Passage Read: Galatians 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:21-22
Thought
The Law was never meant to be a competitor with salvation by faith. Rather it was given so that all men would understand that they have fallen short of the righteousness and perfection of God, and therefore need a savior. The challenge of the Law is it seems to make a way for a man to be justified before God by his own efforts; he can possibly prove himself to be as holy and righteous as God. All he has to do is keep the whole Law and stumble at not one point. Those who promote one or a few commands from the Law and deem that necessary to combine with faith in Jesus's death and resurrection, they get it very wrong. Those who want to add certain commands from the Law as part of the salvation package miss the point that the Law has value only if you keep all of it. If a man could keep it all, he could live by his own efforts. But as soon as he breaks even one command, he has become a lawbreaker; he is imperfect in the sight of God and in need of a savior. The Law was not designed to frustrate men--unless those men were entirely convinced they could keep all of it. Rather, it was designed to show every man under the Law that he could not save himself. He wasn't supposed to come to a point where he made excuses or explained away his violations of the Law and somehow maintain his perfection in the eyes of the Law; he was supposed to fall to his knees and confess to God that he couldn't do it and plead with God for mercy and a way through to true righteousness. Then he could let go of trying to keep the whole Law and look to God for the real way of salvation. The Law was a means to humble men and cause them to seek the Lord for salvation. So to recognize that the way of salvation is faith in Jesus Christ, then to turn back to the Law and pull out what you believe to be key elements that must be upheld as part of the salvation package--especially elements that are outward only, that have no relation to a changed life lived in love for God and neighbor--that is an ungodly effort to shift our faith from being in the finished work of Christ to some rite or ritual act that saves us. There is supposed to be a changed life, a life lived in loyalty to and honor of God and love for neighbor in equal measure to love for self. But living a new life should never cause us to think we are now capable of saving ourselves by our own ability; rather it should cause us to marvel at the work of God through Christ and His Spirit which He has done in our lives. We should already know how helpless we are to walk in God's ways, so when He helps us to do so, we should glory in Him not in ourselves.
Application
It would be foolish of me to think that keeping circumcision is what marks me as saved. If I want to be saved by circumcision or tassel-wearing or any other outward mark given to the Jews, then I must also keep every other command of the Law. It is obeying the whole Law that could impart life. Obeying only parts of it keeps me under a curse. But Christ died on a tree, becoming a curse for me, in order to ransom me out from under the condemnation of the Law. I am free from the rule of the Law over my salvation. Nothing in it needs to be added to my life in order to ensure or guarantee my salvation. I need to give up completely and look to God alone for salvation, which He has provided through the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son. Having received my salvation in Christ, there is nothing else I need in order to be saved. But being saved brings a change of life that reveals and proves the salvation that has come to me and the Spirit who applies it. Changed behavior and righteous deeds are an evidence of my salvation. They are the result of my salvation, never the reason for it. All glory and praise for my salvation belongs to Christ, the Spirit and the Father alone.