Gal. 4:8-11 But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
Leagalism, in all of its various forms, is subtle. Those who bring it in, whether they do so knowingly or unknowingly out of a maturing spiritual nature, are able to cause it to appear so right. It is always masked as obedience and though it claims that it is obedience that will bring us closer to God, it actually causes us to focus instead, upon man and upon ourselves and by doing so, we are drawn away from God. We can even forget who we were when He found us. We can forget His brilliance as we trade walking by the Spirit to walking according to rules, to days, to seasons, to holidays, to requirements of men.
Jesus has been lifted up, high above the world, and crucified. He freed us from the curse of the law which brings death to all who attempt to live by it. When we look to Jesus, we are free from the law and the curse it brings. When we look to Jesus and receive faith, we are rescued from suffering the curse of death as punishment for sin. This is our Salvation that comes through Christ Jesus alone and never by the Law. Neither is law keeping able to preserve our Salvation for Salvation is not of our work whether it be obedient or disobedient, Salvation is a work of God through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Just as the law was not able to save, the law is also not able to sanctify. We begin with Grace for salvation and we are to remain with Grace for our sanctification. The law does not have the power to purify our hearts and can only, at best, be served by outward effort and not inward desire. It is faith in Jesus that purifies our hearts and brings our thinking and our desires in line with the desires of God. For in such manner, Jesus fulfilled the law. Jesus did not strain at outward obedience in an effort to uphold the law, rather He did by nature those things that the law requires. We too have a new nature for Jesus lives in us and we have the mind of Christ. We no longer have to focus upon sin and law keeping but only upon Jesus and walk according to the Spirit and the law is naturally fulfilled as He has already fulfilled that Law.
The law was to us who are in Christ as a tutor, showing us our need for God and our lack of holiness before Him. Now however, we have Jesus and no longer have need of a tutor. We are the children of Abraham, of the household of faith, of that promise God made 430 years before the law that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Gal. 2:19-21 "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain."
Let us always remember, "Look and Live!" It is in looking to Jesus that we are saved and it is in looking to Jesus, Who lives even though He died, that we will know how to live in Him as we walk this earth. We walk according to the Spirit and live and not according to the letter of the Law for the letter of the Law kills but the Spirit gives life!
Who the Lord has cleansed is worthy of His purpose. Call him not defiled or unworthy. What the Lord has cleansed, in the blood of the Lamb, is a new creation...virgin. ~ God [Letters from God and His Christ - Volume 2 - All Have Been Purchased, Few are Chosen]