Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. – Galatians 6:15

Today's Scripture Reading (March 1, 2021): Galatians 6

It was a moment of honesty. He was worried about his future. The problem was that there was sin in his life. Oh, the worst of it was in the distant past. But that didn't really matter. How was it that he could ever make up for all the wrong that he knew he had done? And what made matters even worse is that he understood from his Bible study that if you break one law, then you have broken them all. James had written precisely that to the early church. "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10). It didn't matter which law you broke, break one law, and you might as well have shot someone on main street. In the eyes of God, you were guilty.

Of course, that is why we need Jesus. But, for many people, he is just too easy an out. Indeed there has to more to it than repenting from our sins and accepting Jesus as our Savior. It has to be more complicated.

And maybe that is because there are many long-time Christians who want it to be more complicated. They want to argue that you have to follow the rules and go to church and get your twenty-year perfect attendance ribbon. You can't drink or smoke if the church prohibits that behavior. You must do everything that elders decree, and just maybe then, you will be worthy of Jesus. I know we would never phrase it that way, but essentially that is what we are meaning. Musician Steve Taylor summed up our dependence on the rules of the Christian Church when he wrote "I Want to Be a Clone" in the early 1980s.

So now I see the whole design
My church is an assembly line
The parts are there
I'm feeling fine
I want to be a clone

I've learned enough to stay afloat
But not so much I rock the boat
I'm glad they shoved it down my throat
I want to be a clone (Steve Taylor, 1982)

Paul's argument is circumcision is meaningless, the law itself is pointless. None of what went before is important. All that matters is that God has done something new in your life. If that is true, if God has created something new in your life, then all of the old falls away. Nothing you can do can make that happen, only a work of God. And nothing that you do can impede that process. It is not in your hands, but God's. And maybe that is the real problem because we want to be the primary mover in our lives. But there is only one primary mover in our world, and it is not us. It is God. And all the rule-keeping in the world can't change that one fact.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Acts 20