Law or not

Lately we've been focusing on Galatians and one of the key issues that Paul discusses with the Galatians is the place of Old Testament law in the life of a Christian.

Paul questions the Galatians:
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4 Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? (Galatians 2:1-5 NIV)
It is clear that Paul is frustrated with what he has seen & heard from Galatia, they are turning away from what they knew as true and so Paul asks them a key question. Did the Holy Spirit come to them by observing the law or by belief? The answer is of course Belief, and that has always been the case, the Holy Spirit came on people in the Old Testament at set times for set reasons, it wasn't because of their obedience to the Law (after all King Saul had the Holy Spirit) and now it comes to us through our faith in Christ. Paul laments the change. If we try and obtain salvation by our own effort we will fall short and Paul laments that the Galatians are heading in that direction.

Paul then speaks of Abraham:
Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 2:6-9 NIV)
Abraham shows us that this is how God works. Abraham was not saved by obedience to the law, or by anything that he did but rather by his faith. To try and work our way to deserve God's salvation is ignoring the bulk of Biblical evidence that says it is not what we do but what God has done.

We may know that logically it is not by the law we are saved, but sometimes we try and use our good deeds as leverage with God, we may not mean it but we often do it. We must remember that the obedience to God comes as a result of thankfulness to God for his forgiveness of us.