To Get Stuck – Definition: “be unable to move further”

Many times we get stuck in our Spiritual Growth

The letter to the Galatians was written to help Christians who were stuck and not progressing

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another … Gal. 1:6-7

So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 9 and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved…    Acts 15:8-11

They were on a Dead-End Street

I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” Gal. 2:21

My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you … Gal.4:19

We Need a Proper Understanding of Law and Grace

Shallow Understanding – The law tells us what we should do and when we fail, ask God for forgiveness and by His grace He forgives us.

The law was given to us as a guard against the sin for a time

Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Gal. 3:23  (NLT)

We are now set free from the law 

But when the time was right, God sent his Son, and a woman gave birth to him. His Son obeyed the Law, so he could set us free from the Law, and we could become God’s children. Gal. 4:4-5 CEV

So now you are no longer a servant who is owned by someone. You are a son. If you are a son, then you will receive what God has promised through Christ. Gal.4:7  (NLV)

Now we’re no longer living like slaves under the law, but we enjoy being God’s very own sons and daughters! And because we’re his, we can access everything our Father has—for we are heirs of God through Jesus, the Messiah! Gal.7:7 TPT

What if we stopped sinning – not because of the consequence of sin but because we don’t want to hurt the Lord

But you must realize that so long as an heir is a child, though he is destined to be master of everything, he is, in practice, no different from a servant. He has to obey a guardian or trustee until the time which his father has chosen for him to receive his inheritance. So is it with us: while we were “children” we lived under the authority of basic moral principles. But when the proper time came God sent his son, born of a human mother and born under the jurisdiction of the Law, that he might redeem those who were under the authority of the Law and lead us into becoming, by adoption, true sons of God. It is because you really are his sons that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts to cry “Father, dear Father”. You, my brother, are not a servant any longer; you are a son. And, if you are a son, then you are certainly an heir of God through Christ. Gal. 4 Phillips

But now you know God, or better still, God knows you. How can you turn back and become the slaves of those weak and pitiful powers? Gal. 4:9

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.   

24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage …

31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.    Gal. 4: 22,24,31

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Gal. 5:1

You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Gal. 5:4

Now it is not about trying but relying

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Gal. 5:16

Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Gal. 3:21-22

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”    Gal. 5:13-14

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Gal. 5:22-23

How do we practically progress?

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. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” Gal. 2:20-21 

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