A Prayer about What Justifies Us

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. Galatians 5:4

Faithful Lord,

May it never be!

May we never be alienated—

cut off from, severed from, estranged from

our one and only Savior, Jesus Christ!

The apostle Paul is pretty ticked in Galatians.

Some people have come along and told the Galatians,

who were “running superbly” (Galatians 5:7),

that they had to be circumcised to be true Christians.

That would be like someone telling me

right after I became a Christian

that I wasn’t a true Christian

if I did not tithe ten percent of my income every month,

attend church every week,

and read my Bible every day.

Of course, those are ALL good things to do,

ways we grow in knowing and loving you,

but they are not the basis of your love for us.

We must know beyond a shadow of a doubt

that it is “by grace we are saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).

We must know that we don’t deserve our salvation;

we did nothing to earn it,

and we can do nothing to keep it.

That’s what it means to not “fall away from grace.”

Lord, humble us again.

Expose our folly —

Show us anything we do that we think makes us worthy of your grace.

And, so transform us that we live out of that grace,

running superbly

as we give and pray and seek and share

this amazingly good news!

In Jesus’ very-near name. Amen.

Read Galatians 5:1-10; Ephesians 2:1-10.