The Supreme Need
W. Carl Ketcherside
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The letter which Paul addressed to the Galatians differed a great deal from those addressed to any other community of saints. Here he was dealing with an impulsive and impetuous people, descendants of the headstrong and volatile Gauls from whom the country took its name.
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It seems quite possible that the apostle proclaimed the message to them rather accidentally to start with. He had not intended to stop in their territory but was waylaid by sickness. "You know how handicapped I was by illness when I first preached the gospel to you." But the inhabitants received him with uninhibited hospitality. "You didn't shrink from me or let yourselves be revolted at the disease which was such a trial for you. No, you welcomed me as though I were an angel of God, or even as though I were Christ Jesus himself."
The message had its effect. They came "to know God, or rather are known by him." They received the Spirit "by believing the message of the gospel." But something went wrong. The apostle wrote, "there are obviously men who are upsetting your faith with a travesty of the gospel of Christ." The gospel sets up faith in hearers, a false message upsets faith in them. The Galatians began "reverting to outward observances." They began to go back "to dead and sterile principles and consent to be under their power all over again." Paul said, "Your religion is beginning to be a matter of observing certain days or months or seasons or years."
Sometimes I think that some of us miss the very essence of the Galatian letter. It stands as a constant reminder that men may be formed in Christ without Christ ever being formed in them. The apostle had travailed in their initial hearing of his message and had been rewarded by seeing them delivered into the sonship of the family of God. "For now that you have faith in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God. All of you who were baptized into Christ have put on the family likeness of Christ." But it was now necessary that he feel the pangs of childbirth all over again "till Christ be formed in you."
What thwarted the growth of Christ within? The answer is plain. "Surely you can't be so idiotic as to think that a man begins his spiritual life in the Spirit and then completes it by reverting to outward observances" (Gal. 3:3). Christ begins to be formed in us by the Spirit, and when we begin to trust in legalistic performances as the basis of our justification, we stifle the Spirit and thwart the further development of the transformed life.
The image of Christ can only grow in an atmosphere of freedom, and this freedom is a product of grace. "If you try to be justified by the Law you automatically cut yourself off from the power of Christ, you put yourself outside the range of his grace." When we cease to trust in grace we create a short circuit. We throw the breaker switch, and we are automatically cut off from the transforming power.
The recommendation of Paul is to, "plant your feet firmly therefore within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves be caught again in the shackles of slavery." All of us have seen men who heard the gospel, were baptized and came into the community of believers, but whose lives "were bound in shallows and in miseries." Arrogant, bigoted, and self-righteous, they trusted in their own goodness but made life intolerable for those around them.
Such persons are often meticulous about outward observances and may truthfully boast they have not missed a midweek meeting in years. Sometimes they may have a head full of scripture but a heart empty of Christ. They brag about how they have put sectarians to rout without realizing that their very bragging is indicative of a raw sectarian spirit.
It is only through complete surrender and utter abandonment of self to the Spirit that one can free himself from the flesh, that state of alienation from God where law reigns and one is under its dominion. Paul wrote, "For the whole energy of the lower nature is set against the Spirit, while the whole power of the Spirit is contrary to the lower nature. Here is the conflict, and that is why you are not free to do what you want to do. But if you follow the leading of the Spirit, you stand clear of the Law." Do you accept that last sentence? Read it
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Nothing is more important to our inner peace and serenity than having Christ formed in us. It is this which will give us a sense of community, for as Suzanne de Dietrich has said, "Real community is not a matter of feelings. It grows out of a common call and a common goal." It is this also which will make us leaven in a world which needs reconciliation more than any other thing in this universe.