Becoming right with God

If you approached an average believer and said to him: “we become right with God by faith in Jesus Christ and never by doing what the law commands”, he would probably nod his head in agreement. But if you repeated the same statement by emphasizing on “the law”, for instance – “we become right with God by faith in Jesus Christ and never by doing the commandments in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, etc.,” you can be sure that he would not take it lightly with you and may even conclude that you are backslidden. This goes a long way to show that most of us do not really know the implication of what we claim to believe.

What gives you the assurance that God will answer your prayers? What keeps you going in your Christian race hoping that one day you will be with the Lord? What gives you the confidence that God’s blessings will be resident and manifest in your life? What makes you think the devil is under your feet? What drives you away from sin to absolute surrender to the almighty God? What makes you think you are still saved? For many of us, it is simply because we have been able to live by a set of standards. But Apostle Paul was quick to make us reason simply by stating that “… if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.” Galatians 2:21 (NLT)

The requirement for becoming righteous by keeping the law is expressly stated in Galatians 3:10 (MSG) – “Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law.” Yes! There are only two possible scores you can have – 100% or 0%. Do we even know every detail of the law, not to talk of keeping it? Then why do we brag and think we exist in God’s inner circle because we have not lied, not killed, paid tithes or prayed thrice a day?

Am I saying you should carry on in sin? God forbid! I only want you to see the importance of launching from the right platform. In this new dispensation, if we always think we are getting God’s approval only because of what we have been able to do, then I am tempted to say we have not really started true Christianity. But I think a better way to put it is that “we are attempting to launch from a platform where we are bound to crash”. It’s like a plane trying to use the desert land as its runway for take-off.

Beloved, let’s get back on the right track and ensure we always launch from the platform of grace. If you have trusted in your efforts in the past, go to God in prayer with a heart of repentance. Live an excellent and holy life not because you want to be right with God, but because you are already right with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

– tope aladenusi