An Invitation to Life (Galatians 2:20-21)

All religions teach about love, goodness, and holiness. Whether it be Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, or any other religious sect, they teach that by following their system of laws and practices, one will achieve spiritual holiness. But only the Christian faith can produce such holiness. Why? Because only Christians have the Holy Spirit with them. No other religion can offer God's power through the Son and the Holy Spirit! One cannot be holy without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

There are many scriptures that teach about our Lord Jesus Christ having offered his body for us. He did his part, and to become his followers, we need to do our part, by responding to the Gospel. Believers share in his death, burial, and resurrection.

I have always been inspired by the words of Paul in Galatians 2:20. He says:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (NIV)

Paul wrote this letter to the faithful in Galatia to confront a false teaching that has been going around. Paul founded the congregations in Galatia, but after a while, some Jews who were converted to Christianity had this poor understanding that the Gentiles in Galatia need to observe the law of Moses too, in order to truly become a part of the Christian faith. According to these Judaizers, Gentile Christians needed also to perform certain works of the Old Testament law, especially circumcision.

Paul is basically saying that because he was crucified with Christ, he was able to live for God because Christ lived in him by the Holy Spirit. This teaching is also emphasized in Romans 6:1-6 which reads as follows:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means? We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (NIV)

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