This Week’s Garbage
Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary
Scripture Text: Galatians 2:16 and Philippians 3:7-11
Series: Comments on Galatians
Anything I have done for Christ is worthless next to what Christ has done for me. My religious acts are as useless as this week’s garbage that I am about to set out to the curb and forget forever. There is however one thing I do many times a day that has some value. Every day, I find myself once again taking Christ by faith. When I doubt, I believe Jesus. When I sin, I receive Christ. He is the only righteousness that I possess. What I daily hold onto has been gifted to me by Christ himself. It is nothing I do or have done or ever will do. All that is trash. So, is my sin. My goodness and my badness are covered in a heap under the shed blood of the Savior.
If you look for any goodness in me, look beneath that cleansing flood. You will not see it with the naked eye but through the eye of faith that sees the blood, not the man. The blood of Jesus, his sacrifice for me, has provided me with a righteousness that is not of my own making. He has given me a share in his sacrifice so that I am now as bloodied as he was once. This is the only way I am considered righteous, and so, may share his resurrection.
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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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