The Grace of Christ - Galatians

I started Galatians tonight. What a wonderful epistle! The words from Paul that strike me in this first chapter are:

"I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another...."

The grace of Christ is such an incredible topic in and of itself...it is what separates Christianity from any other religion. God loves us aside from our works and showed us this love on the cross. The relationship with God that we can now have hinges fully on what God has done for us, rather than what we try and fail to do for Him.

The Galatians, after having received the grace of Christ, the free, unconditional love of God, were starting to turn back to the law. In other words, they were attempting to relate to God under the terms of the Law. It was so important for them to remember (as well as each of us), that we cannot, CANNOT relate to God under the terms of the law. Under the law, only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, once per year. No one else could. No one. That fact is still true. There's a lot more to it than this, but I don't have the time or space on this blog.

Anyway, Paul was saying that they were turning to another gospel, which is not another. In other words, they were turning to another "good news" which really was not "good news." Going back to a performance-based relationship with God is not good news, because we simply cannot live up to the holy standards He desires. That's the whole point of the law anyway: to show us we cannot live up to what He wants. Once we realize that, we are ready (more than ready!) to hear the true good news. The law is there to point us to Christ. Once we are pointed in the right direction, the grace of Christ takes us from there and teaches us how we can have a living, vibrant relationship with God. Those who have received the grace of Christ are welcome to come into the Holy of Holies as much as they want. In fact, we can live every minute there. Awesome!