Galatians 4:21 – Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
God created an environment for everything He created. This explains why birds flourish in the air, fish flourish under the water, and people flourish in grace. You were made for grace, and the more you live in an environment of God’s grace, the healthier you will become and more your life will flourish.
Grace is three things:
- The work Jesus Christ did for you through His sinless life, substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection fulfilling the demands of the law by grace.
- The work Jesus Christ does in you through the person, presence, and power of the Holy Spirit by grace.
- The work Jesus Christ does through you to live a fruitful life where His works flow through your life by grace.
The opposite of grace where Jesus does all the work of salvation for us is called in Galatians (and other books of the Bible) “law”. Law is about what I do for God, not what God does for me. Law is about my performance, not Jesus’ performance. Law is about me doing things for God’s love, not doing things from God’s love.
Perhaps the dominant theme of the entire book of Galatians is about grace versus law. If you think of it in terms of sports, Paul is on offense proclaiming the gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, and on defense protecting it from false teachers who don’t believe that Jesus is enough. Law is the basis of man-made religions. Grace is the basis of God-given relationship.
Is your relationship with God mainly about law or grace?