GALATIANS 1:4 -- RECONCILED RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
By Steve Behlke
August 5, 2008
The Gospel is not a command that we must do something great for God. It is the announcement and assertion of fact that God has done something great and awesome for us: Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age (Galatians 1:4).
Christ gave Himself, all that He is, for us. Christ gave Himself to be incarnate, to be hated and crucified, to be the "Friend of Sinners," and to be God and Savior, Healer and Brother of the weak, sinful and hurting, of the morally corrupt, the socially and religiously marginalized, and of those beat up by Satan, and sick and tired and wanting freedom and life, wanting God Himself.
Christ gave Himself as the Anointed One who grants abundant forgiveness and eternal union with God forever. He is all this to us and so much more. And He grants these graces to us and so much more, and so freely and generously in Christ and with Christ and through Christ.
The Gospel is essentially the Great News of what Jesus has done to reconcile — that's relationship talk — humans to God.
Again, the Gospel is the Good News of WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US: Christ reconciles sinners to God, freely and generously, to all comers, all who simply trust and thereby receive Christ and all good things with Him. This is the Good News and it is not subject to any additions, stipulations, fine-print, requirements, demands, or traditions, expectations, or conditions.
To believe the Gospel is to trust Jesus. To believe the Gospel is to receive Jesus as our God and Savior and to receive YAHWEH as our God and Father (What could be better?!).
Indeed, we trust Jesus for an eternally reconciled relationship with God. And it is this relationship that Christ grants to us, which is the chief need for human flourishing and eternal joy.
This great reversal or reconciliation happened when we first trusted Jesus, but each new day, Christ must make this real to us, you know.
So, let us press forward in faith and in God's grace through Jesus Christ, and jump head-on into the River of Life, and re-submerge ourselves, re-baptize ourselves daily immersing our desires and expectations and goals and plans into this relationship, into this reality, each day.
May God grant you to set Jesus apart in your heart daily! May we set ourselves apart to trust Jesus! Prioritizing the simple way of noticing God in all things; of being with God, relationally, contentedly; of listening to God for the purpose of loving God and receiving His grace for life, for the purpose of worship and fellowship and obedience and joy.
May God grant our hearts to be attuned to His Spirit, depending on Him for all wisdom and understanding and strength for the small stuff and for the miraculous; and to re-receive God's daily grace through faith; and to experience the fullness of God's love; and to live by the Gospel's promises; and to love Jesus Christ above all things; and to value this relationship and to vault God to the top billing of our hearts and be the highest priority of our lives each new day.
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