You may remember back in June 2023, I wrote in “The Great Second Chance,” about Apostle Paul and his prowess as a writer. He’s rarely mentioned amongst the great literary figures in history despite having been credited with writing nearly half of the New Testament.
I became most enamored with Paul’s writing during a study of his epistle, or letter, to the Galatians and became confounded by what he wrote in Galatians 2:16-21, “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.” Why did this perplex me? Because for most of my life I’ve understood that by doing right—right meaning trying to live up to, for instance, the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai for all to live by—I might earn God’s acceptance and gain passage into heaven upon leaving this existence. In Paul’s words having faith in Christ was enough as he emphasized in Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”
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