Rescued!

I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.” But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:5, 12-14 New Living Translation (NLT) Most of us try to be good. Some attempt to be self-righteous, claiming to follow every command while comparing their own behavior to the ways of other people they deem worse than themselves. However, it doesn't work that way. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). Claiming self-righteousness is also breaking God's law. We all fall short of God's glory in one way or another because we live in a fallen world where evil is allowed to exist for now. Even our hearts and minds betray us. God knew the temptations we would face and the obstacles that we would encounter in obeying His commands. So He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to our rescue. He, who was without sin, died for ours. He rescued us from the curse under which we lived from our fall into sin. He reconciled us to our Holy Father. He paid our debt and purchased our souls with His blood. He allows us to stand in His righteousness before God and He intercedes for us. When we put our hope and trust in what Christ did for us and follow Him, we receive the Holy Spirit to help us live in this fallen world with the promise of eternal life in the Kingdom of God. We can now walk by faith and not what we see. How do we repay Him for rescuing us from the certain death of sin? Believe Him. Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit. 1 Peter 3:18 NLT