I am preparing my lesson for youth group tomorrow night, in my preparation I have have been studying Gal 2:17.  I have not “found” anything “new”, but I have been greatly impressed by what Paul is saying!

Gal 2:17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

Paul is addressing the issue of Peter moving away from the Gentiles because they were not following the Mosaic Law. Paul speaks this verse as a great challenge and accusation against Peter! He is saying: If while you are saying you are justified by grace, yet you are still seeking to be justified by the Law, you are saying that the grace of God was not good enough to justify you. In fact you are saying that even after the grace of God you are still a sinner! This is not true because Christ is NOT the minster of sin! If you are looking to the Law to justify you, you are saying Christ what you did wasn’t good enough!!!!

What a strong accusation!

There are two applications from this verse:

One, if you are unsaved, Christ’s grace is more than you need to be justified, there is NOTHING you can do! Following the Law will not justify you. Christ is not the minister of sin, but if justification and if you are seeking to be justified any other way you will not be justified!

Two, if you are saved, you are already justified! And as Paul says in verse 18, if you seek to go back to works to justify yourself you are make yourself a transgressor and not justifying yourself. The Law was NEVER meant to justify, but to show that one was a sinner and needed a savior!

I hope that you have been challenged as I have been! Not to look to the Law to make me a better person, but to look towards Christ! The Law is there to help teach us what is wrong so that we look to Christ for what if right!

~ Nate

The last few weeks have been busy, projects to write, crazy work schedule, and life in general! Yet, it is always good to look back and see how God has worked in your life and things he has taught!

Though the classes that I had this semester were not my favorite over all, there were great things to be gleaned from them. One class that I had was a class studying the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. I think one of the greatest things I learned this semester was from Joshua. We must obey God in everything he tells us to the fullest extent. Can you imagine when God came to Joshua and gave him the battle plan for Jericho? “March around the city and do not make any noise. To me that sounds like a pretty silly plan. This leads me to a question, if it had been me there and not Joshua, would I have followed God’s plan? What about you, would you have followed God’s plan???

Another thing that I learned was the consequences of not completely obeying God’s commands! The Israelites were told that the land was theirs and all they had to do was go take it and there would be rest and no trouble! Yet look at Israel in the Old Testament and even today. It does not look like they found this rest! What happened? They did not COMPLETELY follow God’s plan. God said to completely wipe out all the Canaanites, and this is something that Israel did not do. Because of this we find them in idolatry, we find them oppressed, and we find them away from God! It is important when God tells us to do something, that we do it completely! Have you ever started to work on an area in your life that you know needs work, then when you have almost got everything in order you stop! “Oh, it’s good enough,” we say, or “look how much I’ve improved.” Yet, even with this progress we have missed the goal, because we have given up before achieving the end!

So, two important lessons! Always obey God! There may be times when we feel that what he is asking does not make sense, that is okay. God does not ask us to understand everything that he wants us to do, he just wants us to do it! Also, when God tells us to do something, when there is something that we are doing, we need to make sure that we complete that task, that undertaking. Failing to complete, is failing to succeed!

~ Nate