Good morning, all!
Father, I pray we live this life worthy of Your name and Your kingdom. We ask for greater strength and understanding, give us renewed hope of Your plan for our life. Let this hope provide clarity and motivation and cause us to run this race with extreme prejudice so that the world would witness Your passion and love in us. Amen.
Galatians 5
4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
If you think you can “do good enough” to become justified in the eyes God, then Christ has NO impact on your life, and YOU have fallen from grace.
5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
For WE by the spirit WAIT for the hope of righteousness that comes by FAITH.
6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
For those that are in Christ whether you do good works or not…it DON’T matter; BUT let your faith be evident by LOVE.
7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
You understood the assignment and RAN well so WHO prevented you that you should NOT obey the truth?
Bottom line
Paul’s basic message to the Galatians is that they should live free from a yoke of bondage. What held them captive? Religion, worldly standards, reason and logic, anything that pulls us from FAITH. When we choose to follow any one of those things we make Christ of NO effect in our life. Jesus accomplished so much on Calvary, as scripture says He is the beginning and the end so what does that leave out? If He is the beginning and the end of OUR life then that must cover everything in the middle too…nothing left to chance including OUR salvation and freedom. Did you notice what makes Jesus of NO effect, you have FALLEN from grace. It was a FALL; the question this morning is how long will it take us to get back up? And do what? Well Paul says right there in verse 7, we should RUN well. I mean it’s kind of hard to run if you’ve fallen, right? I love that God uses RUN to describe our life, what is meant by that? Man, when I run it shows passion and conviction, it shows purpose, it shows direction and destination. Can you see it this morning? Can you feel it? When was the last time you just flat outran? I mean your best 40-yard dash. Ha! What will make us run fast? LOVE!!! Do you remember the first time you fell in love? Did anything get in your way? If I’m honest I couldn’t even think straight, nothing much mattered except being with the one you fell in love with. Now Paul affirms that the people of Galatia did run WELL not bad, they were doing it right so what happened? Looks like something hindered them from doing so, he says WHO did hinder you from running well? Did someone stop them?
[Gal 5:14 NIV] For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself. They stopped themselves; they fell from grace and chose to NOT love the WHO. Who has stopped you from loving them? Who will you NOT forgive this morning? This is what Paul is dealing with in this passage, I mean you loved them at one point but now you have been hindered. You say you have faith? You say you know Jesus? Great!! Don’t worry about who’s doing right or wrong because it will NOT avail anything anyway in the kingdom of God, don’t fall from Grace. What does faith in Jesus look like? Faith works LOVE, your faith is evident by WHO you love NOT who you don’t. God said all of His commandments are fulfilled by one thing only…LOVE people. Do you have a yoke of bondage? Is there something in your yesterday or maybe your today that says you can’t love WHO? Yeah, you know WHO. We all have a WHO in our life that we might struggle to love, their name might be Judas…betrayed, might be Peter…denied or maybe it was the very soldier that put the nails in His hands. What’s the answer?
[Luk 23:34 NIV] Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Nothing stopped Jesus from running well, nothing stopped him from loving others, nothing stopped Him from His purpose. The prayer was, forgive them for they know NOT what they are doing. What was their sin? Ignorance. They didn’t understand what grace looked like, they didn’t understand what a life of faith looked like so Jesus had to come and show us the WAY…it’s love so RUN this morning don’t shuffle your feet RUN…direction and destination…find your WHO and go love them…Jesus took the chains off our feet and gave us a brand new pair of Nike, it’s called the gospel of peace so make good use of them today RUN!
Point to Ponder
Do you have a BIG heart? [Psa 119:32 KJV] I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. They’ll know how BIG our heart is by how fast we run…
Let’s all run well, In Him Phil
Faith – Family – Friends
