Day 24 - March 17

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God,

for if righteousness could be gained through the law,

Christ died for nothing!”

Galatians 2:20-21

Paul spends a great deal of time in this letter to Galatia explaining that following the law will never lead to righteousness. God gave the 10 Commandments and other laws to God’s people through Moses and the prophets. These laws are what guided every aspect of every day for God’s people. Yet, time and time again, humanity failed at following God’s law. And so, God sent Christ, not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Any human being striving to follow the law by his or her own effort is going to fail. No one is perfect and so by the law we are all condemned. However, Christ is perfect and he was sent as the Word become flesh, as our Emmanuel, to be the only one to live perfectly under the law and to die an innocent man on our behalf so that we might be saved despite our sinfulness. This is especially good news for the Gentiles. They did not have the law at all, but now Paul is preaching to them hope and salvation. God has flung wide the gates so that all his children, Jew and Gentile, might enter through faith. Praise be to God!