Repentance & Grace - Galatians 6:1


Galatians 6:1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

This verse is loaded and God spoke to me through His word about repentance and grace. The first challenge in this verse is for us to look at someone else: a person caught in sin. A sinner and I am, we are all sinners. No one is perfect not even one as Romans 3:10 reminds me. Sin is one of the things we all have in common. We all need to remember to be in this humble position as a brother or sister who is only where he or she is by Jesus’s love, righteousness and grace. Remembering this fact may make it easier for me to be gentle.

The second challenge focuses on us as individuals. Looking at myself, hopefully living in the moment by the Spirit, prayerfully dependent on grace, there is the opportunity for me to restore that person gently. If I have been forgiven I need to forgive. If I have received truth I need to share the truth. If I have Jesus I need to share Jesus. I have been restored by Jesus, I am again and again being restored by Jesus. Jesus is in the business of reconciliation and I should be too, whether I have upset someone or whether someone has upset me. This includes Jade, one of IGNITE Interns or PFM Staff. In doing so we will be allowing Jesus to miraculously restore loving relationships and become reconciled to Him together.

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is life in the power of Jesus and in His Spirit’s Power, and it is only this that can produce repentance. Love begins with love. God first loved. Chrits’s love compels. First be right with God before making it right with others. I need to step into Jesus before stepping on others. I may be wrong even if I am right.

But then there is a warning to watch oneself or one may be tempted. I sometimes fall because I am tempted to think I am better than others, which is pride. In some cases, I might think that I could not sin in the way that another person has, but it is possible that I could sin in in exactly the same way as I see others sinning. We know that all things are common to man, as Corinthians 10:13 states. Jesus stops me falling into sin when my focus is on Him.

Application: I will seek Jesus first in conflicts and be prayerful. These may be only small battles but it is training for larger challenges. Specifically, Jade and I will pray about the present and future ministry God maybe calling us to.

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