Galatians

I freaking love Tim Keller's study on the book of Galatians. This will be my second time going through this particular study, the first being roughly 3 years ago. It was revolutionary for me. Here's why:

"The gospel shows us that our spiritual problem lies not only in failing to obey God, but also in relying on our obedience to make us fully acceptable to God, ourselves and others. Every kind of character flaw comes from this natural impulse to be our own savior through our performance and achievement."

Guilty. I don't rely on my obedience in the sense that I think I am earning points or favor with God by going to church, or serving at a soup kitchen, or going on youth group mission trips. My struggle is more in the area of "relational obedience." Going to church is definitely a part of that, as are being consistent and purposeful with my time in the word and in prayer. Of course I fail at this daily, so I usually feel that I'm not doing a good enough job. It's a sneaky form of works righteousness. I love Martin Luther's explanation of Christian, or "passive" righteousness in his preface to Galatians:

"Yet there is another righteousness, far above the others, which Paul calls 'the righteousness of faith' - Christian righteousness. God imputes it to us apart from our works - in other words, it is a passive righteousness, as the others are active. For we do nothing for it, and we give nothing for it. We only receive it."

That is such a foreign concept in a society where you have to earn everything you have. And not just physical things, like your house or your car. We also have to earn trust, respect, etc.

This is what I constantly fall into:

"We become obsessed with our active righteousness and are terrified by its imperfections. But the real evil is that we trust our own power to be righteous and will not lift up our eyes to see what Christ has done for us...So the troubled conscience has no cure for its desperation and feeling of unworthiness unless it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace, offered free of charge in Jesus Christ, which is this passive or Christian righteousness..."

Keller asks how people today "add to the gospel" in ways that diminish it's power. Paul says that to "change the gospel the tiniest bit is to lose it so completely that the new teaching has no right to be called a 'gospel'". Overall, he condemns any teaching that is not based on the fact that we are too sinful to contribute to our salvation, therefore, we are saved by belief in Jesus' work (the grace of Christ) plus nothing else.

In describing 3 current views that deny this truth, this one in particular sticks out to me:

"In some churches, it is implicitly or explicitly taught that you are saved through your 'surrender' to Christ plus right beliefs and behavior. People are challenged to 'give your life to Jesus' and/or to 'ask him into your life.' This sounds very biblical, but it still can reject the grace-first principle fairly easily. Most people think that it means that we are saved by a strong belief and trust in and love for God, along with a life committed to him. Therefore, they feel they must begin by generating a high degree of spiritual sorrow, hunger, and love in order to get Christ's presence. Then they must somehow maintain this if they are going to 'stay saved'".

I don't think I was ever taught this, but somehow this is what I ended up believing. I didn't think that I could lose my salvation, but I always felt, and often still feel that if I'm not maintaining this high degree of spiritual sorrow, hunger, and love, that I am sliding backwards. But Keller says "it is not the level but the object of our faith that saves us." That is HUGE. And I really need to grasp that, in my head and in my heart.