This will be difficult for most, but Paul was emphatic. Think for a minute about the place you go to and worship on Saturday or Sunday. This is not about any religion. This is just about your own personal place of worship. Has leadership required you to submit to them and in the process placed you in a rule-keeping system. You know the drill. Do this. Don't do that...
Paul is very direct, almost to the point of anger. He says that if you live under religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ. Not only that, he says you fall out of grace. I know that is tough, but God's Word says it. You may choose to ignor it and God may choose to ignor grace....
Read for yourself what Paul says. Ever wonder why you don't feel close to Christ?...~just sayin'
"Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this... The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning... The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace.
Meanwhile we expectantly wait... for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything.
What matters is... something far more interior: faith expressed in love."~Paul in Galatians 5
No comments:
Post a Comment