I certainly can relate to the predicament of this poor man and the dilemma of living a law-driven existence. Sometime after salvation, I left behind the message of walking by God’s grace, assuming that there were other deeper truths in order to live a holy life. I saw the impossibly high standards of God’s law but also my inability to reach them. I mistakenly tried to please and appease God once again with report cards of my proud achievements for Him, thinking that the law and my flesh could sanctify me. The verse in Galatians 3:3 described my situation to the letter: “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
Question 3: What is your understanding of Galatians 3:3, applying it to your own life in the past and now?
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Fearfulness drove my need for performance, and my performance drove my fear. It was a depressingly sinful cycle with no exit sign, with unanswered questions weighing down my heart: “Have I done enough, Lord? Are You pleased with me? Am I good enough yet for You to love me?”
The man came to his decision and reached out his hand as far as he could to the Healer, and grace and mercy poured out as in a river over this man, and his limb was completely restored.
Jesus did all that was needed to make us whole by giving His lifeblood for us. Our Father God turned towards us, saying the words our hearts desperately cried out to receive: “Child, you are forever at peace with Me. There is no hammer of punishment over your head any longer. Jesus has done enough for you and your guilt has been lifted away. My child, I love you dearly and I am so well-pleased with you. I will not remember your sins for they were made white as snow by the work of My Son (Isaiah 43:25). I delight in you with shouts of joy (Zephaniah 3:17).”
The law is a spiritual measuring stick but grace saves and transforms.
“Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent… 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.” Mark 3:4,6 NIV
The Pharisees were deaf and blind to the grace and love that was on display before them and joined forces with other political groups to plan for Jesus’ downfall and death. When they had sent Jesus to the cross, they did not have eyes of faith to see Jesus submitting to the law on the Sabbath. They did not see that by His death He meant to heal mans’ souls, even though they had condemned His acts of healing on so many Sabbaths. They did not see Him doing good and redeeming their evil. They did not understand that by His death, Jesus would bring eternal life. The Pharisees, who had read all the Law and prophets, could not read the gospel as He hung on the tree before them, who came not to “abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill [or complete] them.” (Matthew 5:17; words added).
Friends, let’s rejoice together that for those in Christ, the law cannot condemn us in dread, fear, and guilt anymore because it sentenced Jesus to death for our sin and to suffer its curse (Galatians 3:13). Jesus lived a perfect life of keeping the law from birth until His death so we can walk in freedom from our human efforts. We have received His perfect life and righteousness as ours and He paid for the law’s penalty. The law’s power and control over our lives ended victoriously at the cross because we “died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another” (Romans 7:4a)
You might be thinking how does grace apply practically to my life of worries right now? Let’s think through an example together.
Perhaps the behavior of your children is causing you heartache and you lie awake at night with a mountain of condemnation building as the early hours pass by. You can clearly see your shortcomings but you still respond in anger to the family and retreat emotionally when you are tired and depleted. It is frustrating and at times seems hopeless.
We need to firmly reject the lie that we can never change. As non-believers we indeed could never change: “apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 5:15) but as believers, we have been given a new heart and been made alive in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). If we look to ourselves for answers finding our worth in our self-performance ratings, we will either oscillate between unhappiness when we fail or pride when we succeed for a time. God’s law showed us the impossible standards of holiness for living a perfect Christian life and revealed clearly our need for a Savior. Grace provides us with God’s remedy: Jesus fulfilled the law for us. He was our condemnation on the cross, and now His grace transforms us into godliness, giving us the power to resist the temptation to respond in anger and instead respond with His grace-enabled love and wisdom.
Our sins have been forgiven. The running fountain of grace never runs dry for saved sinners and as we ask for forgiveness from our children. Since there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), we can humbly disclose our sins freely to others and pray to God to heal, in His time and way, those we have hurt, and that they would also recognize His amazing grace at work in Jesus.
As parents, we turn to cling to the cross where our Savior hung and see the shame, the guilt, and the negative labels we say of ourselves melt away in the truth we find there that we are always totally acceptable to Him. Our position before God does not depend on us dissecting our circumstances and attributing blame to ourselves or others.
When we come to Jesus in worship, our lives change and our hearts are softened from turmoil to rest.
“He said to his people, “I am offering you a resting place. Let those who are tired rest.” He continued, “I am offering you a place of peace and quiet.” Isaiah 28:12 NIRV