The Source of Promise
Hello Bride of Christ,
You have heard it said days are long, but years are short when describing how fast time passes in life. Time has no regard for an individual’s decisions and the type of life those decisions build around the individual. Leaving the individual responsible for regarding time and how they choose to spend it. The source from which an individual draws on a minute-by-minute, daily, basis will in the end build a story, a living testimony, of how they regarded the time they were given.
What source are you drawing from? What well of life motivates each conscious and unconscious decision you make?
Paul in his letter to the Galatians highlights two sources, two wells, individuals- specifically Christian individuals can draw from to motivate their life decisions: the gospel or the law. The gospel is a free gift of God’s grace to accept the promise of the Spirit. The law added because of transgressions, an edict no man can keep perfectly resulting in bondage and condemnation.
Paul in the opening body of his letter states, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel.” (Galatians 1:6) Paul, who regarded the Galatians as his little children (Galatians 4:19), is astounded that they are not drawing from the well of the gospel for their daily lives, but instead, the law, the Torah, for the legalism of circumcision is the main point of discussion. As a result, Paul finds it necessary to remind these individuals of the gospel’s message.
The gospel is simply, “grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1: 3-4). It is not a theory of man, “but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12) to Paul and every individual. The gospel is a gift given by God to each individual. As Paul describes his personal God encounter, “but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me;” we see Paul drawing from the well of the gospel to determine his journey. The gospel, the good news, Paul had revealed to him by Jesus Christ, Himself, motivated Paul to preach and go to many cities. Paul’s experience with the Spirit guiding him and revealing Christ to him caused Paul to not fully understand how the Galatians having begun in the Spirit, were now trying to be made perfect through the flesh (Galatians 3:3).
Bride of Christ, we are not exempt from falling into the same bondage as the Galatians. If we do not take time each day to sit and reflect on the truth of the gospel, we too can be deceived into believing the gospel is about keeping the law perfectly. The lack of remembering the purpose of the gospel, a gift of grace given by God to set transgressors free from eternal damnation, can lead us into believing we are living lives glorifying God, but, we are simply boasting and glorifying ourselves (Galatians 6:13). Let us take heed to Paul’s letter. Let us pause and remember what the gospel is, what it has delivered us from, and its promise to us, for whatever a man sows, that he will reap (Galatians 6:7). Recognize how we are using our time, for with every decision we sow a seed, and as time passes a harvest will be reaped, so draw from the gospel the source of promise, for he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:8).
