I have just read No Other Gospel, Finding True Freedom in the Message of Galatians. Carol J. Ruvolo is the author. The book includes, at the end of each chapter, questions for group study or private devotions. Mrs. Ruvolo makes the clear distinction between the works righteousness that the Judiazers - a Christian sect of the first century - were trying to blend with the Gospel of grace in Christ. The main problem was that this group was trying to force the Jewish rules about circumcision and other Old Testament laws on the Christians.
Paul makes it clear that this is a false Gospel. We are saved by faith in Christ and cannot earn God's love no matter how hard we try. The purpose of the Old Testament Law was to bring us to Christ. Now that we know Christ by faith, we do not have to live by a system of rules.
If we believe in Christ and have been saved, then we stand fast in the liberty that Christ has given us through His death, burial, and ressurrection.
That is the gist of the book of Galatians in the Bible, and Mrs. Ruvolo did a good job of making it clear that salvation is by faith in Christ, not by works of any kind.
The Law is good, but it's job is to show us our sinfulness and lead us to faith in Christ. Of course, we don't live as lawless people. We live as those who obey God from the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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