June 1 – Kingdom Currency (Galatians 3:22-29)

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”(Galatians 3:26-27)

IN WORD:
How do you relate to God? Most people, after being saved by grace through faith, then quickly embark on a hybrid life of faith and legalism. It isn’t that we don’t believe in God, or even that we don’t trust Jesus for salvation; the problem is that our belief is often based on the quality of our works. When we serve God well, we assume He looks on us favorably. When we stumble, we assume He turns His back on us until we repent.
There’s an element of truth in that; we know that God looks with favor on the righteous, and that He disciplines His children who tolerate sin and rebellion in their lives. But in accepting these truths, we often take it a step further: We begin to relate to God on the basis of what we have and haven’t done. We pray with more confidence when we’ve been good, and we serve with more enthusiasm when we’ve been obedient. We forget how dependent we are as children of grace. We begin to base our faith on how well we’ve done rather than how good He is. We begin to think of obedience as a means to stay in His good graces and not as a response to the fact that He has already made us righteous.
We stand holy before God. No, we aren’t righteous in ourselves, but we’ve been clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. We’ve been given a sacred right to speak to the Eternal One about the problems of today. And while we speak, we dare not assume that the quality of our works procured that right. God only accepts one currency in His Kingdom, and there is no exchange rate. Our business with Him must be done only with the currency of faith.

IN DEED:
What currency do you try to pass off in the Kingdom of God? Is it ever anything other than faith in the righteousness of Jesus Himself? If so, remind yourself daily: Only Jesus is acceptable to God — for prayer, for ministry, for anything. And we are only “in Jesus” by faith.

“Ultimately, faith is the only key to the universe.”
-Thomas Merton-