Alive in Jesus!

What is Christianity really all about? In one word, Christianity is about Jesus. It is not about rules or religion or theology. It is all about Jesus and having a relationship with God the Father through Jesus.

In Galatians 2:17-21 Paul makes reference to Christ or Son of God six times. Paul is saying it is all about Jesus.

So, what is it about Jesus in this passage that is essential?

Galatians 2:17-18

If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.

In Jesus, we are justified.

Justification means that we have been made right with God. We are made right with God through our submission to the authority of Jesus to control our lives and by our acceptance of His death and resurrection to pay for and deliver us from our sin.

Justification comes only through Jesus and not through any other source. You cannot justify yourself. The law cannot justify you. The church cannot justify you. Good works cannot justify you.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being justified through Jesus.

Without Jesus, we are sinners and lawbreakers.

Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and come short of God’s standard.”

Sinners are people who have not lived up to God’s standards.

How many of us does that describe? Every one of us!

Outside of the justification through Jesus we are all the same – sinners.

James writes in James 2:10-11: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”

One broken command of God makes you a lawbreaker even if you keep all the rest. (Good luck doing that.)

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that without Jesus, we are sinners and lawbreakers.

Galatians 2:19

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

If I depend on keeping the law (rules and regulation and rituals) to bring justification, then I am not depending on Jesus.

If I depend on Jesus for justification, then I don’t have to depend on trying to keep all the law.

I have a great advantage over many people in that I knew at an early age I was not good at keeping rules. I don’t like rules. I am a rebel. I love doing it differently. I know that if my justification is dependent on keeping the law (rules), then I have no hope.

The truth is, if justification is dependent on keeping the law, we are all hopeless.

When a person dies to something it means that they are no longer bound to it or no longer dependent on it. We die to the law so that we can live for God. It means we are no longer dependent on the law but on Jesus to be right with God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is dying to the law and being alive in Jesus.

Galatians 2:20

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.

I am crucified with Jesus so that He can live His life through me.

In Luke 9:23 Jesus says to all those who were with him that if they wanted to follow Him they needed to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and then follow Him.

Taking up you cross daily means dying to self every day. It means saying no to the normal selfish desires we all have and thus saying yes to what Jesus wants.

In Colossians 1:27 Paul says it is Christ in you which is our hope.

We reckon ourselves dead, crucified with Jesus, to clear the way for Jesus to live His resurrected life through us.

The world does not need to see what I can do. The world wants to see what Jesus can do in and through me (and you).

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is giving up our lives to Jesus so He can live His life through us.   

Galatians 2:21

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.

Grace brings righteousness through Jesus, not the law.

Another thing the law cannot do is make us righteousness.

In Isaiah 64:6 our efforts at being righteous are called filthy rags.

In Matthew 5:20 Jesus tells us that unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Pharisees had an outward, ceremonial righteousness. Jesus is saying that our righteousness is not to be just for outward appearance. It has to be a God-based righteousness that comes from Jesus living His life through us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on Jesus for our righteousness.

Christianity is not rules, religion, or ritual. Christianity is about Jesus.

Making It All About Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                                    Joe