Galatians 2:19-21

Galatians 2:19-21New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

This passage is one that we might overlook just a bit.  I've had many conversations with Christians over the years - both Lutherans and non-Lutherans - about how grace and faith exist in our lives. The question can come down as an accusation to Lutherans: "well, if you think all you need is grace and forgiveness, what prompts you to do good things?" I've heard Lutherans themselves tie themselves in theological knots trying to figure out how those good works can still be important, if all they "need" is God's grace and forgiveness?

Well, the answer is here.

We live in Christ.  We are baptized into Christ's death and so Christ lives with us. So then, as a teacher once said to me, "the old self, or Old Adam, in us is in is death throes for our whole life...slowly dying." Christ died to make us free. To make us new creatures: creatures of love and grace and forgiveness.

So those good works? They are then a natural part of that process. They are like breathing. 

To borrow from another devotional I read this week (can't remember who to give credit to!), it isn't simply that we are freed FROM something - sin and death - so that our good works mean nothing.

It is that we are freed TO something. 

To new life. To a full, abundant, joyfully giving and sharing life.

A grace filled life where God's grace grows grace in us to share with our neighbor.

In a week where we celebrated the freedom of the United States from Britain, it is a good reminder I think that freedom isn't simply freedom from.

Freedom is freedom to. Freedom to something higher, holier, nobler.

Something we are created for, and that the Christ that lives in us moves us toward.

What is it that you are being moved by Christ toward?

God of freedom, show me where your grace would lead me. Amen.