It’s Not The Law That Saves. Only Jesus.
When I was younger, I thought my behavior had to line up with the rules in the Bible in order to be pleasing to God. I thought that when I messed up, God was upset with me, (and of course *I* was upset with me) and I would live in guilt and condemnation. It felt awful because I lived about 26-30 years of my life feeling guilty and shameful for my sins and not having the “will power” to overcome them.
Somehow, some way, God led me to some teachings on the book of Galatians. Have y’all read that book????!!! Like for real???
This book in the Bible turned my world and my life UPSIDE DOWN! Paul is actually rebuking people for trying to live according to the law. What!???!!!
Yep. Go read it for yourself. And then read it in a few different versions and then find a good commentary that will help explain it for you.
We do not live the life of victory without a relationship with Jesus. We will not be free from sin until we realize it was the work on the cross that ALREADY freed us from being a slave to the LAW.
Let me break this down for you. When you fall in love with JESUS, that’s when you will start living free from the entanglement of sin. When you realize that Jesus came to love you completely even WHILE you are sinning….. (do you hear that??? WHILE you are sinning He loves you!) that’s when you will stop hiding from Him in shame. You can come to Him WITH your baggage and He will welcome you.
Y’all….that blew my mind!! That rocked my entire world. That was the beginning of an entirely different life for me.
I learned to embrace JESUS through a love relationship, not a rules and regulations guideline. I found Someone Who loved me in the midst of my sin even though so many others rejected me and my mess. I felt so condemned by people but when I realized I could go to Jesus even IN my sin, I began to feel real love.
It was that love that began doing an inner work in me and the entanglements to the world started falling away. My desires were changing and I found myself longing to be with Him. He became my safe place.
I would turn worship music on, close my eyes, and pretend to dance with Him…although I knew deep down that I was not pretending. I knew He really was there with me in Spirit.
I would take walks and imagine Him walking with me. I’d sit down on a rock by the river and pretend He was sitting with me as I read my Bible. I wrote love letters to Him in my journal and I would ask Him to rescue me and change me from the inside out. In time I realized that I was not merely pretending He was there with me, He WAS there with me.
I would wake up before dawn and drive to a nearby playground and sit on top of a climbing wall and read the book of Hosea. I would put *my* name in place of the verses that talked about His never ending love…..and how He would call *me* into a wilderness to speak tenderly to me and would feed me with His very own hand.
I began to realize that He really did want to be in a Holy romance with me and that my sins did not freak Him out or scare Him away. Instead, I began to realize that He wanted to teach me a better way to live. He wanted to love me into righteousness and good deeds rather than demand them from me.
Later I learned more and more about His personality. I learned that He laughs and cries with me. He became a friend to me. A husband to me. A father to me. He filled every void that “man” could not fill. I realized that I could forgive and let others off the hook for not being perfect and giving me everything that I felt I needed from them because I learned how to get those things from the Lord.
Learning Who Jesus wanted to be for me was what turned my life around. It wasn’t a rule book. It wasn’t a 12 step program. It wasn’t some kind of ritualistic service. It was embracing the truths from the book of Galatians. I am loved. I’ve always been loved. And I will forever be loved by Jesus.
That love is what purified my heart and is still purifying it to this day. We are all a work in progress and He takes delight in that process each and every day. 🤍🕊🎚
