The simple invitation of the gospel is to know God personally. If, instead, you try to follow after laws to prove you are righteous, there is much at stake. After choosing to follow Jesus, the Galatians were lured toward ceremonial law. In Galatians 4:8-11, Paul responds to this shift in allegiance with the heart of a pastor. There was a time in your life, Paul says, in which you were deceived. There was a time when you were enslaved to idols that were empty and void of power, as well as to the demonic entities that hid behind them – what Paul calls “worthless elementary principles.” Now you have come to Christ, but if you start mixing pieces of law into the gospel, Paul says you fall back into the same kind of slavery. That is a startling thing to say. The spiritual battle has always been to move us away from the simplicity of knowing God. This is accomplished in two equal and opposite ways. One is rebellion which says, “I don’t care to know anything about God or have anything to do with God. I’ll go my own way.” The other is religion which says, “I’ll learn all about God. I’ll do the right thing for God but never know him.” Either way, we remain distant from the one who made us and loves us. Either way, we don’t know God. Hell would be quite satisfied for people to know all about God and try to do all the right things for God but not know God. The heart of God is, and always has been, that He wants to be known. Through Jesus, you can know God. It is an astounding truth.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 11:27:16 +0000
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