Galatians 3

"Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit becayse you believed the message you heard about Christ." 3:2, NLT

This is where our story begins. My number one biggest issue. I do a lot of things because I think i should. I think to myself "Hey, I'm a Christian, so I shouldn't swear" or "Hey, I'm a Christian, so I can't tell anyone that really bad, but absolutely hilarious sex joke." I make it all about me, my image, and the law.

They always told me that even though the Bible was written 57 trillion years ago, it can still apply to me today. Yeah, sure. I believe that. But we read this yesterday in small groups and I almost just had to yell out "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" because this passage is exactly my biggest battle.

Paul is writing this letter to people at the Church in Galatia. Before this, I didn't even know that Galatia existed, and I probably never would have found that out anyway. I don't know any of these people, I know maybe three of the rules in the Law of Moses, so how exactly does this apply to me? I'm not following the Law like them! I understand that my salvation is reached only by Christ! Or wait, do I?

I try to weigh out my good deeds and my bad. "Whoops, I gossiped with someone today, I'll have to compliment three people tomorrow" or "Uh-oh, I swore, I have to go home and pray." I act like if I do enough good stuff, if I follow enough rules, then that will be what saves me. That is all I need.

Not. In verse 19, it states that "It [the Law] was given alongside the promise to show people their sins." Woah. So you mean, this is all a sin issue? One of those "you can't have rule-breakers without rules" things? But Jesus died for us so that we can live without sin? Is that saying that when we use the Law to accept the idea of being righteous, we're saying that Jesus died...for nothing? Oh boy.

It all comes down to having faith in Christ. People walk around following this "Law", following their own personal checklist of what a "Good Christian" looks like, and yet they lose sight of the big picture. JESUS DIED SO THAT WE CAN BE WITHOUT SIN. It's that easy. Okay, maybe it's not that easy. But it's just about accepting Christ, and accepting the fact that he is enough, that he is the way to heaven.

So what on earth do I do now? What could all of this possibly look like to me? There really isn't any solid answer to this, except when you do the right thing, the "Christian" thing you might say, do it because you love God and you want people to know that you are convicted and moved to do the right thing. Not because you should, or because you need to fulfill this checklist before you can go to heaven.

It's a heart condition.