Origin
Origin
Galatians, Week 3, No Turning Back
In chapter 3 of Galatians, Paul continues his defense of living by faith as opposed to living by the law. God initiates and provides The Way to salvation. Why do we so readily go back to trying to earn it by keeping the law. Paul quotes the Old Testament saying that "Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." The law was given for a purpose between the promise and the fulfillment of that promise, but now that the promise has been fulfilled there is a "new and better way," and we are not turning back.
Hello. We're back at the Table of Origin. We're walking through the book of Galatians and the thought that we have been rescued and we're not going back. At the table today are my friends, Jina McAfee and Kyli Rose, co-teachers and leaders among us. I love these ladies. We've known each other for a very long time. Today, our subject is "No Turning Back." Kyli, can you set us up for this conversation?
Unknown:This took place the other night in our house. We've got two boys, nine and seven, so we live in a very noisy home. The other night, I'm in the kitchen cooking. The meal is taking longer than I thought it was going to take, and I hear my boys kicking a ball around in the foyer. It's bouncing off the walls. It's loud. It's noisy. You all know. You have kids and grandkids. We have homework that still needs to be done, baths that still need to be had. It's just a normal but chaotic school night in our house. And my husband, Zack, he's in the kitchen and he's talking to me. He's catching me up on his day. I'm catching him up on mine. I had a meeting that day about one of the boys, and I'm filling him in. It's just all the daily stuff, right? I'm still cooking. I'm filling my husband in on the details, the ball is bouncing off the walls, the kids are yelling, all the things still need to be done and my husband is listening. I don't know if your guys have said this before, but in this moment of all of this stuff, just the daily stuff, the daily needs of raising kids and a home, and all the things, Zack leans on the bar, and he says, "Kyli, it's all going to work itself out. It's all going to be okay." I'd like to tell you that I responded well in that moment, but I did not. I was very frustrated, and in that frustration, I had a moment. Have you all ever had a moment?
ReGina Johnston:I've had a moment. I mean, you want their emotions to rise to meet yours for just a little bit. Like, come on up here with me at this point. That will help me know that you get it.
Kyli Rose:Well, they were not rising. He said, "Kyli, it's all going to work itself out." And I responded out of anger in that moment. I said, "It is going to work, because I'm going to make it work." And I just felt in that moment like the Holy Spirit showed me something that had rooted itself in my heart. It was actually a lie, and it was a lie that had taken root. What I honestly believed in that moment was that it actually was all up to me. And the Lord quickly reminded me, "Kyli, I gave you those children, and I'm going to take care of them. I gave you those babies. I gave you all these things that you're very frustrated by in this moment." In that moment, I felt like I was saying, "I know You gave all this stuff to me. I know that those are the kids You gave to me, the husband that You gave to me, the responsibilities to steward. But You know what, Lord, I'll take it from here. I've got it. I know You started this work in my life, but I'm actually the one who will take it from here. I'll take the ball. You started it, and I'll finish it."
Jina McAfee:So that really fits well with Galatians 3. They were a group of people where God had started a work and they were trying to finish it. And it relates to us, because we know what that feels like. We've been there. We all have been there. In Galatians, we're meeting a group of Gentile believers. That means everyone who had not had a Jewish background. They were believers in Christ. And when we say Gentile believers, that refers to everyone besides the Jewish believers that had come to recognize Christ. They had had a supernatural experience. They had been stuck in darkness. I know what that was like, too. They worshiped other gods, participated in pagan practices. They were a mess, and they couldn't rescue themselves. I identify with this. So through Paul, God extended His hand and offered an invitation through the gospel, the good news. God said, "You can't save yourself, but I can save you." You've hit rock bottom right. You are in a pit. You cannot reach high enough. But God said, "I can reach you." And by faith, the Galatians said "yes" to that invitation. So who started this supernatural work? The word"supernatural" should be the clue there, right? Who started it? God did. He's the only One who does that. Who initiated and who rescued? God did. So we have good news today. If you've had a messy past, maybe you're stuck in that, or your thought processes are just a mess, like, how you think is not God's way of thinking. Maybe you've got identity issues. That's a big problem today, just knowing who you are, right? Trauma. Anxiety. This is a very anxious society today. Depression. Maybe you feel worthless. Maybe you've got secret sin or a not-so-secret sin. People don't really mind just telling you what they're walking in. God is still doing a supernatural work. He is still initiating, and He is still the only One who can rescue us.
ReGina Johnston:So we've met Paul, and we've met the Gentile believers. But there's also this religious group of Jewish Christians called Judaizers, who came along and began preaching that faith in Jesus wasn't enough. They were saying, in order to be truly saved, in addition to faith in Jesus, they needed to observe parts of the law and abstain from certain foods, and they needed to observe certain days and and they needed to be circumcised. There are just some additional things that you need to do in order to be saved. The Judaizers preached that God started this supernatural work, but it's up to us to finish it. So they bought it. The Galatians bought it hook, line and sinker. In their hearts and minds, maybe the finished work of the cross wasn't finished at all.
Unknown:And that's where we pick up. In chapter three,
ReGina Johnston:It takes me back to the very first chapter, you're going to meet a very frustrated Paul. Normally he has where he starts out, "I am astonished." He just jumps right a warm greeting and welcome, but he was fiery here. It's because he had made this investment in them. He had come alongside. He in. Instead of going through the usual greetings, he says, "I am had spent time with them. He had preached the gospel, and there was a resounding "yes" to that invitation, but here they are waffling. He had been very clear. You can only come to Christ through faith alone. It's Christ who does the work. So here is his response to their waffling. He says, "You crazy Galatians." [Some translations say, You foolish Galatians.] Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives.[You have lost sight of what was done on the cross for you and the ramifications that has on every single aspect of your
life. He said:] His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you, clearly enough" (Ga 3:1 MSG). So he's saying, "You are not thinking clearly." The Galatians, the people that he would have been presenting the gospel to, would not have been at the cross. But he is saying, I presented the gospel to you so clearly, it's as if you were there. I extended the invitation. I came alongside you. I taught you. And now you're going back to an old way of thinking. Why would you do that? Foolish Galatians. And we do the same thing. astonished." Now he says, "You foolish Galatians." He's very perplexed by this.
Jina McAfee:I think the one phrase of Galatians that I had remembered before we studied this season was, "Oh, you foolish Galatians!" So that was verse one, and like Kyli said, we see Paul start to ask them some questions. In coaching, in counseling, one of the things you do, if someone is not thinking correctly, you start to ask them some questions so they can see clearly. So Paul is asking some questions. In
Galatians 3:2-4 MSG, Paul says,"Let me put this question to
you:How did you begin your new life? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could[complete it or] perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!" You're headed there. So he's trying to get them to think about this experience they've had with the Lord. He said, "If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?" It's like he is saying, "You gave your life to Christ. He saved you. He justified you. He rescued you. He did the supernatural work in you. But now you're trying to do it on your own. Why?"
Kyli Rose:It's a positional thing. Whenever you are saved, you are positioned in a certain way. You're not working toward something. He gave you a name. You're now His child. I think some of that waffling comes in whenever we don't fully recognize who we are in Christ. We were transferred out of darkness into light. That's a change of position. You could not see or think clearly. You thought on evil things. You behaved in evil ways. And now you've been given the mind of Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit. That's a positional change, and it changes everything.
ReGina Johnston:Perhaps you're listening today, and you're feeling the weight of trying to earn salvation, and you keep trying to check the boxes and do the things and you're weary from that. Paul could see the Galatians going there, to this place of too many boxes to check. You could never earn it. So he's trying to get them to remember their personal experience with Him. When we're struggling, it's always good to go back to where we last encountered God. And then he brings them to Scripture. If we're going to be spiritually healthy, we have to have both. We have to have this relationship with Jesus that is growing and and fresh, and we have to have an encounter, a daily encounter, with His Word. So here's the Scripture Paul brought to them. Galatians 3:6-9 says, "In the same way, 'Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.' The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. What's more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in His sight because of their faith. [not because of their works, because of their faith.] God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when He said, 'All nations will be blessed through you.' So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith." We're all on equal ground with Abraham. Think of that.
Unknown:So why Abraham? What is Paul actually doing here? I love Paul. And I have said this before, "If we ever see Paul, do not try to win a debate with him." He will wipe us under the spiritual carpet, so to speak. He's so brilliant in what he's doing. He starts on a personal level, and then he moves to theology. These false teachers, these Judaizers, preached that no one could be accepted into God's family unless they were descendants of Abraham, who was a Jew, the father of their Jewish faith. They held him in very high esteem. Essentially they're saying, if you want to be good with God, you need to be a son of Abraham. And if you're going to be a son of Abraham, you need to be a Jew. And if you're going to be a Jew, you need to follow the rules. God started it, and it will be up to you to finish it by behavior modification, not inward transformation. Paul says,"Okay, if you want to look at Abraham, let's do that." So he takes them back all the way to Genesis 15. And what we see in Genesis 15 is that God zeros in on this man named Abraham, and He says, I want to begin this work through you, and I'm going to give you some promises. I'm going to give you land. I'm going to give you descendants. And you are going to be a blessing to the entire world. You see this man, he's just a man, like you and me. Can you imagine God saying, "This is what I'm going to do through you and through your line." He has Abraham come outside and look up at the night sky. He shows him the millions of stars that are in the sky and says, "This is how many descendants I'm going to give you." That sounds great, except for the fact that Abraham and his wife are old and they have no children. So Abraham, being a human just like you and me, is asking God, "How in the world is this going to happen?" But in Genesis 15:6 NLT, we see,"And Abraham believed the Lord,[he actually took God at His Word. I don't know how You're going to do it. I don't know when You're going to do it. I have no idea why it's me that You're going to do it through. But I trust You. It says that Araham believed the Lord,] and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith." Abraham believed the Lord. This is what we call the power of first mention in Scripture. A little Bible study tip when you're studying Scripture, whenever you see something mentioned for the very first time, pay attention to it. This is the very first time in Scripture that we see "faith" mentioned. Abraham believed and the Lord counted him as righteous. It was his faith that made him right with God, and that's a big deal. Jina will tell us why.
Jina McAfee:Paul had just told them, "You believed the message, and that's why you were saved." But this is significant, that he's going back to Abraham, because this was 430 years before the law, before Moses ever stepped on the scene, before the 10 Commandments. Abraham wasn't circumcised. His faith was enough. In fact, he's called the father of faith. When our kids were young, they sang a song about father Abraham having many kids. He was the father of our faith, not because of what he did. As Kyli said, his life was messy too. He was just a person, like you and me, but he trusted and he surrendered. And Paul is saying that regardless of where you started, whether you're a Jew or Gentile, whether you're black or white, rich or poor, young or old, anyone who puts their faith in Jesus becomes a child of Abraham, which means you get the same blessing that God promised Abraham that night underneath that starry sky. We get the promise of salvation and the inheritance of eternal life.
ReGina Johnston:So let's look at what happened from the time of Abraham, who was on this faith journey, along with the promise given to him, and the time of the Galatians. Several things happened in between. One of them was the law. Abraham received a promise, but later Moses received the law. So I have this question. If we had the promise through Abraham, why in the world would we need the law between the promise and Jesus coming? Wouldn't the promise be great, and then let's just anticipate Jesus? But no, the law was given in between.
Let's look at Galatians 3:19-20 and 23-25 to find out why the law was given. This is what The Message version says, "What is the point, then, of the law, the attached addendum? It was a thoughtful addition to the original covenant promises made to Abraham. The purpose of the law was to keep a sinful people in the way of salvation until Christ (the descendant) came.[So it was like a placeholder, a sustainer for us, until Christ came. And so it says, until Christ, the descendant, came] inheriting the promises and distributing them to us. Obviously, this law was not a firsthand encounter with God. It was arranged by angelic messengers through a middleman, Moses.... Its purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, [And I think the law pretty much does that. It accomplishes that purpose] and therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete His promise. For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time. Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law."
Unknown:So what was the purpose of the law? Paul is saying here that the law was added because we're sinners, that we actually needed it. We were bowling just a few weeks ago, and we put bumpers up on the lanes for our kids. The law was like that. We saw what happens without bumpers. We see what happens without protection. When left to our own devices, we get in big, big trouble. That life of joy and fullness and wholeness that He intended for us to have, we cannot have it outside of Christ. So what He did in the middle was give us the law. Paul says, "The law was added because we're sinners. It was designed to show us our sins, and it was designed to point out our need for a Savior." We've had a handful of friends who have gotten a bad diagnosis. One of our friends had to have an MRI. The MRI said that they were very sick. They could have done that MRI again and again and again, and the result would have been the same. It told them that they were very sick, but that was not the cure. It could not have healed what was going on inside their body. All it could do was tell them that they were very sick and they needed a cure. You need something that's going to help your body get better. The law was essentially like that. It showed them that they were broken and needed a savior. We needed some sort of road. We needed boundaries to help us navigate life until the fulfillment of the promise came, until the Savior, the cure came. We needed penalty to sin so that we would not be overtaken by it. God put this system in place to protect us. Oftentimes, He's castigated as being mean and unkind, but really, He put this system in place because He loves us. He said, "These are the boundary lines." He wanted us to see that we need a savior, because in our pride, we're self destructive. If you don't know that you need a savior, you'll be just like I was in that kitchen and buy into the lie that I can do this thing by myself when I cannot.
Jina Mcafee:And we have to be reminded, even now.
Unknown:Constantly, yes. We needed penalty to sin so that we would not be overtaken by it. But it was always meant to be temporary. The law was meant to be a means to getting us to faith fulfilled. The law could not take away sin. It could not give salvation. It was meant to point forward to this New Covenant when sin would be restrained and the penalty paid and the Spirit poured out and the progress of evil completely reversed because of the cross.
Jina McAfee:Aren't you glad we live in this time? The time of
ReGina Johnston:Deuteronomy 27:26 says, "Cursed is he who Christ instead of the time of the law? I am very thankful. So with the law, you've got to understand, came the curse. But praise the Lord, Jesus rescued us from the curse. This may sound strange, so we're going to make it clear. We're going to look at verses 10 through 14 in the Message version. This is what it says, "Scripture backs this up: 'Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the Law.' [We know no one, no person, could carry out every detail of the law all the time. It just can't be done.] The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way....[I love that His whole goal is that we have relationship with Him.] 'The person who believes God is set right by God--and that's the real life.' Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: 'The one who does these things (rule-keeping) continues to live by them' [by the rules. The Jews added more and more and more and more rules. And honestly, today, our society is adding more and more rules. Interesting.] Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into Himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says: 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'? That is what happened when Jesus
was nailed to the cross:[It was a tree.] He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse." So, here's the deal. Abraham saw God face to face and received a personal promise that extended to the rest of us. It spoke of the promise of a Savior. It spoke of being set apart as God's people. It was received by faith. But, when the law was given to Moses, these requirements to live by, it came with a list of blessings for following the law and a list of curses for not following it. In fact, when the law was given, people stood on one of two mountains. One group said all the blessings for following the law, and the other group said all the curses for not following it. does not confirm the words of this law by doing them?" However, what does the Word teach us about the law? Is there anyone who has been able to keep all of the law? Absolutely not! It's unattainable. And if anybody says they have, they're lying. Therefore. they're not keeping it. No one is perfect.
No one, except One. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." So going back to Galatians, if they were coming out from under the promise fulfilled in Christ and going back to trying to do everything on their own accord--the law--are they going to be able to do it? NO! The answer is"No." So this was Paul's whole point. This is why he's so astonished. He's like the emoji of the lady conking the top of her head. He just does not get why they can't see it. You can't do what only God can do, and only God can fulfill the law and make us righteous by faith.
Kyli Rose:So we're going to implement Paul's strategy of asking questions here. So here's our question and the question that's posed to the people in Galatians, "How should I live? Knowing this, how do I live? Do I live by law, or do I live by faith?" Verses 11-12 say, "Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident; for'The righteous man shall live by faith.' However, the law is not of faith. On the contrary, 'He who practices them shall live by them.'" So we have this choice between two very different ways of living: self-effort versus living by faith. "To be 'under the law' is to rely on your good works for salvation, justification, the Holy Spirit and eternal life." (Pastor Tom Hicks) You can use them for an example. They saw God in His glory, and they actually didn't want to go up on the mountain. They told Moses, "You go up on the mountain, you have this encounter with the Lord, and then you just come back and tell us what He says, and we'll just do what you say." But we saw how that did not work. God wants to have relationship with us. He doesn't want us to have a middleman. He doesn't want us to see His Word as this big book of morality tales. He wants to have an encounter with us personally. He wants to know us personally, and for us to know Him
ReGina Johnston:You know Kyli, that may have been what they personally. said, but that isn't what they did. I mean, Moses gave them the law, and they still wouldn't keep it. And then they continued to add more to it where it became so weighty. And it's so interesting how they couldn't look in their own backyards, but they were so busy basically judging other people that couldn't live out the weight of the law.
Unknown:By the time we got to the New Testament, there were almost 1,000 additional rules added to what God had initially set up.
ReGina Johnston:The Lord doesn't want relationship with us through law. Think about your own family and the way we discipline our children. We have rules in our house, but we don't want that to be the basis of our relationship. But somehow we as believers keep trying to make the rules the thing. It's harder, more nuanced, to try to live in relationship, rather than live in this black and white, I can check this box, I can check that box, I can do this. The problem is we just don't honestly see how weighty that is, and how chained we become. Even though it feels vulnerable and hard sometimes, relationship is where the freedom is.
Unknown:And then your life becomes a response. You won't balk at the bumpers as much as you did, because you know why they're there. You know it's because He loves you. When I'm spending time with Him, I feel His affection towards me. I know His character. The Word is revealing it to me. I feel His comfort. I feel His joy. I feel peace within the bumpers. And so my life then becomes this response. Instead of me trying to respond by keeping the rules, I'm responding to His love with my own. And those bumpers, all of a sudden, feel like safety instead of restriction. So then everything I do becomes a response to the God who loves me.
Jina McAfee:When you were talking about the mountain, it seemed like the people were afraid to go up on the mountain. They were afraid of God. We know God is great. We know He's almighty God. But at the same time, it's like when a dad disciplines his son, but he also goes out and swings him on the swing. We get that kind of relationship. We can go to Him for any need. And we want to please Him because we love Him. And we know that He loves us. That's totally different than being under the law.
ReGina Johnston:If all that exists between people is the law, that's not attractive. That doesn't draw you in.
Unknown:I think Paul was speaking to that too. It's not a total loss yet, but we're getting there. He wasn't just speaking to their personal experience with the Lord. He was actually looking at the global church as a whole, like, I am working so hard because I want the gospel to just permeate the entire earth. I want everybody to know what Jesus did, and I need you to understand because the world is also looking at you and how you're connecting with Him, how you're relating. So he was speaking to their personal experience, but he was also saying that the global church actually hinges on how you respond to God. They're watching you too. So he's speaking to multiple things, not just personally, but globally. People watch how we respond to God, and I promise you, they do not want some dry, dull, rule-keeping system. They don't want that. There's no life there. There is actually a lot hanging in the balance on how we relate to the Lord, not just personally, but as part of the body of Christ. It affects the body of Christ if we get this or not, and it affects non-believers if we get this or not. There's a lot at stake.
Jina McAfee:Earlier one of you was talking about two ways of living. When you're following the law, you're following but it's kind of like you're still in charge, right? The other way of living, the way of living by faith, is freedom. It's life. It like we "get" to have relationship with God, the very God who created us. It comes by revelation and it comes by faith. And we want that for everyone. We want that because it's so good. I remember living the other way, by following rules, and I know how it is to live by faith. It's a night and day difference. So who rescued me? Christ rescued me. So we're going on to verses 13 and 14 in chapter three. It says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us--for it is written,'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'--in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Christ did it. He was cursed for me. It's not my job to set myself free. I couldn't do it. It's not my job to make myself perfect. I couldn't do that. Did I set myself free? No! Did I save myself? No! It was a gift I received by faith. So let's remember what my job is versus His job. I look at that with every Scripture--my job versus God's job. Stop trying to do His job for Him. When I try to be my own savior, I fail every single time. Not only did Jesus redeem us from the curse, but in so doing, He is also the law fulfilled. He fulfilled the law. Matthew 5:17-20 says, "Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill." So He allows us to live the life that He's calling us to live through His Spirit, through His Grace. God fulfilled it all by Himself through Jesus. He did not need us to fulfill the law. Jesus did that work through His life and death and resurrection.
ReGina Johnston:We talked about the law, but let's not forget about the promise in the middle of all of this. Christ was the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham too. So here's a
question:Who is the promise really for? The promise that God gave Abraham? The promise that his children would be as the sands of the sea? That promise is for us as well. It's for all of us who call Him ours. We're all one in Christ. Verses 26-29 say, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is need neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise." So because of our position in Christ, we actually become not only part of the promise, but we're heirs of the promise. It's"to your children and their children and their children." So Abraham received the promise.
Here's the timeline:Abraham received the promise. Moses received the law to guide us until the promise is fulfilled. Christ fulfilled the promise and the law. And now, we as heirs, as part of the promise and heirs, we get to decide, how we are going to live. Are we going to live by our own efforts, by the law? Or, are we going to live by the promise? I love that. I love that. Kyli, do you want to finish this out?
Unknown:I think the best way to close this is to essentially do what Paul did and just ask questions. How did your faith journey start? It didn't start with you. You couldn't save yourself. I couldn't save myself. Who started the work? And are you going to allow Him to finish it? Are you going to choose relationship over rules? Living by rules is so dry. I think another question I would ask is a question I ask myself: Have you allowed parts of your walk with the Lord, your relationship with the Lord, to become just kind of rote and old hat, box checking? Evaluate what you're doing currently, and evaluate why you're doing it. Ask: How can I bring in fresh relationship? How can I do something fresh with the Lord? He wants to give you more of Himself. There is nothing that He wants to withhold from us. Ask: Am I positioning myself, day in and day out, to receive what it is He wants to give me? The problem never lies with Him. We know this. He's not withholding anything from us. He's not selfish. He's not unkind. He's not playing games. He's not hiding. He loves you and He loves me. So am I positioning myself every day? Am I spending time with Him? It requires time. Intimacy comes down to intentionality. So am I being intentional day in and day out to just have intimacy with the Lord, talk to Him, read His Word, study His Word, get within community, people who are also prioritizing intimate relationship with the Lord, and run after Him with every single thing I've got? Pay attention.
Ask yourself:Am I feeling dry? Say it out loud, acknowledge it, and then ask the Lord to show you why. And how do we move past rule-keeping and move into this really rich dynamic relationship with the God who loves us? God, we just thank You. God, You don't actually need us. You're in perfect community in and of yourself. But You wanted us. You chose us from the very beginning. And I know that as a God who knows all things, You actually knew that there would come a point in time where your creation would not choose You, that they would step outside of the bumpers, the protective barriers that You set out of Your love and Your kindness and Your infinite wisdom and grace, that we would actually step beyond them because we think that we know better than You. And You still put a rescue mission in place for Your daughters and Your sons. And God, I love how we get to see all of it fulfilled through Your Son, Jesus. God, I pray that it would not be said of us, "Oh foolish Galatians, Oh foolish Kyli. Why do you think that you can finish something that you are not able to start?" So, God, I pray that You would help us evaluate and that You would just give us a fresh revelation of how much You love us, and that our lives would be a response to that love. You loved us so much that You gave Your one and only Son to die on a cross for my sins, to save me from a curse that I could not save myself from. The law showed me that I was hopeless, that I could not keep it, and that I was broken, and then You sent Your Son to fulfill and to fix, the ultimate cure forever. God, we thank You for what You did, and we thank You for what You're continuing to do. I pray that our lives would just speak to a world who desperately needs to know how much You love them too. We love You, Jesus. I pray that our lives would just be a resounding"Yes" as a response to what You've done for us already. We thank You. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.