Just a few days ago the trees appeared as though dead; today the branches explode with new life. As suddenly as the buds had arrived their brief, suspended state ended and growth began. Leaves burst out in a day; new life appeared overnight.
Each year I watch diligently to see the leaves developing, yet I am always surprised by their sudden emergence. It seems to me that the leaves should develop slower. It doesn’t seem possible for spring to arrive so fast after the long death that is winter.
When God breathes life back into his creation the results are miraculous. Grace is like that in our lives. When God brings life to a new believer the results are instant and remarkable. But we lose sight of who brings the changes in our spiritual walk. All too often we become practical legalists in our walk with Jesus. We forget Paul’s sharp reproof to the Galatian believers when he posed the following question to them: “Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth among you as crucified? I just want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?” (Galatians 1.1-3 WEB).
I wonder how many of our churches would hear the same questions from the Apostle today. We have taken behavior modification from the psychologists, wrapped it up in a religious veneer, and now sell it as committed Christianity or discipleship. Paul called it foolishness, and he went on to write that it was really no gospel at all!
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