Marissa Henley

Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

Justified by faith

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I’m really showing off my geek badge here, but it’s true: I love editing. I can’t read anything without wanting to pull out a red pen, eliminate the word clutter, fix the grammatical mistakes, and improve the writing in any way I can. I even self-edit text messages before sending them. (Don’t worry, I don’t edit other people’s texts!) 😉 

When I read Galatians 2:16, I want to reach for my red pen. Paul seems to be running around in circles, saying the same thing over and over: 

“Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)

We’re not justified by works but by faith . . . And we have believed, so we are justified . . . Oh, and did I mention that it’s by faith in Christ and not by works? . . . Right, because no one can be justified by the works of the law. Ok, Paul! We get it! 

Why isn’t Paul being more concise? Did he forget to run this letter by his editor? 

I think Paul is being wordy and repetitive on purpose. He knows we will read this and mentally agree with it, but then an hour later we’ll be out there acting like it’s up to us to earn God’s favor. It’s so ingrained in our human nature to think our value depends on our performance. 

This is good news we need to hear over and over and over again: We are justified through faith in Christ and not by works of the law. To be justified means we are declared righteous by God. He looks at Jesus and sees His perfect record of righteousness. Based on His perfection, we are declared righteous. We could never earn this righteousness, but God gives it to us as a free gift of His grace. 

If you didn’t earn it, you can’t lose it. Justification by faith is a certainty we can cling to even when we fall short, mess up, or even fail miserably. 

No matter what you face this week, you are justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. 

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Jesus is With You

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I have many parenting moments that I’m not proud of, but one of my worst mom-fails happened as I slept. My daughter was frightened in the middle of the night and came to my room to wake me up. She shook my shoulder and said my name, but I kept snoozing. My neglected little girl eventually gave up and went back to bed. 

As I read Mark 4, I wonder if the disciples felt a little bit like my daughter that day on the Sea of Galilee. They were scared, and Jesus was sleeping. 

“On that day, when evening had come, [Jesus] said to [his disciples], ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’” (Mark 4:35–38)

Let’s pretend we never heard this story in Sunday school, and we don’t know what the next verses say. (We’ll get to them next week.) What does this passage teach us about being in the middle of the storm of suffering? 

When the waves are crashing over the side of your boat and it’s filling with water, it’s doesn’t mean Jesus  has abandoned you. Jesus was right there with the disciples, and He’s right here with you. 

If it seems like Jesus is sleeping while you suffer, it’s not because He doesn’t care. It’s because He cares about you that He’s waiting for the perfect time to calm the storm. As we’ll see next week, He always has a purpose to His timing, even when we can’t understand it. And in the meantime, you can trust that He is with you.  

No matter what you face this week, Jesus is with you in the storm of your suffering. 

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Jesus was born to die

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For the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at Jesus’s incarnation through the words of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”. The third verse of this carol describes why Jesus came: He was born to rescue us from sin and death and give us salvation that leads to everlasting life. 

“Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by, born that man no more may die,

born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. 

Hark! the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King.’”

God’s presence with man was a gift—God with us, Immanuel, was the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to be with His people. But the impact of Jesus’s incarnation didn’t stop there. Jesus was born to die. We sinned against God and needed a Savior. Jesus was the Lamb of God who came to take away our sin and give us forgiveness and eternal life (John 1:29). 

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

Jesus didn’t take on flesh and dwell among us so we’d have a cute story to tell at Christmas. He came to suffer betrayal, false accusations, and an unjust trial. He came to hear the cries of “Crucify Him!” from those who had praised Him just days before. He came to hang on a cross next to criminals and provide an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He came to save sinners like you and me. 

No matter what you face this week, celebrate Jesus, who was born to die for the forgiveness of your sins. 

If you missed the earlier posts in this series, you can read them here and here.

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Jesus is God Incarnate

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How do you respond when someone walks in the door of your home? Your response will vary depending on who it is. If it’s your spouse or roommate, you might look up from your phone and ask how their day went. If it’s a grown child who’s returning home for the holidays, that moment will be much more significant and joyful. If it’s a stranger in a ski mask, the experience would be terrifying. 

We celebrate Christmas because of who Jesus is. The One whose arrival we celebrate is the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, the everlasting Lord veiled in human flesh, as we see in verse 2 of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”: 

“Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord,

Late in time behold him come, offspring of the Virgin’s womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel.

Hark! the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King.’”

Take a moment to wonder at this truth: the One who was adored in heaven as the everlasting Lord took on flesh in the womb of a young virgin and was born in a stable. Babies are born every second of every day—but this baby was God incarnate. 

The incarnation of Jesus refers to God the Son taking on human flesh so that He was fully human and fully God. We see this truth expressed in John’s gospel: 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

Because Jesus was fully God and fully man, His birth was unlike any other birth in the history of the world. As the Nicene Creed states, Jesus was “begotten of the Father . . .begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father . . .” The One who took on flesh was God, and therefore He is worthy of our worship and praise. His birth in a stable—His coming to a world that desperately needed a Savior—gives us reason to sing, “Glory to the newborn King!” 

No matter what you face this week, celebrate Jesus Christ, the everlasting Lord who took on flesh and dwelt among us. 

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