ALIENS IN CHURCH:CUT OFF FROM CHRIST

           ALIENS IN CHURCH: CUT OFF FROM CHRIST

I am the true

vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

² Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.{John 15:1-2}

 ⁴I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. {Galatian 5:4 MSG}

The nation, Israel who were originally engrafted in Christ were cut off because of their unbelief. They couldn’t bear fruits of righteousness because they were trying to do it on their own. God had to cut them off. Only those Israelites who had faith are left still engrafted. We who were not part of Christ were engrafted into Him because we believed. We trusted God to make us righteous. Their unbelief took them out and our belief brought us in. It was through their fall that salvation came to us Gentiles. God did it to provoke them to jealousy so that they will value the righteousness gift of Christ.

                    

¹¹ I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

¹² Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?

¹³ For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

¹⁴ If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

¹⁵ For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

¹⁶ For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷ And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

¹⁸ Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. {Romans 11:11-18}

Now that we have been engrafted in by faith, we must also stand in by faith. It is only by faith that we both partake of the fatness of the root, both Jews and Gentiles. It makes no difference our race or nationality. If we can all have faith, we would all be engrafted in Christ and partake of the fatness of the olive tree. If a sinner repents today and puts his faith on Jesus, he becomes partakers with us in the same olive tree. There is no difference at all. Faith is all that matters.

 ²⁵ But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

²⁶ For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁷ For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

²⁹ And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. {Galatians 3:26-28}

Because the root is Holy, we are also holy. The righteous tree always produces righteous branches and fruits. We are not struggling to be righteous, we are already righteous by reason of our root, Christ Jesus. We therefore cannot boast of self-righteousness neither can we look down on those who were cut off because of unbelief. To start boasting will be to start thinking that we got righteous because we are good enough. It means we have removed our eyes from Jesus and are now gazing on ourselves. It means we are now putting confidence in the flesh and this can cut us off again.

¹⁹ Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

²⁰ Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

²¹ For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

²² Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

²³ And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.

²⁴ For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

²⁵ For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

²⁶ And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

²⁷ For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

²⁸ As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.

²⁹ For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

³⁰ For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

³¹ Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

³² For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

³³ O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

³⁴ For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

³⁵ Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?

³⁶ For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.{Romans 11:19-36}

Dear friends, we must be careful not to boast in self -righteousness. It is by grace that we are saved and made part of Christ. Let no man ever think that he is standing by his own ability else he will fall. A self-righteous man will always fall.

¹² Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. {1 Corinthians 10:12}

 ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. {Galatians 5:4 NIV}

Did you see that? Alienated? You become isolated, lose the support and sympathy of Christ once you depend on obedience to the law for righteousness. There are so many aliens in church today who think they are standing by keeping the Ten Commandments, not knowing that they have been cut off from Christ. They have become foreign and unfamiliar to Christ. They are like beings from another world and Christ doesn’t know them. They are doing so many great things in His name though He knows them not.

Note that they didn’t fall from grace because of smoking, drinking, fornicating, adultery, lying or any other such thing that we call sin. They fell from grace because of trying to be self-righteous. If they have committed any of the sins mentioned above or whatever we regard as sin, then the grace of God would have made up for them because where sin increases, grace increases much more. They would have still been righteous because of their faith in Christ Jesus as their righteousness-Gift. But you see, they don’t have faith in Jesus Christ as their righteousness, so they depend on self-righteousness instead of depending on grace. Hence they fall from grace and Christ’s death no longer benefits them anything. This is what the bible called wilful sinning after knowing the truth.

²⁶ If anyone sins deliberately by rejecting the Savior after knowing the truth of forgiveness, this sin is not covered by Christ’s death; there is no way to get rid of it. ²⁷ There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible punishment of God’s awful anger, which will consume all his enemies. ²⁸ A man who refused to obey the laws given by Moses was killed without mercy if there were two or three witnesses to his sin. ²⁹ Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled underfoot the Son of God and treated his cleansing blood as though it were common and unhallowed, and insulted and outraged the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to his people.{Hebrews 10:26-29 TLB}

The passage says to sin deliberately means to reject the Saviour after knowing the truth of forgiveness. If you reject the grace of God and return to the law, it is a deliberate sin and such a sin is not covered by Christ’s death and cannot be gotten rid of. Because you don’t believe in grace, forgiveness and the gift of righteousness, what awaits you is a fearful expectation of judgement. You insulted and outraged the Holy Spirit. You trampled underfoot the son of God and treated the cleansing blood as common and unholy. You think the blood of Christ is not effective enough to make you righteous, so you trusted more in rule keeping than in the grace of God. You frustrated God’s grace and returned to the law. Hence you were cut off and God no longer has pleasure in you.

The kingdom of God was taken from those who depended on the law for righteousness and has been given to those who depend on faith in Christ for righteousness. By this faith we possess the kingdom and bear fruits of righteousness which the Pharisees and the chief priests could not bear.

⁴³ “And so I tell you,” added Jesus, “the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce the proper fruits.” ^44 [b]

⁴⁵ The chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables and knew that he was talking about them, ⁴⁶ so they tried to arrest him. But they were afraid of the crowds, who considered Jesus to be a prophet.{Matthew 21:43-46 GNT}

For those of you who are still standing firm on God’s grace by faith, you must keep trusting Him, never lose your faith if you don’t want to be cut off from Christ. You are righteous by faith.

³⁵ Do not let this happy trust in the Lord die away, no matter what happens. Remember your reward! ³⁶ You need to keep on patiently doing God’s will if you want him to do for you all that he has promised. ³⁷ His coming will not be delayed much longer. ³⁸ And those whose faith has made them good in God’s sight must live by faith, trusting him in everything. Otherwise, if they shrink back, God will have no pleasure in them.

³⁹ But we have never turned our backs on God and sealed our fate. No, our faith in him assures our souls’ salvation.{Hebrews 10:35-39 TLB} 

  

A man who stands on grace can never fall. Such a man has faith in Christ as His righteousness. And Christ is able to keep us from falling when we believe in Him and not on ourselves. He is the vine, we are the branches. Without Him we will fall. He is our foundation, The Rock upon which we stand. He is The Root, The Grace upon which we stand.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: ² By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.{Romans 5:1-2}

If we can abide in Him, then we will have confidence on the day of judgement and we shall not be put to shame.

²⁸ And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. {1 John 2:28}

If anyone will have faith, such a one will be grafted into the olive tree again. Even Israel shall be grafted in again if they abide not in unbelief. Some of you took your faith away from Christ long ago and started trusting in your ability to keep laws. You didn’t even know that you were cut off from Christ long ago. I dare you to return to Him in faith. Trust Him to be your righteousness. Stop depending on yourself. He is ready to graft you in again. There is enough space in the olive for anyone who would have faith in Christ as their righteousness. You can decide now by faith and you will be engrafted again as a branch of the true vine.

 MAY GOD GRANT YOU UNDERSTANDING!

THE VINE AND HIS BRANCHES

THE VINE AND HIS BRANCHES

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

² Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

³ Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

⁵ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.{John 15:1-5}

Jesus is the vine and we are His branches. We cannot bear fruits without Him. We cannot be righteous without Him. He is our righteousness as long as we are part of Him. To abide in Him means to have faith in Him, to trust in Him.

²³ And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴ Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,^[a] and God^[b] in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.{1John 3:23-24 ESV}

 He alone can take away our sins. Once we take our trust away from Him and put it on ourselves, we become cut off from Him.

⁴I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. {Galatian 5:4 MSG}

Once we become cut off from Christ, we fall from grace and to fall from grace means you are no longer saved. We are only saved by grace and without grace there is no salvation. No man can have eternal salvation by himself.

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast. {Ephesians 2:8-9}

We must have faith in Christ to be saved by grace. Trust in Him alone for without Him we can do nothing. We remain saved as long as we abide in Him. If we become cut off from Him due to self- righteousness, then we can never survive. The branches have to be attached to the vine in order to survive and bear fruits. The branches have got no root of their own and so dies off once cut off from the vine. Therefore the life of the branch is from the vine and without the vine the branch has got no life. Only in Him can we find life. To have Him is to have life and to lose Him is to lose life.

¹¹ And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

¹² He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. { 1John 5:11-12}

If we believe in Him as our righteousness then we are justified. If we believe not in Him but on our works of righteousness, we are condemned.

¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. {John 3:18}

I know someone may be saying; but I believe in Jesus. Yes what do you believe Him for? If you still think that you will make heaven by your works of righteousness based on your ability, then I ask you again, what do you believe Him for?

He said “without me you can do nothing” and truly the branch can do nothing outside the vine. We must stay connected to the vine and draw from His life. He alone has roots deep enough to reach the waters beneath the soil. All our nutrients come from the root, Christ the foundation. We would wither without Him. He supplies us with life not only from beneath but also from above. He is the sun we need to survive and bear fruits unto righteousness.

¹¹ May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ^[b]—for this will bring much glory and praise to God{Philippians 1:11 NLT}

 Brothers and sisters, notice that the fruits of righteousness are produced in our lives by Jesus Christ. He alone can produce such fruits. We cannot produce fruits of righteousness by ourselves. I have heard a lot of preachers stressing that we must bear fruits and they emphasize on our works of righteousness as the fruits we have to bear. They even preach from the same passage in Philippians chapter one but they fail to note that it is by Christ Jesus that the fruits are born. We must abide and trust in Him so that the fruits can reflect from us for men to see and glorify God. Once again, the glory goes to God not us. We didn’t produce the fruits by ourselves. He did it for us.  A righteous tree must bring forth righteous fruits. He is the sun that shines on us from above to produce the righteous fruits. That sun of righteousness.

² But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.{Malachi 4:2}

We can only grow when He shines on us. Not only is He our sun of righteousness but also our righteousness rain. As we seek Him, he rains down righteousness on us. Without His sun and rain we would die in unrighteousness.

¹² Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. {Hosea 10:12}

 We therefore must remain engrafted in Him. We got engrafted into Him when we believed in Him as our only source of righteousness and we began to bear fruits through Him. If we then now remove our faith from Him as the only source of righteousness, we will stop bearing fruits and any branch that doesn’t bear fruits will be cut off by the husbandman who is God the father.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

² Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.{John 15:1-2}

 The nation, Israel who were originally engrafted in Christ were.......??.to be continued

OUR STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

OUR STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

It is no news that many churches today are in a struggle for righteousness. Everybody is trying to keep rules and regulations just to appear righteous before God. They think that by keeping the laws of Moses, they will be declared righteous by God. Some unbelievers and atheist think that if they are able to do a lot of good works then they will appear good enough before God. You would probably have heard someone say stuffs like “I am not a bad person. I don’t drink, I don’t steal, I don’t fornicate, I help people all the time, I even visit the orphanage often, and so on and so forth. I don’t think I need your Jesus. I am already a good person” You see when unbelievers make such statements, they are simply thinking that one can become righteous by struggling to do many good things. They don’t know that such righteousness they get by their efforts is not regarded by God. They are pure only in their own eyes even though in God’s eyes they are still filthy.

                           

¹² There is a class of people who are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their own filth. {Proverbs 30:12 AMP}

Again you see people who claim to be believers boasting in their credentials. You hear them make statements like “ I am righteous because I paid my tithes complete, I fast and pray three times every week, I was born in church, got baptized at age six, I started singing in the choir at a very tender age, I don’t fornicate, I don’t commit adultery, I’ve been a prayer warrior from my youth, the list goes on and on” When people boast like this before me, the first thing that comes to my mind is that “this one doesn’t know what God’s righteousness is”  He is simply ignorant of God’s righteousness and therefore confuses self- righteousness for God’s righteousness. All such boastings have led to the “holier than thou” attitudes making some Christians look down on others.

Yet they say to each other, ‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!’ These people are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away. {Isaiah 65:5 NLT}

 They go as far as grading righteousness and saying this person is more righteous than that person. What an ignorance! No Christian can be more righteous than another Christian since God’s righteousness is not earned by our abilities. And the truth is that a greater percentage of today’s Christians think they can earn God’s righteousness and so labour so hard in trying to look righteous before God. They are all in a struggle for righteousness. Until they realize the truth they will keep struggling in vain. This is what God’s word says about all those who are in a struggle for righteousness:

 ²⁰ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. {Romans 3:20 NIV}

To attempt to become righteous by struggling to keep the law is to be cut off from Christ. You fall away from grace when you think you can become righteous by your own religious plans and projects. You think you are trying to please God not knowing you are cutting yourself off from Christ and rejecting His grace. Christ therefore will profit you nothing if you depend on your labour to become righteous.

^2-3 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. {Galatians 5:2-3 MSG}

^4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love. {Galatians 5:4-6 MSG}

²¹ I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing! {Galatians 2:21 GNT}

There is enough evidence in the bible to show that all such struggles for righteousness by works will amount to nothing. Nobody can ever be put right with God via the works of law. This is how Paul puts it:

¹¹ But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. {Galatians 3:11}

We must learn a lesson from the nation Israel, God’s chosen people. They went about struggling to be righteous by themselves but never attained it. They thought that meticulous adherence to religious rituals and the laws of Moses could make them righteous. They were just as ignorant as many Christians today. Let’s see what happened to them despite all their efforts.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

² For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

³ For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

⁴ For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. {Romans 10:1-4}

You see, Israel did not submit to God’s righteousness because they thought they could be righteous by themselves. They were trying to make themselves good enough to gain God’s favour by keeping the Jewish laws and customs. They didn’t know that that is not God’s way of salvation. They refused God’s way of putting people right with Himself and cling to their own way of keeping laws, thinking that was going to work. They didn’t understand God’s ways of accepting people as righteous.

The truth is that just like most of us, they were sincerely in search of righteousness. They had a genuine zeal to be righteous but it was not according to knowledge.  They were so enthusiastic and desired to honour God but their zeal was misdirected. Similarly most Christians today, out of zeal and a desire to please God, are in a struggle for righteousness by trying so hard to keep the laws of Moses. They love God, yes! But they are ignorant of God’s way of making people righteous. How then does God declare people righteous?

 ²¹ But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses^[i] and the prophets long ago. ²² We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. {Romans 3:21-22 NLT}

Dearly beloved, I want you to understand that the way to pleasing God has been revealed. It is by faith in Christ alone. It is not by being good enough and trying to keep His laws but by trusting Christ to take away our sins and show us the way to heaven. He is the way to heaven. No man will ever get to heaven without passing through Christ. It is by our faith in Him that we are declared righteous. To struggle to be righteous by ourselves is to attempt to enter heaven through a window. Only a thief passes through the window. If you are a legitimate Christian then you must pass through Christ. He is the Door.

All your zeal that was misdirected to struggling to keep laws must now be properly channelled to trusting in Christ by faith. Only then can you become righteous in God’s sight. Your desire should be to know Him more and come into true fellowship, born out of a sincere relationship with Him. Love Him more and have faith in Him, because the righteousness you are struggling to get has already been freely given by God to those who have faith in Christ Jesus. He has fulfilled the law’s requirements for us so that we can stop struggling. He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.

³ What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin. ⁴ God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature.{Romans 8:3-4 GNT}

The Spirit of God in us now helps us to live righteously as we put our faith in Christ. We no longer struggle, flexing our muscles trying to keep God’s laws. We focus on Christ now not on ourselves. We therefore no longer get obsessed with self since it’s no more about what we can do but what Christ has done for us already. No more struggling to be righteous. Let’s drop all our credentials and lean on Christ just like Paul the apostle did.

In conclusion, my friends, be joyful in your union with the Lord. I don't mind repeating what I have written before, and you will be safer if I do so. ² Watch out for those who do evil things, those dogs, those who insist on cutting the body. ³ It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies. ⁴ I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way. ⁵ I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee, ⁶ and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault. {Philippians 3:1-6 GNT}

^7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, first hand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.{Philippians 3:7-9 MSG}

I don’t know how else to convince you that God is no longer interested in your keeping of rules and regulations. The Jewish laws have long been done away with. They were never for us gentiles but for the Jews. Even the Jews who had the laws struggled and couldn’t keep them. They had to abandon the laws after Christ came to help them fulfil the laws. Why are we now struggling with what was never meant for us? Let me shock you with what Paul said when he rebuked Peter’s pretence.

 ¹⁴ When I saw what was happening and that they weren’t being honest about what they really believed and weren’t following the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Though you are a Jew by birth, you have long since discarded the Jewish laws; so why, all of a sudden, are you trying to make these Gentiles obey them? ¹⁵ You and I are Jews by birth, not mere Gentile sinners, ¹⁶ and yet we Jewish Christians know very well that we cannot become right with God by obeying our Jewish laws but only by faith in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And so we, too, have trusted Jesus Christ, that we might be accepted by God because of faith—and not because we have obeyed the Jewish laws. For no one will ever be saved by obeying them.”{Galatians 2:14-16 TLB}

Did you understand what you just read? The Jews have discarded the laws because their struggle to obey them was all to no avail. Paul said no man can be saved by obeying those laws.

I know some of you are afraid and are saying “what if I just have faith in Christ and discover later that faith alone cannot save us? That means we’ve been deceived”. That’s the fear of most Christians. Well I have an answer for you:

¹⁷ But what if we trust Christ to save us and then find that we are wrong and that we cannot be saved without being circumcised and obeying all the other Jewish laws? Wouldn’t we need to say that faith in Christ had ruined us? God forbid that anyone should dare to think such things about our Lord. ¹⁸ Rather, we are sinners if we start rebuilding the old systems I have been destroying of trying to be saved by keeping Jewish laws, ¹⁹ for it was through reading the Scripture that I came to realize that I could never find God’s favor by trying—and failing—to obey the laws. I came to realize that acceptance with God comes by believing in Christ. {Galatians 2:17-19 TLB} 

Did you notice in verse 18 that you only become a sinner if you return to the law system? If you start rebuilding the old Jewish laws system and struggle to obey them, then you become a sinner. It shows that you don’t believe in what Jesus has already done for us and that makes you an unbeliever. Please don’t try to resurrect what Christ already buried.

Dearly beloved, go all out for God and not for religious rules. Do not struggle any more for righteousness. It never worked for anyone and will also not work for you. No man can prevail by the arms of flesh. Stop being a law man. Start being God’s man.

^19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. {Galatians 2:19-21 MSG}

Stop struggling, start believing!

¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. {John 3:18}

²⁴ “I am telling you the truth: those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged, but have already passed from death to life.{John 5:24 GNT}

 ACCEPT JESUS TODAY BY FAITH AND BE SAVED.