One of These Things Is Not Like the Other

Paul is working like the Dickens to convince the Galatians that a team of false teachers have sold them a pile of garbage.  Actually it’s worst than that as he explains here in verse 12.  To follow their teaching about the law is the exact opposite of trusting in what Jesus has done.

In other words, one of these things is not like the other. Let’s call it the Gospel according to Sesame Street.

The apostle couldn’t be any more clear when he writes, “But the law is not of faith” (v12).  When we trust in the law to save us, we’re actually trusting in ourselves.  It’s a bootstraps gospel.  I can do this on my own.  I don’t need any help from anybody else.  Leave me alone.

It’s the idea that if I simply follow the rules and dow what I’m told, I can be the captain of my own salvation.  Yeah, right.  Paul has just flipped back to Deuteronomy 27:26 to let us know that any slip up in keeping the law is total failure.  It’s all or nothing.  Perfection is the standard.

Once again, the Apostle Paul plops open the OT to make his point.  If the false teachers want to play that game, then game on!  He quotes Leviticus 18:5, “The one who does them shall live by them.”  He explains that if you choose to save yourself through rule following, God says you’re on your own.

But we’ve already seen that this is a dead end street.  No one can live a life of perfect obedience to the law.  

Okay, there’s one Person who did it. Jesus of Nazareth.  The God Man.  The radical Rabbi from Galilee.  The sinless Son of God lived the perfect life that we could never live.  Then He died the death we should have died.  He became sin for us so that we could actually become God’s righteousness (2Cor 5:21).  

When we trust in the law, we trust in our own strength.  When we trust in Jesus, we trust in what He has done that we could never dreamed doing on our own.

Paul is saying that the purpose of the law is to humble us and to break us.  It’s a wall that we slam into at full speed to let us know just how flawed and sinful we are.  We’re the bug.  It’s the windshield.  We need a Savior.  We need Jesus.  I need Jesus!  You need Jesus!!

This also applies to any of our own self-salvation projects.  That includes my beloved “quiet time,” as well as church attendance, serving at church, and any general doing-goodness that I hope will impress God.

There’s just one problem.  In a letter to some friends in a place called Philippi, Paul says that any of that is just a big steaming pile compared to knowing Jesus (Phil 3:8).  

Will I trust in God?  Or will I trust in myself?  One of these things is not like the other.  One of these things is not the same.

©2012

Jay Jennings