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Galatians 5:4
You who are trying to be justified by law have
been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away
from grace.
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February 25
Fallen From Grace
To some, the term fallen from grace means the
loss of their salvation. Regardless
whether this is possible according to other
passages in scripture, it is not what Paul is
writing about in Galatians.
Instead, what Paul is writing about is literally
giving up the grace that God has given them.
Instead of relying on God's grace for their
salvation, they believe that their works are
saving them. Or on the flip side of this,
they believe that if they sin too often or too
greatly, that God will remove His grace from
them - as if they in their sins had any right to
it in the first place.
We cannot earn God's grace. We can't be
righteous on our own. The Pharisees
believed they were righteous and stated that
they followed all of God's laws but this simply
wasn't the case. The Pharisees made up
extra laws in order to keep from accidentally
disobeying one of God's laws.
But the Pharisees obeyed the letter of the law -
their own law in many cases - but ignored the
spirit of God's laws. As Christians we too
can sometimes become overzealous in our attempts
to not sin.
Without a doubt, there are movies we shouldn't
watch, dances that shouldn't be danced, and
thousands of websites that shouldn't be viewed.
But this doesn't mean movies, dancing, or the
internet is bad in itself. We must follow
the spirit of God's law and realize that we are
saved by God's grace alone. Obedience to
the law doesn't make us righteous because we
can't obey 100%. |
