Apologies that our devotions have been delayed the last few days. This is Saturday’s devotion, and it will be followed soon by today’s.

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17 Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. 18 Nevertheless, it is good to be zealous if it serves a noble purpose—at any time, and not only when I am with you.

19 My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Bethany Rowlands

I love a good bargain. In our family we get pretty excited when Weetbix is on sale. But some things that sound like a good deal are really just about promoting the company (post about our produce for your chance to win!), and the customer gets nothing out of it. The Galatian church thought they were getting a good deal: ‘Christ plus good works.’ So the church threw themselves right in! But those who were teaching this were looking for the church to praise them, not Jesus.

I once lived this way too. I knew what it looked like to be a Christian: go to church, be kind and friendly to everyone, read the Bible. So I tried hard to do those things – zealously! I bought the idea that I needed to be a good person to be good enough for God. Start with Jesus, then keep a bunch of rules and you’ll be right. But you see where the logic goes wrong? This is no longer even ‘Christ plus,’ because it is no longer about Christ. Without realising it I was trying to be saved by what I did. I’d missed Jesus’ free salvation. Buying into ‘Christ plus good works’ is worse than a bargain you get nothing out of, because it takes you away from the gospel.

So what’s the solution? Listen to the gospel again and again. I called myself a Christian my whole life, but one day I woke my husband up at 1am, saying, “I think I finally get grace! I can’t be good enough for God. That’s why Jesus died for me!” And that changed everything. It is so freeing to not have to be good enough. I didn’t need to look like a good, enthusiastic Christian. All I needed to do was know I needed saving and trust that Jesus’ death was enough.

Good works do come from trusting Jesus. Knowing God is pleased with us because of Jesus, we can then get zealous about loving God and loving others. But pray we don’t ever replace Jesus. Pray we don’t get so enthusiastic about other things that sound good, that we stop trusting in Jesus alone.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bethany is a member of our Fairfield Morning congregation.