Galatians 3:1-13
What has happened to you Galatians to be acting so foolishly? You must have been under some evil spell! Didn’t God open your eyes to see the meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion? Wasn’t he revealed to you as the crucified one? So answer me this: Did the Holy Spirit come to you as a reward for keeping all the Jewish laws?No, you received him as a gift because you believed in the Messiah. Your new life in the Anointed One began with the Holy Spirit giving you a new birth. Why then would you so foolishly turn from living in the Spirit by trying to finish by your own works?
Have you endured all these trials and persecutions for nothing?
Let me ask you again: What does the lavish supply of the Holy Spirit in your life, and the miracles of God’s tremendous power, have to do with you keeping religious laws?
The Holy Spirit is poured out upon us through the revelation and power of faith, not by keeping the law! Abraham, our father of faith, led the way as our pioneering example. He believed God and the substance of his faith released God’s righteousness to him.
So those who are the true children of Abraham will have the same faith as their father! God’s plan all along was to bring this message of salvation to the nations through the revelation of faith. Long ago God prophesied over Abraham, as the Holy Scriptures say: “Through your example of faith all the nations will be blessed!”
And so the blessing of Abraham’s faith is now our blessing too! But if you choose to live in bondage under the legalistic rule of religion, you live under the law’s curse. For it is clearly written: “Utterly cursed is everyone who fails to practice every detail and requirement that is written in this law!” For the Scriptures reveal, and it is obvious, that no one achieves the righteousness of God by attempting to keep the law, for it is written: “Those who have been made holy will live by faith!” But keeping the law does not require faith, but self-effort. For the law teaches, “If you practice the principles of law, you must follow all of them.” Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed it completely as he became a curse in our place. For it is written: “Everyone who is hung upon a tree is doubly cursed.”
The Holy Spirit is not a reward for obedience. The Holy Spirit is a person. In the church today, we make Gods presence in our lives conditional on our obedience or our attitude. The Holy Spirit comes as a gift. He is a giver. He freely gives himself to us. He is constantly lavishing us in the Spirit with himself. We are present tense full of God. Rest is when we live from the finished work of Jesus and allow it to live through us. The kingdom is acceptance first. When we realize we are accepted, we begin to do well. We don’t obey so God will show up. We can obey and truly live because God has shown up. Obedience isn’t the point, it’s the result. Faith and trust is the point. He has supplied the Spirit. He has supplied the anointing. Our emotions are running the show when we feel weak. We have the strongest being in the universe in us.
