FREE INDEED; PASTOR EMMANUEL IREN

December 4, 2023 Oluyede Raymond

“So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” Galatians 5:1 NLT

Imagine getting admission into one of the best schools in the world, but you are unable to pay your tuition. Then the school grants you a full scholarship, but even though you accept it, you decide to still look for a job so that you can raise money to pay your tuition. Do you see how absurd this sounds? That is what it’s like when we insist on works over grace.

As Christians, we believe and rest in the finished work of Christ. We reckon His death our death, His burial our burial, and His resurrection our resurrection. We see all that Jesus did as what He did for us, and it is credited to us because we accept it.

The death of Jesus liberated us from the law of sin and death, and by His resurrection, we received the great gift of salvation. (Ephesians 2:8). Christ did it all! There is nothing we can do to earn it, nothing we can do to sustain it, and nothing we can add to it.

Romans 11:6 tells us that grace invalidates work, and work invalidates grace. So, to try to supplement Christ’s perfect work of salvation is to return to the law; to toss aside the ‘perfect and complete’ in exchange for something insubstantial. It also signals pride and overconfidence in one’s abilities, which has been proven to have no effect on mankind’s sin problem.

The Bible lets us know that the law could not save anyone. If it could, then there would have been no need for Christ to die! No one is justified by the works of the law; only faith in Jesus justifies. (Galatians 2:16, 21, Romans 3:20)

Dear friend, God’s grace is a gift, just as the scholarship in the opening analogy. It is not enough to be aware of it, you must also believe it and walk in the reality of it. As it is said in local parlance, Jesus ‘finished work.’ He did it all and left nothing for you to do. What amazing grace!