From the Pulpit...

When the Galatians trusted Christ, they were freed from the law's yoke of bondage-in which people try to gain God's favor by carefully heeding His rules-and could accept Christ's invitation to rest. It seems that our default position is to try to work our way to salvation, expecting reward for being good and doing good. But no matter how many laws we keep, we still fall short. In contrast, Christ's message, which Paul restates here, is that salvation is a gift-by grace alone. We are saved by grace through faith, and we live the Christine life the same way. The sacrifice of Jesus was perfect and complete, but it cannot benefit a person who trusts in something else. "Christ will provide unlimited help to those who place their undivided trust in Him, but no help at all to those who bypass his saving work. By turning to one element of the law (circumcision), the whole law had to be kept perfectly in order to merit salvation-and such perfection was impossible. Christianity is faith working through love, not the flesh working through self-effort. Paul's letters often describe the correct relationship between faith and works: good works are the product of faith, not a substitute for it.