Saturday, November 4, 2017
Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
THE GALATIANS AND LUTHER ON THE BRINK
The foolish Galatian Christians were on the brink of disaster. "Who has bewitched you?" Paul asked them. "Jesus Christ crucified was crucified before your very eyes." Yet they were trying to improve their standing with God by their observances: special ceremonies, etc., etc. Depending on one's own works leads a) to Pharisaic pride which fails to look upon the wayward heart within, or b) to despair upon seeing the truth.
Five centuries ago Martin Luther was struggling with the same danger. He had tried to stand before God with his outward observances, but knew the truth: that his heart was nowhere as happy with God as his ceremonies suggested. He was on the brink of destruction, despairing of any help to save him from the God who knew his heart.
Then it happened. God's Word held Christ before his eyes, crucified for all sins, rising to declare him innocent by reason of forgiveness, at peace with God. When the Spirit's Word persuaded him to believe this, it was as though heaven was opened up before him.
And having begun with the Spirit, Luther refused to go back again to relying on his Christian works for peace with God. He continued to proclaim that God's completed work in Christ on the cross was what reconciled the world to God, rather than God's work in us, which will not be finished until the resurrection.
Rejoice! Here is something rock solid to believe, not dependent in anyway upon ourselves.
Let me never, Lord, forsake Thee,
E'en tho' bitter pain and strife
On my way shall overtake me;
But may I thro' all my life
Walk in fervent love to Thee,
In all woes for comfort flee
To Thy birth, Thy death, and passion
Till I see Thy full salvation. Amen.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 401:2)
-- Adapted from the "Lutheran Spokesman"
