirit living in us, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us, so naturally, you'll just find yourself leading a 'sinfree' life without your own strength.
Using my on experience as an example, I grew up attending church service every sunday, but I used to tell lies, a lot (I mean I could lie for Africa, lol), steal mum's money, was hot tempered, very aggressive towards my siblings, search for any work of flesh, they weren't too far from me. After a while, because of the various teachings I had received in church, I decided it was time to please God. I made a timetable that dealt with a sin par week ( as in week 1- lies, week 2- anger, week3- stealing),I tried to stay a week without lying, getting angry or stealing. At first I made a little progress, but believe you me, after a while, I got tired, and stopped altogether. Worse, I felt, I shouldn't have bothered myself at all and I pulled down whatever progress I'd made, and continued living in my sins. But, God's mercy and grace endures forever, I became truly born again. And by simply releasing myself to Christ, and being calm, naturally, I stopped doing all those things I tried stopping by myself, and up till date, I have no explanations as for how it came about. I'm sure some of us understand what I'm saying, but for those who don't, I pray the Holy Spirit would make you experience that total liberation from sin in Jesus name.
Trying by oneself to please God is just not possible, if it were so, Jesus Christ wouldn't have needed to die. He died so we can be free from the law which only condemned a sinner and offered no help to stop sinning. Jesus Christ has offered us that help freely, all we need to do is to release ourselves to him, and just let him work his power in us. Apostle Paul made a very detailed explanation as to how one cannot please God with mere human ability (Read Galatians 1,2,3,4,5,6). In conclusion, if you are still a Galatian of this era, please let the Holy Spirit do his work in you. SHALOM
Fast forward to this day, the same issue is still recurring, we want to be right with God by our strength. This includes, for some, a compulsory attendance of all church services of the week, following rules like "I will not tell lies today", "I will not look with lust at anybody", "I will smile and I won't get angry today", and so on. You see, what Jesus did on the cross is far beyond our own personal resolutions to become better persons. With the Holy Spirit living in us, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us, so naturally, you'll just find yourself leading a 'sinfree' life without your own strength.
Using my on experience as an example, I grew up attending church service every sunday, but I used to tell lies, a lot (I mean I could lie for Africa, lol), steal mum's money, was hot tempered, very aggressive towards my siblings, search for any work of flesh, they weren't too far from me. After a while, because of the various teachings I had received in church, I decided it was time to please God. I made a timetable that dealt with a sin par week ( as in week 1- lies, week 2- anger, week3- stealing),I tried to stay a week without lying, getting angry or stealing. At first I made a little progress, but believe you me, after a while, I got tired, and stopped altogether. Worse, I felt, I shouldn't have bothered myself at all and I pulled down whatever progress I'd made, and continued living in my sins. But, God's mercy and grace endures forever, I became truly born again. And by simply releasing myself to Christ, and being calm, naturally, I stopped doing all those things I tried stopping by myself, and up till date, I have no explanations as for how it came about. I'm sure some of us understand what I'm saying, but for those who don't, I pray the Holy Spirit would make you experience that total liberation from sin in Jesus name.
Trying by oneself to please God is just not possible, if it were so, Jesus Christ wouldn't have needed to die. He died so we can be free from the law which only condemned a sinner and offered no help to stop sinning. Jesus Christ has offered us that help freely, all we need to do is to release ourselves to him, and just let him work his power in us. Apostle Paul made a very detailed explanation as to how one cannot please God with mere human ability (Read Galatians 1,2,3,4,5,6). In conclusion, if you are still a Galatian of this era, please let the Holy Spirit do his work in you. SHALOM
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