“But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.”
(Galatians 2:17–19, ESV)
In life, every one serves something and someone. Serving a thing is quite a foolish endeavor. Years ago, I decided to rebuild a motorcycle. It was a 1977 Harley-Davidson Iron-Head. I spent months working on the bike to get it running and rideable. These Iron-Heads were produced during the AMF years and were known for having quality, design, and reliability issues. Some said to me that for every hour you rode one you needed to spend ten-hours in maintenance, which was only a slight exaggeration.
In time I got the bike running. I spent a lot of money and time rebuilding and then repairing it. In a sense I became a servant of the motorcycle. How foolish it is to become a servant of a thing. There is a higher way.
Paul had been contending with the teaching of Judaizers that without works of the law no person could be justified before God. In this letter, he made many poignant statements. Here he stated that if in an effort to be justified by faith in Christ they were sinners, then Christ would be a servant of sin. This could hardly be the case. Christ was a servant of righteousness.
Moreover, in this context, Paul made this bold statement and vital statement. Paul indicated that he “died to the law” in order that he “might live to God.” Paul had a higher calling. Formerly, Paul understood that he needed to follow the law in order to justify himself before God. In essence he became a slave to the law. Yet under grace he died to the law, not being a slave to is, and answered a higher call. Now he would be a servant of the living God.
One of the arguments of the legalists historically has been that people under grace can do what ever they want and that this leads to loose-living, that is transgression. However, this is not seen in practice.
In practice, we see that people who are truly born again have answered a higher calling. Thus, they recognize that they are to live to God and not anything else. This higher calling moves people to extraordinary heights. They seek not to stay within the external constraint for righteousness, but to pursue the righteousness of God.
Staying with in constraints is good and necessary for the lawless. Yet believers in Jesus have an inner drive to pursue our higher calling, that is to serve the living God. The result is a radically different life than we had before. Rather than just avoiding being bad we pursue the greater righteousness of God. Rather than trying in an impossible effort to meet some form of minimal standards of acceptance, we realize that by grace we are accepted. Moreover, in this light, we strive for the righteousness of the one who saved us in, not just word, but also in deed.
Like Paul stated, “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.” He lived to serve God for the glory of God. In the same way, every one of us as believers formerly served something. It may have been material things, human philosophies, or religious systems. However, when we were saved by grace through faith, we entered into a higher call that has set us on a higher path, the pursuit of God and His righteousness.
Renewing the Heart 