Blake Long

“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
(‭‭Galatians‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

You know you’re justified—made righteous before God—by faith. And you understand the faith you exercise to believe upon Jesus is a gift from God, so that you have no room to boast. You can’t be proud about your accolades, boast about your intelligence, or pat yourself on the back because of your ability to be better. You know your salvation was all of grace, all of God.

And yet, here you find yourself, once more, struggling throughout your day because you can’t seem to get it together. You remind yourself each morning you’re justified by grace through faith, yet you naturally try to be holier by your own efforts. Perhaps you believe God did His part, now you must do the rest.

Believer, this is what Paul’s referring to in the above passage. Are we so foolish to think we become more holy, more Christlike, more sanctified by our own efforts when we didn’t merit salvation that way? We didn’t merit salvation at all! We are only saved by Jesus’ merits!

In the same way, Christian, we won’t become more like Jesus by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps or having a performance mentality. God looks to His Son’s (perfect) performance, not ours. We are declared righteous in the Son. Now, we live holy lives from that declaration! And here’s the key part. We don’t live holy lives by our own strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside us. Yield to the Spirit, not the flesh.

You were saved by grace, and you will be sanctified by grace. And one day—one day soon!—you will be glorified by grace. Amen.