Basking in Son Light


Basking in Son Light

I was reminded this week of a verse I had not seen in a while.
Galatians 5:6 says, “For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.” (New Living Translation)

Faith expressing itself in love. Other translations of the Greek say “faith working through love.”

Galatians is the early letter to the church in Galatia, sent by Paul--the Jewish Pharisee converted now to Jesus--who has now become an apostle (early leader) in the church. One reason he is writing the letter is because he fears the new Galatian Christians have deserted the gospel (good news) of Christ for another gospel. By the true “gospel” he means the proclamation that sinful people have been “put right” (justified) in their relationship with God through the sheer grace of God’s Son dying for them on the cross—and by trusting Him as Savior.  By “another gospel” (Paul clearly believes there is not another gospel) he means the false proclamation that—in addition to trusting in Christ and his saving death for us—there is some other religious, human act which we can do that will save us.

Some Galatian Christians were being told that trusting Christ was fine, but that in order to be right with God (saved) they had also to undergo the Old Testament Jewish ritual of circumcision, which God had given to Abraham and to his male descendants.  
It is amazing how easy it is for us to think that we must be saved by something we do! This is the sinful human way: we are always looking for some way to save ourselves, rather than trusting that the only One who can save us is God!

If we are thinking that we can save ourselves, and that, therefore we have to save ourselves, our response will always be fear: Have we done it exactly right? Could we have done more? Did we do the right thing? Did we do it perfectly? The myth that we can save ourselves always makes us live in fear.

On the other hand if we are saved through faith (simple childlike trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross), then we can relax and live in love.  As we bask in the Son light of God’s free love for us, we will reflect this love back to others!

Winfield Casey Jones is a retired pastor and can be reached at wrjones2002@gmail.com. The column first appears in the Pearland and Friendswood Reporter News.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something (Not Quite Simple) To Keep Reading and Keep Praying Luke 18:1-3, Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow, is interesting to me. In his one-verse introduction to the parable (18:1) Luke, the gospel writer, gives its meaning and the reason Jesus told it. He says, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show they that they should always pray and not give up.”   In the parable and in its further explanation, (verses 2-8) we encounter the cast of characters. There are only three. First there is a judge who does not fear God or care about people. Second there is a widow who persistently comes to the judge with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” The third character is the woman’s adversary, who owes her justice. Because he won’t act, she needs the judge to compel his action. We learn from Jesus that the judge, though he cares for nothing beyond himself, will eventually give the widow justice though he does not care for God or people. He will do this
Read more

The Antidote to Worry

The Antidote to Worry Do you worry? I think most of us worry at times. Yet I know God doesn’t want us to go through worry, anxiety, or fear. I was reminded recently in an email devotional of a favorite passage which I have not paid enough attention to lately: In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul writes: “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests made known to God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.” It is almost impossible to perform a negative like “Don’t worry,” “Don’t get drunk,” or “Don’t hate.” Indeed, the way to get rid of negative thought and behavior is—with the aid of the Spirit-- to fill the void created by a negative with positive thought and behavior. “Don’t worry; instead pray to God.”   “Don’t get drunk; instead be filled with the Holy Spirit.” “Don’t hate; instead love the Lord your God with all that is in you, and love yo
Read more

Receiving and Using Jesus’s Power and Authority

(Note, [there wasn’t room for this note in the local paper]: I feel so inadequate to write on this topic, because there are many distortions and misuses of scripture’s teachings about truths like the authority of believers and healing. But the temptation often is, when a teaching is distorted or misused, to avoid this teaching altogether, and that is wrong.   Just because people sometimes counterfeit twenty-dollar bills I have not sworn off of them. In the same way we must teach what Jesus teaches us about authority and healing, even though these teachings are frequently distorted.)     I ended last week’s column this way: “When we become adopted children of God through faith in His Son…then I believe Jesus gives us as a community some of his own authority and power.” I continued, “Next week…I shall continue to discuss (from scripture) the kinds of authority which I believe Jesus has given to his people.” So this week, let’s dive again into the Bible in an unexpected place, Gen
Read more