What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain:
O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

(Author—Robert Lowry, 1876)

We believe and are forgiven, saved for eternity—all because of Jesus!  Paul helps to know how to live this redeemed life as we believe, trust, and obey our Savior who is now our Lord—the Lord of our being!  Here is the simple Truth with how to respond to Truth—Jesus.

Galatians 6, The Message

Nothing but the Cross

6 ^1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

^4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

⁶ Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.

^7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

^9-10 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

^11-13 Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!

^14-16 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!

¹⁷ Quite frankly, I don’t want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.

¹⁸ May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name,
I’ve been born again in Jesus’ name;
And in Jesus’ name I come to you
To share His love as He told me to.

Chorus
He said: ‘Freely, freely, you have received,
Freely, freely give;
Go in My name, and because you believe
Others will know that I live.’

All power is given in Jesus’ name,
In earth and heaven in Jesus’ name;
And in Jesus’ name I come to you
To share His power as He told me to.

(Copyright © 1972 Bud John Songs/ EMI Christian Music Publishing/ Adm. by CopyCare.)

Paul, led by God’s Holy Spirit, has illuminated our response with dynamic verbs of commanding actions to take in our lives, coupled with the power given to us to do what God says.  These commands should permeate our being as we become “first responders” to others with God’s love flowing through us.  These words of clarification for the church then and now, of living our lives in obedience to Christ, helps us to know specifically how relate to each other in ways that please God. 

OUR FOCUS:

• Live creatively.
• Forgive and restore—minus critical comments.
• Stoop down and reach out—the posture of the compassion of Christ in us!
• Share burdens—we’ve all “been there, done that,” don’t act as if you haven’t.
• Sink into exploration of who you are and the work you have been given with focus on completing.
• Take responsibility for your own life lived for God.
• Share the good that has come to you, courtesy of God, with others longing to know God more.
• Plant the seeds of salvation and watch God provide the growth!
• Expect God’s harvest of real life—eternal life!
• Work for the benefit of all—don’t get tired, avoid giving up and quitting when weary in the work but not of it.  God will provide rest when needed. Trust Him.

OUR MOTIVATION:

• Be led by God’s Holy Spirit in all the details of life.
• Desire and seek to obey God’s Law of Love. “Love God.  Love Others”. 
• Realize our sins of forcing our rules on others.  This does not please God—at all!
• Live for Jesus who fulfilled the law of God’s love completely, once and for all!
• Have the courage to live by faith knowing we will share in the sufferings of Christ.
• Humbly and gratefully boast only of our crucified Christ who freely gave His life for ours, setting us free to live a life redeemed from our sins.  So we forgive others.
• Seriously focus on “what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!”  God guides all we think, say and do in Jesus Name for His glory!  Yes!

Lord,

Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls with your tender new mercies for today, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within us.  Then send us to freely give what you have given to us—the way home to you!

In Jesus Name, Amen