What if...

Galatians 2:17-21

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. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

What if we are found to be sinners? What does that say about Christ? Does that make him a sinner as well, or the servant of sinners? Answer: No.

If I choose to return to sin, it is only I who am to blame. I am the law-breaker, not Christ. It was through God's ultimate law that I died to the legalities of living by a set of rules. I gave up that life in order to fully serve God. I have died to myself, for and with Christ. I no longer live in this flesh, but Christ lives in me. I live by faith now, and this faith does not nullify the grace God has show to me. The very faith I have serves to magnify that grace, because that faith comes through His grace. For if I could achieve righteousness through any means of my own, then Christ has died in vain.

And Christ did not die in vain.

What if we heard messages like this in the church today, instead of the feel good, make much of us sermons that most preach? What if we made much of God and what He has done, instead of ourselves and what we must do? What if we heard messages that pressed us hard to be crucified with Christ, and what it means to count the cost of discipleship, instead of hearing how much God wants to bless us? What if we heard more about what it means to live by faith, and that it might cost us everything? What if we heard messages about the glory and grace of God, not coming because we have earned it through some action of effort. What if we preached more about finding our joy in God and not in circumstance or gifts?

Well, then maybe our preaching might be more like Jesus and Paul's.

And maybe we would be more like the disciples who gave their lives for their Savior.

Oh! No wonder we don't preach like that.