What Shall I Render

God has given us victory in Christ over all our fears. God's work in Christ, His love, and His Spirit bring redemption and glory to God in every aspect of our lives, in Christ who reigns for us!

By faith, we can face the facts of our fears, and trust the gospel to allay them.

This life is full of the devastating floods of temptation, sin, and trial, if we are wise, we will dig down to the Bedrock of Christ, Himself, as God, and build our lives upon Him (Psalm 18:2, 31; Luke 6:46-49).

Under the law of sin and death, we find death and condemnation, but under that law of the Spirit of Life, we find freedom from condemnation, the Spirit, life and peace (Rom 8:1-8).

When (baptism) we died to sin, we died to law as that which would condemn us and empower sin over us. We were also at that time (baptism) united to another, Christ Jesus, in order that we might be free indeed! (Jn 8:24, 31-32, 36; Rom 6:1-7, 14; 7:4)

If giving an account of myself to God means God will weigh my good deeds against my bad deeds, how would that be good news?

God did, in His Son, what man in the flesh cannot do. He created a place of freedom from condemnation.

The gospel calls us to more than an awareness of the Kingdom of His Son; it calls us to seek Christ's reign and rule in our hearts and lives.

Under the Law of Christ, we find the justification God grants us by faith in Christ and a new life to live.

Law, as a legal/moral system/principle, has no power to justify the law-breaker/sinner. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the revelation of God's work in the cross which has the functional power to offer justification to those who believe it. In memory of a mentor, Edward C. Wharton, some of this class is recited from his book "Freed for Freedom" (p. 14)

When we fail, we must remind our souls of the nature of our promise keeping God! (Psa 103)

We cannot make up for our sin. What we can do is trust God, Who has offered us His Son. (Jer 10:23; 17:5-10)

No matter how much you can reduce sin, you cannot remove it, yourself!

We need God's justification because righteousness cannot be attained by law-keeping.

God glorifies Himself in His church, because of the great work He has done in Christ to redeem our lives. Even heartaches, weakness, even failures or sins cannot stop Him from being faithful to love us and give us purpose.

The price God paid for us, we could never pay. His redemption of us from the bondage of sin is a great and powerful treasure.

God tells us of the great treasure we have in Christ, so that we are not led astray to value this world over our spiritual treasure!

Ephesians can teach us to treasure what God has given us in Christ above what we see in this world. (cf. Matt 6:19-21)

What we know, expect, and believe about our God is expressed in our prayers.

One of the functions of prayer is to bring us to acknowledge and understand the work of God in His Son, Jesus, our Great High Priest.

Under law, as that which condemns sin, we find only bondage and futility. In order to have freedom and life, we must find and hold to the gospel of Christ and His Promised Spirit for freedom/life (Gal 5, 6).

Jesus can offer us rest (Matt 11:28-30), because He is our Rock, our Refuge, our Salvation. We find and acknowledge to our souls the nature of our God which meets our every need (Psa 62).

Prayer is one way we come to Jesus, and Jesus is the way we get to God. Prayer helps us consider Him above trusting self.

We have more than a physical reality to secure our hearts and spirits. In Christ, we have a spiritual reality that is always encouraging, motivating, and inspiring.

Bondage to sin under law and freedom from sin in Christ are key points of Galatians.