Week 16 Day 3

April 26, 2023 | Be On Mission

Faith vs. Works

Scripture: Galatians 2 (NIV)

¹ Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. ² I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. ³ Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. ⁴ This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. ⁵ We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

⁶ As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. ⁷ On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. ⁸ For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. ⁹ James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰ All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

¹¹ When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹² For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. ¹³ The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

¹⁴ When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷ “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! ¹⁸ If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

¹⁹ “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Devotional

Recall that Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians because of the false teachings of the Judaizers, a group of Jewish converts to Christianity who taught that non-Jewish Gentiles had to obey all the Jewish law as well as believe in Jesus. One of their demands was that Gentile men had to be circumcised in order to become Christians. Paul referred to them as the circumcision group, and acknowledged that they had led astray great leaders like Peter, James and Barnabas.

Paul refuted this false teaching, saying even Jews “know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16).

Simply put, we aren’t made right with God by perfectly avoiding all sin, nor does our freedom in Christ promote sin (v. 17). Faith in Christ gives us freedom from works, but it also gives us freedom for works. As mentioned in yesterday’s devotion, neither legalism (stacks of manmade rules) nor lawlessness (no moral standards at all) are the way of Christ. Jesus sets us free from the penalty for sin, but he sets us free from the presence of sin in our lives as well.

What does it mean to you that Jesus has set you free? In what ways do you see legalism (stacks of manmade rules) prevalent among believers today? Conversely, in what ways do you see lawlessness (no moral standards at all) being taught in some Christian corners?

Poem

Freedom

Now lift your voice and with us sing
God’s freedom liberating
From powers of evil and death’s sting
Christ’s freedom reconciling
With fruit and giftedness we bring
The Spirit’s freedom dwelling
Entrusted with the gospel

Hypocrisy and shame expel
God’s freedom re-creating
Break out the prisoners from hell
Christ’s freedom now is saving
Bold news to all on earth who dwell
The Spirit’s freedom sharing

All peoples in God’s image stand
God’s freedom now imagine
All justified by God’s right hand
Christ’s freedom now encounter
All sanctified by God’s great plan
The Spirit now accomplish

back to be on mission