Galatians 5:4
You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
What is the grace of God? Simply put, the grace of God is God blessing, healing and delivering you because of Jesus. The grace of God is His unearned, unmerited and undeserved favor toward you simply because of Jesus’ finished work at the cross. Because God’s grace is based on Jesus’ work and not yours, the only way you fall from this grace is by believing that you can earn, merit and deserve it through your own obedience and good works. For example, you fall from grace when you say things like, “God will answer my prayer because I have prayed for three hours straight.” You also fall from grace when you think that because you are serving in church or you have kicked a bad habit, God is pleased with you and He will bless you because of it.
When you think that it is by your own efforts and obedience that you receive God’s blessings, you become like the Pharisees. They believed that their law-keeping justified them and ensured that God would bless them. But the truth is that when you believe like them, “you have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace”. This means that you are cut off from Christ, who is your salvation, Redeemer, healer and provider. Christ has become of no effect to you!
Surely you would want Christ to be of effect to you. People to whom Christ is of effect receive from Him the miracle they need. When He is of effect to them, He is their healer and they get healed. He is their wisdom and they are wise before man. He is their good success and they experience good success in all that they do.
In order for Christ to always be of effect to you and to never nullify the grace of God operating in your life, just remember and believe that it is because of Christ and His finished work – His blood, His stripes, His death, His obedience – that you are justified, healed and blessed!
