Faith Alone

We pick up our study in Galatians 5:13 where it says, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Paul’s point here is that liberty excludes the mandatory keeping of the Law as a means of salvation. Why does Paul continue to hammer this subject over and over? – Because they had problems with it then and we still have problems with it now. The Law never was a means of salvation. People in the Old Testament where saved through faith just like you and I today. The Bible says of Abraham in Galatians 3:6, “…Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Think about it for a moment – if the Law could save, why did Jesus go to the cross? Do you remember what Jesus prayed in the garden right before his crucifixion? He said, “…O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). He was saying, “Father, if there is any other way for these people to be saved, please don’t make me go through with this.” The answer of his Father came through the kiss of Judas the Betrayer. There is no other way of salvation accept through faith and faith alone in Christ Jesus. I can assure you that if you are trying to “work for it”, you don’t have it. You’ve believed a lie somewhere.

However, Paul is also making the point that this liberty does not give us the freedom to do anything we want to either. He declared in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient…Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body…Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication…What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.”