Last Sunday in church we tackled a rough topic found in Galatians 5 … Paul’s phrase “fallen from grace” in verse 4. Paul had been discussing what the believer loses when he abandons grace and goes back to the law. False teachers had invaded the church and were telling them that they were missing something that would make them more spiritual and that was to “add” the law (circumcision in this case) to “grace.” Paul concluded that to do so means we lose our liberty in Christ Jesus, we lose our wealth in Christ Jesus, and we lose our way, concluding that adding legalism to liberty is to “fall from grace.”
Of course, there are many views on what “fallen from grace” means. If you believe as the Calvinists do in eternal security, “fallen from grace” takes on the idea of abandoning grace as your day-to-day experience. If you believe as the Arminians do, it means you forfeit Christ’s work completely and lose salvation.
So, what does “fallen from grace” mean? Well, unfortunately – or maybe fortunately – our little church and my finite understanding of the infinite was unable to settle that question to the satisfaction of the world-wide church. And my personal opinion matters not.
What I do believe – and I think this does matter – is that we stop trying to see how close we can get to the world without losing our salvation (if that’s possible) or without losing the strides we have made in spiritual maturity. I want to stay as close to the center of God’s love and His will for my life as I can. It’s like having an umbrella. When it’s raining, we stay close to the center of that umbrella so that we don’t get dampened by the storms. We certainly don’t hold that umbrella at arm’s length so that it only shelters a part of us.
I used that illustration (see the picture) as a reminder. Stay as close to God as possible – don’t hold Him at arm’s length. “…love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” [Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27]
