Foolish Confidence
Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary
Scripture Text: Galatians 3:3 and Psalm 49:5-13
Series: Comments on Galatians
No wonder Paul used the word “foolish.” And that was being nice. So many other words could have been used to describe people who traded God’s grace for their own efforts. Ask yourself what you would rather depend upon: faith in God’s grace or faith in your deeds. The choice seems clear at first but it is difficult to carry through. Soon enough, you will be telling yourself, “This can’t be it. There must be something more, something I have to do.” Then you will begin building a temple to the flesh. The priest of that temple will promise you the religious feelings you crave, as long as you keep your focus upon your efforts instead of upon God. We see how inherently wrong this approach is but we fall for it because we desire the foolish confidence that our efforts sometime bring. Faith does not always bring the emotion we are looking for, so we turn to something that does. Instead, we should be turning to God. Anything else is just foolish.
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Rev. Dr. Mark E. Ryman has served as Pastor for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, NC, since 2021. Previously, Pastor Ryman served congregations in North Carolina and Ohio, as well as a call to specialized ministry with Sola Publishing.
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