Do you have a ticket to ride?

As I was in preparation for this week, I came across this illustration that fit so aptly in regards to the debate between faith and works to ascertain salvation.

I’ve heard it often said that “It doesn’t matter what you believe; it’s how you live that counts.”

Adoniram Judson Gordon, a Baptist preacher in the 1800's and founder of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, encountered this philosophy one time as he talked with a fellow passenger on a train. The man believed he could get to heaven by his good works. Pointing to the conductor who was making his way through the coach, Gordon asked his new friend, “Did you ever notice how carefully he always examines the ticket but takes no pains whatever to inspect the passenger.” The man immediately caught the significance of the question. He had just been saying that God was interested only in what we do and not in a “little bit of theological scrip called faith.”

“You see,” continued Gordon, “the passenger and the ticket are accepted together. If he doesn’t have one or has the wrong one, he will be asked to get off the train—no matter how honest he might appear to be. Just as the ticket stands for the man, faith stands for you.”

It doesn’t matter how many good deeds you do over the course of your life. In the end, if you don’t have faith the conductor won’t allow you to get on the train bound for glory.

This is what we see in the message that Paul taught in Galatians. Paul’s message echo’s what is shown throughout the rest of the Bible.

We see a lot in this week’s passage, take some time before Sunday to read it and come ready to explore its importance to our faith!

Galatians 3:15-18

Brothers, I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to even a human covenant that has been ratified. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. And I say this: The law, which came 430 years later, does not revoke a covenant that was previously ratified by God and cancel the promise. For if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.