About a year ago, I was asked to teach a class on Paul’s letter to the Galatians. I am thankful my friend asked me to teach, and incredibly thankful that God used Galatians to get ahold of me in the way He did; this book has captivated my thoughts, and changed my thinking in profound ways.
Thematically, throughout my lessons I reminded the class of what I considered the focal point really on,
“…yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16, ESV)
And yet, as I continued through the study, as I neared the end of the time I had, I realized that was only a small part of what Paul was trying to explain to us.
Us?
Yes, us!
You see, we in the American church today tend to fall into the same trap as the believers in Galatia. We “desert him who called us in the grace of Christ and turn to a different gospel” just as the Galatian believers were in the process of doing.
Paul writes,
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1, NASB)
The real problem for the Galatian believers was not their salvation, but that once they confessed Christ is Lord, and believed in their hearts that God raised him from the dead, they went well for a short time but fell quickly back into our very human instinct of looking to a set of finite rules to follow.
Instead, Paul admonishes us three times on what our focus is to be for Godly living…
- “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16, NASB)
- “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” (Galatians 5:18, NASB)
- “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25, NASB)
How often, or how well, do we seek to walk by the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, to live by the Spirit? Too many times, we simply have our goal and work toward it, asking God to bless our journey to that goal. To many times we give mere lip service to asking for God’s guidance.
Walking, being led, living… These are words of action; they take work, they are not passive!
We should be asking God to reveal His goal to us, and actively seek to be led by His Spirit.
Steps are Faith 