WHY IS EVERYONE SHOUTING

My mum has recently discovered the joys of email. Unfortunately she’s trigger happy when it comes to punctuation. Everything is written in CAPS and with EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!!! So it feels like she’s shouting and jumping up and down, even when it’s just an update on her jigsaw.

Galatians 2:19-21 is the equivalent of mum’s outbox and on days like today, when I’m feeling sub-standard, it hits the spot.  Here’s how Paul puts it, (indented words mine)

THROUGH THE LAW I DIED TO THE LAW SO THAT I MIGHT LIVE FOR GOD.

All those demands I tried to follow – some of them from God, most of them from my own ridiculous perfectionism – they killed me. They didn’t almost kill me. They finished me off for good. I fell in a heap… dead. But that wasn’t the end, because…

I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST AND I NO LONGER LIVE,

Jesus jumped into my pit to join me. He hugged me to Himself and kept diving down into death – I deserved it, He didn’t. But He bore the brunt, shielding me from the hell I should suffer. Now He’s taken me through that death. I never have to face it myself. And more than that…

CHRIST LIVES IN ME.

Jesus didn’t just die for me, He also lives in me. Amazing.

THE LIFE I NOW LIVE IN THE BODY…

Oh I still live “in the body” (in the flesh ). I still feel the old sufferings and sins. I’m still surrounded by trials and temptations and I will be until the day I die, but….

I LIVE BY FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.

My surroundings don’t define me. My Saviour does. Therefore I refuse to take my sins and sufferings as seriously as His forgiveness and future. I look to Jesus knowing that He loved me at the cross – while I was still His enemy. How much more will He keep on loving me, now that I’m His friend (Romans 5:8-10)…

I DO NOT SET ASIDE THE GRACE OF GOD…

I’m always tempted to. “In the flesh” I’m always  wanting to earn it and prove myself. I keep trying to get back onto the hamster wheel. But then the Bible comes at me like Mum, with CAPSLOCKED CORRECTION, reminding me…

IF RIGHTEOUSNESS COULD BE GAINED THROUGH THE LAW, CHRIST DIED FOR NOTHING!

Jesus has purchased and purified me once and for all on the cross. My quiet times (or lack of them); my sweet disposition (or bitter attitude); my loving kindness (or foul mood) cannot compare to one drop of the blood of God. Christ did not die for nothing – He died to save me eternally and unfailingly. Nothing I’ve ever done has worked – not in the biggest sense. But the cross did work – and this changes everything. Now I can stop trying to “gain righteousness” and simply “live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Now I can rest because Christ covers me, He’s in me and He’s for me.

Sometimes God has to shout before I’ll listen.