Several years ago, several people including my wife and I all planned to visit a woman who couldn’t leave her home easily. We wanted to come and bring her some delicious breakfast to share and spend some time with her since she wasn’t easily able to go out and visit people herself, she was lonely and needed the company. So we packed up in our car, we drove through a taco shop and bought a big bag of breakfast tacos of all flavors and salsas, and we drove to her house. 

My wife and I were the first ones there, and as we pulled up, we noticed her front door was open. We peeked inside and this woman we came to visit was nowhere to be found. We looked around her house, her yard and she wasn’t there. She wasn’t answering her phone. We called some of the other people we knew were visiting that day and they didn’t know where she was either. More visitors started to show up and at this point we’re all a little confused and worried.

The tacos are getting cold, no one’s sure what to do. Then someone pointed out “hey, wait a second, where’s her car?” It was gone! She’s just disappeared Thankfully this didn’t go on an extremely long time, we did actually get ahold of her 

After a few minutes and few phone calls, she finally picked up her cell phone and she was okay

She explained that she knew so many people were going to come visit her that morning and she felt like a terrible host. Why did she feel this way?

Because obviously if everyone was coming over for breakfast, then she needed food for them to eat, otherwise she would be a terrible host. So this woman we were visiting (with tacos in hand) specifically because she has such a difficult time leaving her home, decided that in order to avoid being a “terrible host”, she needed to go through the struggle to get in her car by herself, drive to a local taco shop, and wait in line for tacos. This gathering was intended to be all of 2, maybe 3 hours long

Because the taco shop she went to was very busy, she didn’t return with her tacos until 45 minutes after the breakfast was supposed to start. We were all uncomfortably sitting around in her house, debating whether or not to eat the tacos we brought for her while she’s the only one that is not at the breakfast which was supposed to be about giving her company.

Now in this woman’s mind, she was being kind and thoughtful, her intentions were nothing but good.

Paul is hammering the point home for his audience, that the true gospel, the gospel he is astonished they are abandoning is about our sin being wiped away through faith in Jesus Christ not by any works of the law.

He’s explaining that it is impossible to be good enough to be justified before God, or as I’ve put it in our lesson notes: we need to Give Up on Goodness.

If you haven’t been following since the beginning of our Galatians study, let me remind you

 The Galatians haven’t just forgotten the gospel on their own, they’ve been pushed into this false works-based gospel about adding the Jewish law on top of their faith by a group of false teachers called the Judaizers. These men are not deceived believers but are “capital F” False Teachers, they are evil men who have disguised themselves as Christians with an intent on bringing their corrupting teaching into the churches that Paul had previously taught at. They attacked Paul’s credentials as an apostle and they attacked the Gospel’s truth of justification by faith alone.

But in reality, her fear of not being a good enough host drove her through a difficult struggle that was not just unnecessary because we had already taken care of breakfast, but her decision to take on this burden that had already been solved even hindered the very time we were supposed to have together which was the point of everyone getting together.

In our passage in Galatians last week, the very last verse before our passage, Galatians 2:16 we read

Galatians 2:16 (ESV) — 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 

Paul is hammering the point home for his audience, that the true gospel, the gospel he is astonished they are abandoning is about our sin being wiped away through faith in Jesus Christ not by any works of the law.

Paul is hammering the point home for his audience, that the true gospel, the gospel he is astonished they are abandoning is about our sin being wiped away through faith in Jesus Christ not by any works of the law.

He’s explaining that it is impossible to be good enough to be justified before God, or as I’ve put it in our lesson notes: we need to Give Up on Goodness.

If you haven’t been following since the beginning of our Galatians study, let me remind you

 The Galatians haven’t just forgotten the gospel on their own, they’ve been pushed into this false works-based gospel about adding the Jewish law on top of their faith by a group of false teachers called the Judaizers. These men are not deceived believers but are “capital F” False Teachers, they are evil men who have disguised themselves as Christians with an intent on bringing their corrupting teaching into the churches that Paul had previously taught at. They attacked Paul’s credentials as an apostle and they attacked the Gospel’s truth of justification by faith alone.

He’s explaining that it is impossible to be good enough to be justified before God, or as I’ve put it in our lesson notes: we need to Give Up on Goodness.

Paul is hammering the point home for his audience, that the true gospel, the gospel he is astonished they are abandoning is about our sin being wiped away through faith in Jesus Christ not by any works of the law.

He’s explaining that it is impossible to be good enough to be justified before God, or as I’ve put it in our lesson notes: we need to Give Up on Goodness.

If you haven’t been following since the beginning of our Galatians study, let me remind you

 The Galatians haven’t just forgotten the gospel on their own, they’ve been pushed into this false works-based gospel about adding the Jewish law on top of their faith by a group of false teachers called the Judaizers. These men are not deceived believers but are “capital F” False Teachers, they are evil men who have disguised themselves as Christians with an intent on bringing their corrupting teaching into the churches that Paul had previously taught at. They attacked Paul’s credentials as an apostle and they attacked the Gospel’s truth of justification by faith alone.

Paul is hammering the point home for his audience, that the true gospel, the gospel he is astonished they are abandoning is about our sin being wiped away through faith in Jesus Christ not by any works of the law.

He’s explaining that it is impossible to be good enough to be justified before God, or as I’ve put it in our lesson notes: we need to Give Up on Goodness.

If you haven’t been following since the beginning of our Galatians study, let me remind you

 The Galatians haven’t just forgotten the gospel on their own, they’ve been pushed into this false works-based gospel about adding the Jewish law on top of their faith by a group of false teachers called the Judaizers. These men are not deceived believers but are “capital F” False Teachers, they are evil men who have disguised themselves as Christians with an intent on bringing their corrupting teaching into the churches that Paul had previously taught at. They attacked Paul’s credentials as an apostle and they attacked the Gospel’s truth of justification by faith alone.

He’s explaining that it is impossible to be good enough to be justified before God, or as I’ve put it in our lesson notes: we need to Give Up on Goodness.

If you haven’t been following since the beginning of our Galatians study, let me remind you

 The Galatians haven’t just forgotten the gospel on their own, they’ve been pushed into this false works-based gospel about adding the Jewish law on top of their faith by a group of false teachers called the Judaizers. These men are not deceived believers but are “capital F” False Teachers, they are evil men who have disguised themselves as Christians with an intent on bringing their corrupting teaching into the churches that Paul had previously taught at. They attacked Paul’s credentials as an apostle and they attacked the Gospel’s truth of justification by faith alone.

Paul is hammering the point home for his audience, that the true gospel, the gospel he is astonished they are abandoning is about our sin being wiped away through faith in Jesus Christ not by any works of the law.

He’s explaining that it is impossible to be good enough to be justified before God, or as I’ve put it in our lesson notes: we need to Give Up on Goodness.

If you haven’t been following since the beginning of our Galatians study, let me remind you

 The Galatians haven’t just forgotten the gospel on their own, they’ve been pushed into this false works-based gospel about adding the Jewish law on top of their faith by a group of false teachers called the Judaizers. These men are not deceived believers but are “capital F” False Teachers, they are evil men who have disguised themselves as Christians with an intent on bringing their corrupting teaching into the churches that Paul had previously taught at. They attacked Paul’s credentials as an apostle and they attacked the Gospel’s truth of justification by faith alone.

you

 The Galatians haven’t just forgotten the gospel on their own, they’ve been pushed into this false works-based gospel about adding the Jewish law on top of their faith by a group of false teachers called the Judaizers. These men are not deceived believers but are “capital F” False Teachers, they are evil men who have disguised themselves as Christians with an intent on bringing their corrupting teaching into the churches that Paul had previously taught at. They attacked Paul’s credentials as an apostle and they attacked the Gospel’s truth of justification by faith alone.

In our passage today, Paul knows that what he’s just said about justification by faith alone will now be met with resistance by the Judaizers in the Galatian churches and so he must predict their arguments and preemptively respond. Paul needs the true believers in these churches to understand that taking this free gift from Christ of justification by grace through faith and then trying to add back on once again the requirements of the Law that they are making the same mistake as this woman from my story

They started well by acknowledging their inability to get to God, to justify themselves, and they at one point leaned on Jesus for their salvation.

But now, they’ve gone back to the very law that they struggled to keep in the first place out of fear of not being good enough. Their good intentions have led them to drive out and metaphorically buy tacos for Jesus while Jesus is sitting back at their house, holding the tacos he brought for them and wondering why they’re not with him.

He’s here to explain to them, and now thousands of years later to us, that we need to give up on goodness.  Look with me at our first verse and see this argument that Paul is anticipating from the Judaizers in response to the true gospel. 

Galatians 2:17 (ESV) — 17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 

If following Christ leads to Law breaking, does Christ bring about sin?This is what the Judaizers are arguing, they’re saying that Christ can’t mean for us to stop following the Law because then he’d be making us sin more! Short answer: No That’s where we start, this is outright false.

Let’s pull ourselves away from our own western view, understand the Jewish ideas behind “sinners” The Jewish people were called by God to be separate from the peoples around them. They were supposed to eat differently, worship differently, wear different clothes, practice different holidays. They were supposed to avoid covenants and agreements with the Gentile nations around them, even to avoid intermarriage. They were a people set apart for God. And all of this was not a bad thing, this was following the commandments that God gave them.

The Jewish people were also called to a different standard of cleanliness, both literal and spiritual. Huge sections of the Old Testament law are devoted just to rules about ritual cleanness and uncleanness. For a sample, go look at Leviticus 11-15, five entire chapters devoted to laws on being clean or unclean before God Slide – Types of Uncleanness in Lev 11-15. Some examples of things that could make a person unclean

Eating bacon or shrimp (Leviticus 11)

Having a baby (Leviticus 12) [This one make sense]

Sex or menstruation (Leviticus 15)

Having a skin infection (Leviticus 13) 

Touching a grave (Numbers 19)

Sitting on a chair an unclean person used (various)

When someone was unclean, they were restricted from God and His people. They couldn’t come into the presence of the temple. If they refused to go through the various washings and rituals required to become clean they would be cut off from their people entirely. Before we go back into answering this question about “does following Christ make you more of a sinner”, put yourself into the shoes of the audience of Paul’s letter, try and feel what they’re feeling right now. Think about everything you’d have to do each day to avoid falling into uncleanliness and being restricted from your family, from your community and from God

Now think about what it would be like to do this for a week straight, how about a month straight? What about if this is how you’ve experienced God for every moment of your life. What if it wasn’t just you following these rules, what if you knew every person in this church followed all these rules as much as they could all the time. How refreshing! I can trust that you won’t make me unclean. Now think about what it would mean for a bunch of strangers to flood into our church and we know for a fact that they’ve been filthy and unclean every single day of their lives. Not only would it be hard to accept them with open arms into our church, we’d probably feel a lot more comfortable if they had their own set of chairs. This is what a Jew means by calling someone a “sinner.” Someone without the Law who doesn’t even try to keep it and therefore is constantly unclean and before Christ, they were restricted and unable to worship God. This is what the Galtian churches were going through. These people aren’t being deceived by the Judaizers because they’re stupid, they’re being deceived because the legalism of following the law is comfortable and familiar to them, and the thought of joining together to worship and eat with all of these unclean Gentiles or sinners is really difficult, uncomfortable and unfamiliar.

Looking at the argument in verse 17 again, it makes a bit more sense now, Even if we know that it’s impossible to be justified by following the Law, if putting our faith in Christ instead causes us to more frequently break the very law that God gave His people so that we act no different than the Gentile sinners that have offended God for thousands of years, wouldn’t that make Jesus a “servant of sin?” Wouldn’t that mean that Jesus’s redemptive work is actually encouraging lawbreaking and sinning?

Did God change? Did He previously require separation and cleanliness and now no longer requires it? This is the essence of the Judaizers question. Short answer: “Certainly Not!” Nothing about Jesus’s work encourages sin. This is true of any doctrine you hear. Any teacher whose teaching leads you to believe that more sin in your life is acceptable or good has missed the point. When Paul addresses a different false doctrine in Romans 3 that encourages Christians to sin more, he says about those false teachers “their condemnation is just.” We know the short answer, but Paul gives us even more details in the next verse.

Galatians 2:18 (ESV) — 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 

There are plenty of reasons God gave the Law to His people even if it wasn’t ultimately to save us, but that comes up later, in chapter 3. But one thing the law did very well was stand as a big sign that points out our sin. The mere fact that it’s impossible to keep the Law perfectly your whole life is a big red flashing neon arrow that points at you and declares “sinner” or “transgressor.” If we put our faith in Jesus for justification and He gives to us His righteousness and declares us justified and knocks down that big sign, then we go back to building up the same exact sign in an attempt to live out righteousness it just points again to our failings

This is why it’s important for us to realize that faith in Jesus Christ is giving up on our goodness and

Giving up on Goodness means giving up on being good enough

Some of us see the gap between ourselves and righteousness and realize it’s too big for us to cross. Our own sin and failures drive us to recognize we’re not righteous and we need Jesus. If being righteous is jumping to the roof, we’ve gotten the best ladder we can find but we still need a boost. Jesus is the final step only, Jesus is the big extendo-grip in the sky

If you’ve ever slipped into that mindset, you’ve completely missed the point of the Gospel. Righteousness isn’t jumping to the roof, it’s jumping to the moon and we’re not just woefully inadequate at jumping, we’re a corpse that can’t get off the ground. There’s a popular phrase and bumper sticker out there “God is my copilot.” It means that wherever I’m trying to get to, when I forget the way or mess up, God steps and redirects me to make it right in the end. That message is nonexistent in scripture

A favorite quote I’ve heard, not from the original author but it’s still great, “God is not your copilot; God is the pilot. You’re not up in the cabin, you’re in the back on a stretcher” – Jared C Wilson (probably)

When the Bible says you can’t make it to righteousness on your own, it’s not because you got to 90% but you need Jesus for that last 10%, it’s because you’re stuck at 0% as a spiritually dead, corpse. Only by the grace of God do dead things come back to life. The first step to righteousness is realizing that 90% of the way that you think you have is less than 0%. In order to be saved you have to give up on being good enough.

I heard a powerful testimony from a man in our church recently that I got permission to share today because it paints the perfect picture about what I’m talking about.  This man shared his testimony at the monthly event our counseling ministry puts on called “Walk the Talk.” It’s a wonderful event, I’ve loved every one I’ve been able to attend. In this past month’s event we were addressing how to minister to someone in the throws of substance abuse, alcoholism or drug abuse. The speaker was sharing his testimony about his struggles in life battling drug abuse and the various ups and downs that God put him through. As he described this testimony about his physical struggles with addiction I couldn’t help but recognize how God had taken this man’s life and somehow painted a beautiful picture of what everyone of us has to go through spiritually to be saved. In his story he shared moments of supposed victory where he was “doing better” or he was “winning” against his addiction, but none of them were true, none of them led to radical life change and none of them truly solved the addiction and sin in his heart. He had hit rock bottom three or four times, each one rockier and further down than the last, he had descended to depths he didn’t know were possible. I couldn’t love any more the words he used to describe the turning point for him. Even as plunged into a yet even lower point of his life, God gave him something. As he describes it, God gave him The gift of desperation

What a beautiful picture. He knew at that moment that he was helpless, that he was as good as dead and that God was going to be his only way out. God wasn’t going to supplement what he had already done for himself God needed him to give up on being good enough and rely solely on God. This man had to experience desperation in a physical way to deal with the physical sickness of his mind and body. But his experience is actually the common experience of everyone who receives faith by grace. We all struggle and fight to be righteous in our own eyes or in the eyes of the world around us and it’s not until God gives us the gift of desperation in our spirit that we realize we can’t do it.

We can’t be good enough, we’re spiritually dead and hopeless and we need God to step in and save us. If you think I’m being dramatic or using over the top language, just look with me at the next two verses:

Galatians 2:19–20 (ESV) — 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

We’re not talking about law abiders and law breakers, we’re talking about people holding on as hard they can to their lives’ work of being good enough compared to people who have died to the law and been reborn into a new life because of Christ’s work.

From the day each of us is born, we’re bound to a standard of righteousness we could never keep because of our sin and therefore we’re bound in guilt to the law. But from the moment we have faith in Jesus Christ as our savior, we’re born again, we start a new life, no longer bound to the law, no longer judged for our sin and failing. Our old life was nailed up on the cross alongside Jesus, that debt is paid already, we have no need to strive to keep the Law any longer. In this new life we’re free from the law. But notice this, church, are we free now to live for ourselves? Are we free to live in rampant sin?

No, read verse 19 again, we died to the law so that we might live to God

We have a new life, but it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Giving up on goodness looks like a new life, not a second chance.

As so often is the case, the only person who explains things better than Paul is Paul. He explains this concept of death in Christ and new life in Colossians 2:

Colossians 2:12–14 (ESV) — 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 

Paul addresses this same point again in the book of Romans, in chapter 7 where he says:

Romans 7:1–6 (ESV) — 1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 

Our goal here isn’t to study Romans 7, but boy could we spend a lot of time there. Good news, VBV Students, stick around with us and we’ll get there eventually in our Romans study. But do you see the same story. The story of how we as believers can’t break the Law of Moses because we’re no longer under that law, we’ve died to it, our penalty has been paid. Instead, we have a new law written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit, infinitely superior to what Paul described as “the written code”

Here’s an example of this new law on our hearts:

What’s the very first commandment for every single believer? Believe and be… baptized Why do you think that’s what comes absolutely first? What is baptism for? It’s a public declaration to the whole world that you’re giving up on being good enough. That your old life is dead, dunked into the water like Jesus was buried in a tomb. But you don’t stay there! You come out again in new life like Jesus rose from the dead

The very first command for all believers is meant to cement this very same idea in our passage in verse 20 in your mind and publicly declare it to everyone around you. Declare it to your church, to your family, to your communities. “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” I don’t know, maybe we can get Kyle to make a big neon sign that says that behind the baptismal, that’d be cool. As a side note from this sermon, if you don’t have this new life, if you’ve been trying to be good enough on your own and you want to stop, you want to give up on being good enough and experience new life in Christ, there’s no better time than right now. Make that decision even now to follow Christ and put your faith in Him and come talk to me or one of the elders after the sermon. If you have a new life in Christ and you’ve never followed that very first step of obedience in a public baptism, then come talk to one of us so we can help you start your first steps in following Christ.

Somehow, on top of all of this beautiful good news of a new life in Christ, verse 20 still isn’t even over. That’s the funny thing about a new life, now you have to live it.

Giving up on goodness looks like Christ living in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. We’re not just freed from death and given new life for ourselves, We’re freed from death and given a new life that Christ lives through us. Like we saw in Romans 7, we’ve died to our marriage to the Law, but no we have a new groom, we are the bride of Christ and we have a new commitment. We stop living by law, and we start living by faith.

Look at verse 21, if there was any other way for us to hold on to our old life, we wouldn’t need Christ.

Galatians 2:21 (ESV) — 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. 

Christ’s death was the only way for you to receive righteousness, the only way for you to get this new life in Christ was for your old life to die with Him. This is the part where we get to be uncomfortable in our seats for a second.

The Mosaic law is not really a big deal around here. There are some that might argue with you about keeping a Sabbath or maybe even giving up bacon, but most of us don’t struggle with that.

Most of us don’t struggle with the part about dying to the Law. You don’t think scripture would ever let you off that easily, would you?

Churches are machines that run on rule following and legalism, Why are we so attracted to that? Because it gives us two things we crave. Legalism gives us a list of rules to follow that are easy to understand. And! Legalism gives you a measuring stick to compare yourself to others. Both to unbelievers and other believers. Boy, do churches love easy rules they can use to compare to others.

Living by faith, living in Christ doesn’t give us either of those things, it’s a lot tougher, a lot messier, take something simple like going to church. Surely, we should all go to church, we shouldn’t forsake the gathering! Some days living in Christ looks like turning down a job to go to church on Sunday. Some days living in Christ looks like skipping church to go on a men’s retreat, or to help your family, or go on a mission trip, or sometimes it might look like sitting your butt on a couch so you don’t get your brothers and sisters in Christ sick. It never looks like feeling superior to your brother or sister in Christ who didn’t come on Sunday

That’s legalism!

Now, it might look like lovingly reaching out to them to see if they need something, or to encourage them to come on Sunday and find a place to serve and use their gifts. See what I mean? Messy.

Here’s another reason to love legalism: rules are oh so very convenient to bend and twist, Christ isn’t. Rules can reassure us that we’re doing great in the media we consume as long as we’re not going after inappropriate shows, novels or websites. Afterall it’s hard to make rules about where our thoughts go from time to time. Rules say we’re handling marriage well, as long as you act loving to each other, go on a few dates, you’re not yelling at or abusing each other. You can’t really write a rule about whether you’re joyfully pursuing your spouse as Christ would, it’s easy to bend the rules and still sinfully feel annoyance or disdain for them. There are lots of great rules about using curse words, about avoiding alcohol, drugs, gambling. We haven’t made a lot of good rules about when “prayer requests” become gossip, about when “don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee” is really just a code for “I let my nastiness out until I have energy to disguise it” or when “a diverse portfolio” becomes an excuse to have faith in a future we’ve made rather than God’s provision.

Living in Christ means we have to put away all our measuring sticks. It means we have to stop being Peter pointing our fingers at John and saying “what about Him.” It means we have to break free of what our habits and culture define as good and start listening to the Holy Spirit. It’s easy to listen to a podcast where your favorite teacher tells you what is right and wrong. It’s a lot more work to spend time in the Bible everyday until God’s word is imprinted on you so you can judge what is right and wrong by His standards.

Living in Christ is messy, it’s uncomfortable at times but there’s one very critical reason it’s worth it. Living in Christ is the only way to get any real, actual ministry done. There are some things I can tell you about your ministry and some things I can’t. Something I can tell you is that every single person listening to me who has put their faith in Jesus Christ and received that free gift of grace isn’t sitting on this earth to get a good worship service and a nice preaching from the church. Everyone of you is given a Spiritual gift from your savior and a mission to use it

I can’t tell you what that gift is for you or what it looks like for you, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job. I can tell you what that looks like if you have the gift of teaching like me. If I was youth leader living by rules instead of the Spirit, that looks like putting together a lesson plan, picking out the funniest stories or the most fun youth group games to attract new listeners, killing myself to come up with the most relevant content that will perk up the listeners ears and make them realize how fun it is to listen to me teach. If I’m a youth leader following the Spirit, letting Christ live through me, that looks like starting every lesson prep on my face, getting out of the way of God’s word. Trusting the Lord will bring whoever needs to hear my teaching, trusting His word will be as relevant as they need each day and resting in the completed work of Christ.

That’s the only time I get any ministry done. You tell me, church. Has the Holy Spirit accomplished some ministry through me tonight? I’ll be honest, I was really hoping someone would say yes

Let’s come back to Galatians, where we’ve called this series AWOL from Grace. The Galatian church was veering from the Grace that God had given them into false Gospels. The term, “Absent Without Leave,” describes soldiers abandoning their posts against orders. So far we’ve described Christians veering into paths of false gospels and self-righteousness but stop here and consider for a moment what the alternative is. To stay at your post, rather than abandoning it, to stay tied to the true Gospel, the true good news that Christ gave you. You stand at your post and you are under orders..You have a job to do, given to you by the King, to make disciples, to use your gifts for the Lord and staying at your post means you follow those orders.

We all have to give up on goodness tonight. If you’re still desperately trying to live your life being good enough you need to give up on being good enough and put your faith in the finished work of Christ alone. If you’ve come to accept Christ already but now you’re back trying to make the most of this second chance, you need to realize that your old life is dead and you’ve been given a new life instead, not a second chance. If you’ve accepted that new life, are you now living as Christ would living in you? Are you taking the steps to obey your Lord and serve Him in the Spirit? There’s no better time to start than tonight, pray with me.