When we give our lives to Christ, we often fall into the belief that we can keep adding one thing, then another to our list of good deeds to win God’s favor. But by adding things in, the gospel that we are being faithful to has changed. We need to focus on the message of the cross, which tells us that it is the hand of God reaching down to bridge the gap created by our sin and delivering all of us from having to earn God’s favor.

When Paul wrote to the Galatians after learning that the new Christian Jews there were trying to convince the Gentiles that God wanted all to be circumcised, according to the laws of the Old Testament, Paul warned the Galatians in verses 6:12-14: “Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised… Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of your Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Paul is saying, “don’t turn back, stay the course, you’ve accepted the most holy gospel: the grace of God in your life.” And as we live a holy life, not a “morally sloppy one,” our good works and acts of kindness will “flow out of …a response to the grace of Christ.”

This graphic was inspired by a design by Mike Meadows.

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