galations

"...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. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." ~Galations 2.16-21

I read this yesterday, & this morning instead of reading Gal 3 I came back to this. Just these 5 verses. I was so impacted as I read them over and over, attempting to wrap my mind around it. I can understand that grace is by faith not works. But why? Why grace in the first place? What a privilege to "live by faith in the Son of God". And what a joyfully impossible truth that this Son of God "loved me and gave himself for me". That, my friends, is mind blowing. I hear it all the time and grow used to it, but this morning it took my breath away. Kinda like jumping into a mountain lake on a 90 degree summer day.