“You foolish Galatian!” I say to myself.
Who has bewitched me?
Don’t I know Jesus died for me?
After starting in the spirit am I finishing in the flesh?
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Paul’s words in Galatians 3 convict me – and free me.
He argues over and over, coming from different angles, how silly it is for the Galatians to put themselves under the law and works-based righteousness when they’ve been freed in Christ to live by His Spirit, in His righteousness.
And the arguments hit my heart. I’m not contemplating circumcision (shocker), but I do throw myself into turmoil trying to live up to the rules I think can make me righteous.
—
What bewitches me?
Self-reliance.
The illusion of control.
The idea that if I just try hard enough, I’ll be able to stop the hardship and pain in my life and others.
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Don’t I know Christ died for me?
That for freedom He has set me free?
That I’m no longer a slave of sin but a child of God?
That His Spirit lives in me, and can bear fruit in and through me?
Don’t I know all the rules I think I have to keep actually bend their knee to the Ruler of all, my Savior, my good and perfect King?
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I know it, but still I am bewitched regularly.
Praise God for using His Word, alive and active, to save me from me as I am convicted by reading what’s true.
Praise God that remembering “You foolish Galatian” can stop me, and help me start over again in the Spirit.
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It sounds too simple, but doesn’t grace always seem too simple when we feel the weight of sin?
I wonder what bewitches you regularly – and what helps you remember then that you are already free in Christ too, and that He wants you to rely on Him?
“Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” – Galatians 3:3
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