Thoughts on Galatians 5:2

Paul is calling on the Galatians to make a choice. Either you accept that you are a sinner to your core and can do NOTHING to merit God’s grace, or you decide that maybe there is enough good in you that you can earn righteousness by your works. If you choose the former then you will be able to fully understand and accept what Jesus did for you on the cross. If you choose the latter, Jesus has nothing to offer you and you should go join a false religion like Mormonism or Islam where salvation by works is at the core of their beliefs. Paul is drawing another proverbial line in the sand. It is only when we understand how terminally ill we are that we see our need for a Savior. When we think we are healthy enough to play some part in our salvation, that we are able to live lives good enough to merit heaven, we see no need for someone to save us. We see salvation to be gained by our own effort or will when we just learned from John 1:13 that our spiritual rebirth is “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” IT IS OF GOD! IT IS NOT OF THE WILL OF MAN!

There is no in between when it comes to salvation. It is either all God or all man and you must make a choice in whom you will rely on for salvation. This verse reminds me of that ridiculous bumper sticker I see every once in a while that says “Jesus is my co-pilot”. Can I just say I hate that saying! That is really so ridiculous. It connotes that for the most part we are in control of our lives but every once in a while we reach some rough weather and we need Jesus, our co-pilot, to come and give us a hand. What a joke! Let me give you a clearer picture of what the cockpit really looks like: We are sitting in the pilot’s seat with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. There is blood and brain matter splattered all over the controls because of the carnage that our sin produces. Because of our own sin we are DEAD! DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!!! Ephesians 2:1 tells us of our condition: “And you were DEAD in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” With a dead guy at the helm the plane is in a complete nose dive headed for certain destruction. Depending on our situation we may be in the plane alone or we may have our wife and kids with us who, as men, we are responsible for. Then, for some of us, Jesus shows up, picks us up out of the pilots seat and takes the helm, pulling the plane out of the nose dive while ripping out our black, cancered, calloused, rock hard heart and replacing it with a new heart that would desire him. Can you picture it? It’s AWESOME!!! Jesus comes in like a superhero, flies the plane and performs a heart transplant at the same time! I want us to notice that we never called a mayday and asked Jesus to come save us or that we never got up out of the pilot’s seat and allowed Jesus to take over for us. WE WERE DEAD! WE DID NOTHING! We didn’t have the capability to ask Jesus for help or do anything that would have helped Jesus in saving us because we were lifeless, incapable of doing ANYTHING.

So goes the situation with our lives. People, it is of the utmost importance that we understand that we are spiritually dead. We are incapable of doing anything that would lead to our salvation. Salvation is, from beginning to end, a work of God, not of man. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”