I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Galatians 1-6

Paul addresses a very complex issue in his letter to the Galatians.  He wrote the letter because some people had come to the Galatians and were teaching them that they had to follow Jewish law in order to be saved. In particular, they were teaching that men needed to be circumcised, but reading between the lines suggests that they were teaching that Believers needed to follow Jewish dietary regulations and other similar rules from the Law of Moses.  Paul makes the point that we cannot be saved by following the Law of Moses, because failure to follow all of it to perfection means we have failed.  He points out that everyone has broken the Law to some degree or another.  Therefore, we can only be saved by faith in Christ, by accepting the gift of forgiveness which God extends to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  This means that we are free from obligation to follow the Law.  In fact, we are completely free to do as we choose.

However. this is where it gets complicated.  Just because we are free to do as we choose, does not mean that we should allow ourselves to become libertines, doing depraved things if they strike our fancy.  While doing good will not save us, the fact that we are saved should cause us to do good.  Paul addressed this same theme in both of his letters to the Corinthians and in his letter to the Romans, which should give us an idea of how important it is.  To summarize: Doing good will not make us right with God, but having been made right with God should inspire us to do good.