Galatians 3:10-14

                                                  Finding Acceptance

Where and how do you look for, and find, acceptance with God?  For me, there is a tension between being a “good Christian” (because I believe that is what will make me acceptable to God), and doing good works because I am motivated by God’s current of love for me and for others.  Most of us who are of evangelical/protestant backgrounds will not embrace the Old Testament Jewish laws as a current requirement.  But we seem to come up with a fine substitute…  As a little exercise, reread today’s passage, and plug in the term “being a good Christian” in place of “the law”. 

I realize that the idea of “being a good Christian” may vary from one person to another, but more often than not, it involves a set of ideas that we have accumulated about how things are supposed to be.  “Being a good Christian” may mean working at a soup kitchen, or not using questionable language, or not going to movies, or always helping when volunteers are needed.  The crux is not in the details, the crux of the matter is in the motivation.  If we feel justified before God because, (at least most of the time), we are “being a good Christian”, then we are deceived.  If “being a good Christian” is the criteria by which we will stand or fall, we are bound to fail unless we ALWAYS choose to “be the good Christian”.  Who among us can do that?

Grace gives birth to grace and results in hope.  Judgment gives birth to division and results in despair.  The law, or the requirement of “being a good Christian”, brings condemnation and separation from God when it is not fulfilled.  God knows our frame and our weaknesses and He has made provision for us if we will only accept it:

èJesus fulfills the law, yet forgives those who don’t. 

èJesus was innocent, yet received the punishment, (separation from God), of those who aren’t.

The alternative to accepting God’s provision, is to be our own provision and somehow become good, pure, clean, holy enough for acceptance and fellowship with God.  Who can do this?  It is faith in Jesus, and what He has done, and is doing, that brings consolation and restoration to our relationship with God.  This blessed relationship is manifest in our receiving of the Spirit of God through faith.  It is this Spirit which then produces in and through us, the fruits of righteousness which display our status of "accepted" by the King of the Universe.

Read and Pray:  Genesis 15:6, Isaiah 49:13, Romans 8:1-4, John 15:7-11