What if I owned an automobile that needed to be taken into the shop at least once a week for servicing? It had some malfunction, which caused it to stall every few days. You would probably tell me that I either needed a new vehicle or a new shop. What if I told you that the shop I took it to every week was called a gas station and the service it received was gasoline? You would obviously have a different attitude since automobiles are designed with a dependency on fuel. All who operate motor vehicles are in constant need for a source of gasoline. To consider filling a tank with premium gas and enjoying peak performance only to later fill the same tank with water and experience engine stall, is to understand the intensity of Paul’s confrontation. “You foolish Galatians…Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” Galatians 3:1-3 The Christian life is designed for constant dependency on Christ as our source. Just as we received the Spirit of God by believing in the finished work of the Cross-, we also must receive power to live out that finished work by faith in the Cross. It is the cross alone for salvation and the cross alone for sanctification. A few degrees away from this truth are enough to throw us entirely off course. God is still calling us to the highest standard of faith, to be a Cross-centered church.
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
1Corinthians 2:2
