I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?
Galatians 3:2 (NIV)

I was a dormitory Resident Assistant (RA) through most of my college years. Being an RA came with the responsibility of checking on residents, making sure everyone was out for fire drills or fire alarms, doing room inspections, and making sure everyone was in by curfew. For these few responsibilities, I got my own room.

During my first year as an RA, I remember some stark differences in how other members of the team handled the rules. There was this one guy, in particular, who was rabid in enforcing the “letter of the law.” If a person was one second past curfew they were in trouble. He demanded that rooms be immaculate to pass inspection. He seemed to enjoy finding ways to catch rule breakers and punish them. As you can imagine, he quickly gained the reputation of being the worst RA in the dorm. No one wanted to live on his floor.

I have always generally been a rule follower, but I was a “spirit of the law” kind of guy as an RA. I figured that room inspections were intended to make sure nothing nasty was growing and no health hazards were being incubated. Likewise, when a guy came sprinting into the dorm a few minutes past curfew, I figured he was at least conscious enough of the rule to actually run back to the dorm. I let it slide.

In today’s chapter, Paul addresses the crux of a conflict that plagued the early years of the Jesus Movement. It’s about the rules God gave Moses and the Hebrew people after delivering them from Egypt. Known simply as “the Law,” there were those within the Jesus Movement who insisted that a person could not be a follower of Jesus without first being obedient to all the rules of the Law. God had already made clear to Peter, to Paul, and to the rest of the Apostles that non-Jewish Gentiles did not have to adhere to the Law to believe in Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, rabid rule-keepers like my RA friend had visited the local gatherings of Jesus’ followers in Galatia and started insisting otherwise.

Paul does not mince words. He calls his Galatian friends fools for being influenced by the rule-keeping tyrants. Salvation, Paul points out, is about simply believing. This isn’t a new concept. Paul goes all the way back to the “father” of the Jewish people, Abraham. Abraham “believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Rule-keeping doesn’t produce righteousness. In fact, rule-keeping only results in proving that I’m imperfect. When religion becomes about rule-keeping it always results in powerful hypocrites tyrannizing weak followers in keeping up appearances of rule-keeping perfection.

Father Abraham, Paul argues, was the prototype that superseded the law. Abraham simply believed God and did what God told him. Abe was credited with righteousness, not by keeping rules but by believing and responding out of that belief. Because Jesus’ died for sin and rose from the dead, the tyranny of rule-keeping and the Law is over. The Abraham paradigm has been firmly established once and for all. As Paul would write to the believers in Rome: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself reflecting on some of the more fundamentalist experiences I’ve had along my spiritual journey. The tyranny of rule-keeping continues to be a pillar of fundamentalist groups and cults. You can find several documentaries about such groups streaming on your favorite platform. A form of the core issue Paul is addressing in today’s chapter is still with us. The “letter of the law” paradigm seems so simple, It’s so black-and-white, and it provides an easy-to-understand framework of behavior. And, it is typically accompanied by rabid letter-of-the-law tyrants to police the behaviors and punish the rule-breakers.

The “spirit of the law” paradigm of Abraham and Jesus gets rather messy at times. It requires me to believe. Not just a mental acknowledgment, but believing in such a way that I am motivated to think, speak, and act out of that belief. I am compelled to do so by the love of Jesus, who sacrificed Himself for my sin. It’s not about guilt but about gratitude. It’s not rule-keeping but responding to Jesus’ kindness. Righteousness isn’t earned, it’s credited.

That makes all the difference.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.