September 16 - Galatians 2:17-3:9 - I Can’t Build ‘Em, I Just Believe in ‘Em

I have had the blessed privilege to live in three of the great cities of North America – New York, Boston and San Francisco. Traveling around these urban marvels requires that you encounter bridges of renown. They are stylish, breath-taking, majestic. They soar high above water and earth and carry you across a vast expanse. 

  

Sometimes we complain about the toll we have to pay to get across, but imagine what else might be asked of us to obtain passage. What if they asked for a thorough description of how the bridge was built? What if they asked you to render a detailed drawing to scale? What if you had to provide evidence they you had built a similar bridge at another location?

All that is way beyond me. I don’t build ‘em, I just trust ‘em. If I tried to build my own Verrazano Narrows, my own Zakim or Golden Gate Bridge, I would fail miserably. The same is true with my right standing with God. The gap between my sinfulness and God’s holiness is far wider than the Narrows. There is no spanning the divide between Him and me with a “righteous” bridge of my own building. Some of the Galatians Paul addresses in today’s text had an idea like that. They thought they either attained or maintained a right relationship with God through doing the right things right enough. But it can’t be done. And the Word calls those who entertain such an idea as “foolish” and “bewitched.”

There IS a bridge to cross the great divide, but it isn’t a man-made one. It is the Cross of Jesus Christ. Paul says, “The life I live … I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Faith, not works, is the answer.

Do you ever let that truth slip out of focus? Do you let the world with its ‘success mantra’ and its “what have you done for me lately” mentality steer you off course? You’ll never get saved by being good enough. And you don’t keep your salvation by being good enough. Jesus is the only One who is good enough. He is the Bridge. And the toll it took was His life. And if righteousness could be gained by good works, then Christ died for nothing!

Do not set aside the grace of God. You’ll be bridge-building forever, and it’ll never get done.

Pray: Merciful God, thank you for doing for me what I could never have done for myself. I distanced myself so far from you with my sin. No religion, no morality, no spirituality, no self-effort of any kind was going to carry me across. Nothing but Your cross. Help me to share and show the supremacy of faith in Christ with my life. Help me not to talk ‘grace’ and live ‘works.’