I’m Buying!

 

I’m Buying!

Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary

Scripture Text: Galatians 1:1-5 and Romans 3:23-25

Series: Comments on Galatians

Today's Scripture Jigsaw

Some years ago, my dad took me to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game but I had not understood that this outing was for my birthday. I was bored and kept getting up to buy drinks and hotdogs and a program guide. He kept wanting to pay but I prevailed and bought for him. My wife informed me later that night what a dolt I had been since my dad just wanted to give me a gift.

We do the same thing with God: he gives us a great gift in his Son and then we want to pay the price for our sins. The Galatians did it by turning back to the Law. We do it by our own versions of ignoring grace. It is difficult for us to remember what God in Christ has given us because we keep wanting to put the onus back on ourselves.

Paul wishes us grace and peace because that is what we need: the grace to continue believing that God has paid the price and the peace to live with ourselves when we do not believe it. Luther was so right when he wrote, “The article of justification must be sounded in our ears incessantly because the frailty of our flesh will not permit us to take hold of it perfectly and to believe it with all our heart” (Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians).
 

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