On a mission…but first, consider our “point of origin”, where our salvation begins…
About a million years ago, it seems, I remember a show, in name only, because I either was not allowed to watch it as a child or I was outside playing as was my habit. I did not like being indoors except to eat and sleep. Who Do You Trust? was a game show which aired in the fifties. Apparently, a significant number of young viewers coming home from school watched it.
The series was initially emceed by Johnny Carson. Three couples competed on each show, nearly always a man and a woman chosen for their unique backgrounds; the announcer would introduce couples one at a time, and Carson spent more time interviewing the contestants than quizzing them.
In the quiz portion, Carson would tell the male contestant the category of the upcoming question; the man would then have to decide whether to answer the question himself or “trust” the woman to do so. Yikes…Randy and I would probably have failed in the early rounds of this game!
“Who do you trust?” is a VERY important, faith evaluating question that we must ask ourselves every day…sometimes every hour. We are bombarded with voices of opinions on the media, the social media, at our workplaces and even at the local grocery store! WHO do we trust? In good times and the bad, really, WHO do we trust ultimately? Ourselves? OR…
Paul stops the “crazy Galatians, (I almost hear him lovingly say, “bless your hearts, THINK!), with a lesson in trust. We cannot work our way to heaven. He explains…Jesus, once more and HIS work for us and in us as HE transforms us day by day.
Galatians 3, The Message
3 You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.
2-4 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!
5-6 Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you?
Let’s pause, and meditate on this question…”Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving OR because you trust him to do them in you?
11-12 The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.”
13-14 Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it.
25-27 But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.
These passages are only the highlights, read all of chapter 3 slowly, let it sink in, chew on it and let it bless your socks off today.
SO….who do we trust?
–Christ the foundation of our faith, risen from the dead and lives in us! Christ in us, how can it be? He loves us that much!
–Jesus Christ set us right before God. No one else could do that
–Jesus did for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
SO…who do we trust? The rules, the opinions or Jesus Christ?
Dear Heavenly Father, There is so much more here that we can take in all at once. But this one thing I know…(making an old hymn personal for You, dear Heavenly Father…
I know not why Your wondrous grace
to me You have made known,
nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
redeemed me for Your own.
Refrain:
But I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that You are able
to keep that which I’ve committed
unto You against that day.
Continue to do what you must to transform me to be all you intended for me to be.
In Jesus Name, Amen I believe!
Sometimes I ask myself, why do I sit down with a cup of Cheerios and a mug of coffee early each morning and write? Wh
