Galatians 2:16-17 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!
Galatians 3:6-9 In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.
Galatians 3:24-26 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
observation
From a human perspective it seems like you would have to jump through a lot of hoops and go through a background check if we are going to be a part of a group such as the family of God. I would expect that my own background check would be enough to keep me from getting into this elite group called God’s family, but Paul tells us that it is a very simple process and that we are all eligible.
There is only one way to get into God’s family and that is to have faith, it has nothing to do with being good enough, there is no way that we can keep the law but don’t worry because you don’t have to.
We are told what a righteous man that Abraham was but if you run a background check on him you will find some very big mistakes in his life, just like all of us, he made some really poor choices and the amazing thing is a lot of those poor choices were because of a lack of faith yet he was still found to have faith.
Just like Abraham we share the same blessing if we have faith, we just have to have our faith in the right place, our faith must be in what God did and not in what we think that we may be able to do for ourselves.
application
Faith is the only way to get into God’s family, we must always be thankful that we don’t have to behave well enough to pass a background check, because just like Abraham I would also fail.
I will exercise my faith so that it will grow.
prayer
Thank you Lord for the simplicity of the gospel, I just have to put my confidence in what you have done for me, thank you for loving me enough to make it so simple.
