Warts and All
Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary
Scripture Text: Galatians 2:16 and Revelation 21:9-11
Series: Comments on Galatians
Written half a millennium ago, about a particular pope and his amassing of wealth at the expense of poor, clueless peasants, this writing still calls us all into check. How are we saved? How does one go to heaven? Indeed, why would one even want to go to heaven? These are questions for moderns too.
Would you want to be with someone for eternity who only loved you because of your good deeds? Or rather, would you want to be with someone who loved you, warts and all? No wonder the relationship of God and people is described with the analogy of marriage (Revelation 19:7 et al.). Nowhere is the idea of being loved despite failings more evident than in wedlock. One can imagine wanting to spend her life with a groom who loves her more deeply even as time has its effects on her so-called fading beauty. As she ages, she can no longer cook and clean (if she ever did) so well as she once did. Yet her husband loves her all the more. That is true love, as the saying goes.
Just so, Christ loves us whether or not we cook or clean or look nice. That great love sent Christ to the cross to redeem us to his Father. To say that any merit of our own pays for that love is to cheapen Christ’s love. Indeed, it is to deny his love even being necessary. Any cooking or cleaning we offer is in response to his love; it does not purchase it or its continuance. The Catholic or Protestant who understands this, knows true love. They know God loves them warts and all.
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Rev. Dr. Mark E. Ryman has served as Pastor for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, NC, since 2021. Previously, Pastor Ryman served congregations in North Carolina and Ohio, as well as a call to specialized ministry with Sola Publishing.
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