Paul and his letter to the Galatians is still stirring my soul this morning helping me to understand a few things about my own life. I’m hoping it will help you understand a few things too. The lost and those who do not know the power of Jesus are on my heart heavy this morning. There are even some saved folk living in defeat because they do not understand the gospel. If I’m honest, I don’t always understand it either. It’s why I wrote the song “You Knew.” His grace is hard to understand, knowing what He knew when the nails went in. The law is easy to understand, hard to keep. We’re built with a conscience within us that says “that’s wrong.” Now we can ignore it and sear it until it no longer is heard, but we cannot deny it. But grace… grace isn’t easy to understand because we’re not swift to offer it ourselves.
We want it for ourselves. Christ wanted it for everyone who wasn’t worthy. And that included everyone. He lumped us all in the same category of sin. We tend to categorize sin. Christ didn’t. He died for all sin. The pretty ones and the ugly ones. The white ones and the black ones. They’re all the red ones. The ones covered by the blood of Jesus.
There’s a few reasons people don’t go to church.
- Because they don’t understand it.
I’m asking you as Timothy did in the book of 2nd Timothy 2:7 “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.”
- Because they’ve believed the lie of the world that the God is not real.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians on that very matter when he said “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:” The world darkens around a person away from God because they’re away from the Light, which is Jesus Christ. Satan knows this, that’s why he continues to feed you the lie that church is not for you, because if you’re not close the light, you’ll never see it. You can get saved outside of a church for certain… but it’s so much easier on the inside where that Light is shining at its brightest point.
- Because they’ll never measure up.
It’s true. Neither do I. Neither does any other saint in or outside the building we call church.
John wrote in 1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”
Once we’ve accepted that Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sin, because we were not ever going to be able to keep the laws of man, God’s is no longer looking at us, He’s looking at Christ. And Christ measures up! All the way to Heaven.
This morning I was very conscious of how I didn’t measure up. A quick trip through the scripture shows me that I’m not alone. Nor am I alone in the fact that God sent His Son to the cross to cover those indiscretions. I can either carry the guilt and live defeated, or, I can allow the grace of Christ to do what it does best and help me understand that I’m not perfect. I’m forgiven.
But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the child of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:22-26