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Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary
Scripture Text: Galatians 2:20 and Mark 9:23-24
Series: Comments on Galatians
It is difficult not to think that I have to do something to merit eternal life. It is made the more complicated because I have been taught by so many preachers and teachers and professors who offered a skewed view of salvation. Most have taught a tradition of men. This is the more problematic since they use the Bible to teach their errors. And it is all the more convoluted because even now, their teaching does not seem to be off by much — but their error is nonetheless enormous in its dangerous subtlety.
All too often, people will say they have salvation because they went forward at the end of a service, or that they prayed a sinner’s prayer, or that they finally got baptized in the correct way. Notice how Jesus is missing from these responses. Or they may even imagine that they must give their lives to Jesus. Yet it is Jesus who gave his life for us. If accepting Jesus is the result of a reasoning process that one goes through to decide whether he is true or not, then one’s ability to reason has been made savior. It really is difficult to imagine that salvation has nothing to do with me — except that it is to me that Jesus offers his righteousness. Lord, I believe but help my unbelief.
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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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