Rescued

Yesterday, in Paul’s letter to Jesus followers in Galatia, we experienced Paul’s passion for continuing to express the grace we received and Paul’s passion against allowing our faith to become “checklist maintenance”. Today, he is going to spell relief ... r-e-s-c-u-e-d.


Galatians 3
8 What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. 10 But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” 11 So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” 12 This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.” 13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14 Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.


Rescued. The word that really stood out to me was the word “rescued”. At times, I felt like I needed to be rescued from the chaos of all those ideas ... the extremes (blessings and curses) ... the overlaps (faith provides life, obedience provides life) ... the impossibilities (you must obey all commands, you can’t obey all commands). I was so glad to finally reach the word “rescued” ... I actually breathed a sigh of relief. We all face a lot of chaos in our lives ... relational, vocational, emotional, political, financial. Isn’t it good to know that Jesus has already dealt with the most important chaos we will ever face ... the spiritual chaos Paul was writing about?! He explains that Jesus dealt with the curse on the cross. That is why John 19:30 is my favorite verse in the Bible where Jesus, at the end of his time on the cross, says, “It is finished.” Repeat that phrase a couple times to yourself. Let the hope and peace and the beauty of those words sink in. Then, take a deep breath and breathe a sigh of relief because you have been rescued.