Don’t Forget the Works (Galatians 2:17-21)

Galatians 2:19 But if I am building up those things that I tore down, the. I show myself to be a transgressor. 

Through Jesus’s death, we receive grace for our sins. As Christians we believe that. In the early times, the Jewish people believed you had to live by the Moses Law to receive grace. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus tells us that he came to fulfill the old law, and through his fulfillment, we no longer had to comply with it. The old law included things like sacrifices, males getting circumcised, eating kosher, etc. 

It is easy to get confused on this point when people say that it is not in our good works that we are saved, and we need to only live by faith. This is 100% correct, but the good works in the Bible refers to the old law following. Living by faith requires us to do the work of God by showing his word and living his Word. We are not saved by this, as we know we are saved because of Christ death, but Christ told us to feed his sheep. So we still have to tend to the people who need tending to. And not for rewards or receiving acknowledgement for our deeds. We need to do them from our heart with no self-recognition in mind.

These actions don’t necessarily win us brownie points with God, but I wonder when we get to be in front of Him, and he asks if we tended our sheep, what response would we give? I prayed daily, I went to Mass, I said the Rosary, I accepted Jesus in my heart. “Yes, but did you feed my sheep?” Did I share God’s grace with others? Do I pass along the greatness that he has shown me? I was blessed to be born into a Christian family and know Jesus from the beginning (though yes I had a period where I did not accept him like I should), but am I helping those who did not have that luxury? Am I attending to the poor? Did I feed the hungry? Give water to the thirsty? Clothe the naked? Shelter the homeless? Visit the sick, imprisoned, or captives? Did I help bury the dead?

Jesus’s death on the cross took away all my sins. I still actively seek his forgiveness when I see the walls of sin begin to take form again in my life. And because I know him and his love, and his love is so great, why would I not want to share it with others?