No One Estranged

May 20

“You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith,” Galatians 5:4,5.

There was a TV commercial some years ago where a mother offered to assist her daughter with a frustrating task. The younger woman’s response was terse and unappreciative, reflective more of her frustration and stress than her feelings; she said, “Please, Mother! I’d rather do it myself!”

Sometimes we tend to have the same attitude with God. He has sent His “only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” John 3:16, but we live our lives as though we were responsible for our own salvation.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence of our endeavor to win our salvation through our own effort comes when things happen that are not advantageous to us. Our first response in such circumstances might be, ‘Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?’ The underlying reason we say such things is that we think we’re being good and therefore God should guard us from adversity.

This thought is in direct variance with the Biblical fact that, “The rain falls on the just and on the unjust; the sun shines on the just and on the unjust,” Matthew 5:45. There is no connection between how we comport our lives and how advantaged our lives may appear.

We cannot earn our salvation or God’s blessings because we are moral, upright people.

Our obedience to or defiance of the law of God hasn’t any bearing upon whether or not we can be candidates for salvation. The Word tells us, “whosoever will may come,” Revelation 22:17.

Salvation is not something we can achieve for ourselves but neither can our sins separate us from Christ if we are willing to lay them at His feet and receive the cleansing of His shed blood.

None of us needs to be estranged from the Lord, either through our sin or through our attempt to be justified through our own adherence to the law. Whatever our present spiritual condition, we may be made new; we may be set free from the yoke of sin.

All we must do is recognize our total inability to save ourselves; repent of our sins and foibles and embrace the salvation Jesus has purchased for us at Calvary.