Crucifying the flesh

Scripture:

Galatians 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Observation:

In his defense of salvation by faith and not works, it was important to cite that salvation by faith is not a prescription for an unbridled lifestyle with a goal of fulfilling every base passion and desire.  Paul made a list of behaviors that are inconsistent with Kingdom living – sinful practices that his critics would identify easily from the Law of Moses.  And yet they were practices that they also indulged in, which Paul knew from his earlier life.  Contrasting those were the nine-fold fruits of the Holy Spirit.  They didn’t just contrast behavior – they contrasted behavior with attitude.  And then came the punch line above.  It is a crucifixion of passions and desires that the believer does.  THAT is the action that overcomes all the foul outworking of the flesh.  So sin is cut off at inception.  It is not allowed to fester into action since its core – the flesh, that which gratifies but does not satisfy – is to be nailed to the cross to die a slow death.  And a slow death it is, for long have people learned to lean into passions and desires, to coddle and entertain like toys.  These diversions are to be crucified by the believer, put on open display where they were formerly covered as they achieved their clandestine destruction.  This is the stuff of testimony, the glory of overcoming.  For God has so saved his children that they arm themselves with battle gear that they wield as guided tactically and strategically.  But the core work is that of replaced passion.

Application:

How does my group of flesh toys look on the cross?  Is it growing in number?  Am I leaving it there?  And it’s not just deeds I put up there, but the passions and desires that produced them.  Are those seen on the cross as well?  Have I crucified selfishness, malice, pride and anger?  Again, not just angry deeds, but anger.  I must concede it is an ongoing task.  Let me not be discouraged by the tense of the verb – “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified…” – for certainly there are passions and desires that are well-crucified and no longer reign in my heart.  And let me not lose heart in the battle against learned responses – for no one comes to Christ without a former straying from the truth.  Also, no one who would serve Christ in this world is immune from temptation.  Only let me identify such a lure by its core desire – what is it that would draw me down?  What is lacking?  What is being falsely promised?  Why is this passion so alluring to me?  Those questions deal less with the action of sin than they do with its intent.  For it is that intent that brings out the crucifying hammer in me.  Finding it, rooting it out, making its lies an open display.  THAT is the work of crucifying the flesh, for when I allow the Spirit I do that, it is a solid work of redemption.  May it be my regular and progressive spiritual exercise.

Prayer:

Father, it is your work of grace that brings me to awe and wonder.  Continue your work in me for I open myself to you.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Born through the promise

Scripture:

Galatians 4:23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

Observation:

Paul wrote to the Galatians, gravely concerned with reports that they had been polluted by those who added observance of Mosaic Law to the grace of God through faith in the finished work of Jesus.  In several paragraphs of allegory and metaphor, Paul compared living under the law – a life he knew better than anyone – to life of faith.  To an observer with no interest in either side, the argument could seem pointless, for even faith requires human work.  But that is the point of verses like the above, interspersed throughout the passage.  Contrasting the children of Abraham, Paul shows the crux of the issue.  Abraham, as encouraged by Sarah, had a son named Ishmael with Sarah’s servant, Hagar – the son of the slave.  But then Sarah herself conceived and Isaac was born – the son of the free woman.  But it is the prepositional phrases – “according to the flesh” and “through promise” that hammer home the difference.  Ishmael was conceived in a more or less desperate attempt to bring about a blessing through human means.  Two in a bed make three; they knew that in Abraham’s time too.  But the promise – a word spoken by a third party, an angel from God – was achieved miraculously through the womb of a nonagenarian (90-something) woman.  Two dried up old people in a bed make three.  And thus, the gospel of Jesus Christ is displayed as the fulfillment of promise.  The law had its day and was, by this time, the work of human will.  But Jesus the Messiah came to extend God’s sovereign grace across the boundaries of human families.

Application:

Am I living as one born again through promise?  A blessed third party was involved in my coming to faith –  let me remember that.  And that third party remains in me and keeps me in faith.  I cannot achieve through human means anything regarding salvation or heaven’s reign.  If by my own strength I eke out some tiny obedience, it is filled with the worst motives and filthy glory.  It is only as I walk out the promise, utilizing the deposit of faith I have, that I can know that I live the life of Christ.  Because it is all too easy for me to revert to doing good things, paying restitution for my sins, making it up to the offended and angry, for instance.  Do I strive to be accepted by people?  I am God’s son!  May I  never let that make me proud, but also never let that fade from the center of my identity.  Though work-a-day challenges and even affronts will come, let them never make me a slave to human evaluation, for it is a foul taskmaster, reveling in oppressed compliance.  That’s slavery at heart and at execution.  And let me also understand the promise is not at arms length, shouting across and down echelons of reporting hierarchy.  I was born through promise, not only influenced or persuaded.  The Kingdom is in my blood; it’s part of my being.  Let me not regress into thought of being still a foreigner to the most intimate of relationships.  My bold entering before the throne is not as one groveling, though it is not proud either.  Let me regain anything of the promise I have laid aside or out of which I was intimidated or argued.  For it is to bless all around me.

Prayer:

Father, it is by Your word that I live and move and have my being. I rejoice this day.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Being an heir, having a Daddy – Galatians 4:4-7 (November 6, 2013)

Scripture

Galatians 4:4-7 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. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Observation:

Paul was perplexed as to the Galatians drift into seeking to be justified by the Law of Moses. It hadn’t happened in a vacuum – there were Judaizers who had come into their midst to change the recipe for salvation, to add Law to God’s plan of grace. Paul wrote the whole letter to combat this shift, arguing in doctrine, in history and in parables. The above passage is part of a parable/allegory describing 2 young people in a wealthy family. One was a slave, the other an heir. Both were brought up identically until they came of age. Then their paths separated. Likewise, says Paul, God sent Jesus to redeem His children who had been enslaved by the law. In “the fullness of time” concerns both the historical point of the advent of Jesus and the point of time within the lives of people who came to faith. The result is adoption into the family. So it is better than the parable because the slave becomes free! And it is a key difference between those bound up in slavery under Law and those who experience rebirth in Christ. The latter relate to God not through an observed code and earned merit, as if to win an audience with a potentate through pleasing Him. No, they have received the Spirit of God directly into their lives and now know God as Father. Not lost on the Galatians readers, Gentiles or Jewish, is the term “Abba” – an unmistakably intimate, familiar term used by children to address their human fathers. It would translate “Daddy” or “Papa”, a clear and heart-touching sign of close relationship, and a sign of an heir within the family.

Application:

Has Law crept into my life? I don’t mean the Law of Moses necessarily, but what of cultural convention or familial coercion? These influences will always be there; and God can even use them to mold me, but if I start to relate to Him through the judging eye of my contemporaries, then I have taken Him off the throne of my life. Let me reinstate what Jesus has done, reclaim grace and the peace that it brings. And what about my sonship? Are my prayers those of cajoling God, of earning the right to be heard and paid attention to? Certainly it is daunting to think that I am among billions in my petitions, but if that dominates my thoughts then I have a problem with God’s omni’s, not a problem with relationship. Or maybe I don’t think God can be much of a Father to me among the millions that make the claim of heir. Again, He is able if I am able to believe. No, the real problem addressed in this passage is my ability to know how special I am to Him. If I can grasp what it means to be part of God’s immediate family, albeit a huge one, then the entire walk gets a new harmonic line sung over it, a new accompaniment with each step. Can I really say “Daddy” and know that One Who I give that title is watching over me, out for my good and helping me through each struggle? That’s the active goal of the promise. The alternative is judgment and a sinking self-recrimination that listens to the voices of peers and culture, of convention and vogue. No, let me be the free one, the heir and favored son among many siblings. Amen.

Prayer:

Daddy, I have ultimate honor and respect for You; You are the Most High God. But You have chosen to call me son, so let me be that son, relationally and behaviorally. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Slaves to the tribe – Galatians 4:28-29 (March 14, 2013)

Scripture:

Galatians 4:28-29 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.  At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.

Observation:

In the fourth chapter of Galatians, Paul continued his argument for salvation by faith versus works.  Using several examples, he likened life under the law to a life of a slave, while life in Christ is free.  In the final analogy, he used the birth of Ishmael and Isaac to Sarah, wife of Abraham as an example of a son born into slavery versus freedom.  Ishmael, whose mother was the servant Hagar, had from her lineage no rights or inheritance in the family.  But Isaac, born of Sarah, was a full-fledged son.  His birth was according to the promise of angels who had appeared earlier to Abraham and Sarah.  Paul pointed out that believers are like Isaac, born as the result of the promise of God.  As such, they are subject to persecution of children not born that way – referring to the Judaizers who were persuading the Galatians to turn from Christ to follow the Law of Moses.  As slaves under the law, they neither understood nor respected freedom in Christ available to the church.  So, just as Ishmael and his mother mocked and scorned Isaac and Sarah, so those under the law would do the same to those in Christ.  In making this parallel, Paul prepared his friends in the Galatian church for the maltreatment they would endure at the hands of the Judaizers, who would have no other means to gather and keep their followers.  Fear of that treatment was itself a testimony to the slavery of the life under the Law.  But it did nothing to make the free Isaac a slave and it would have no such effect on the believers.

Application:

What are the man-made systems that would attempt to enslave me?  There are many.  Every tribe has creeds and ideologies that are to be adhered to if “salvation” is to be achieved.  They each have priesthoods, hierarchy of leadership and all manner of enforcement of pure doctrine and practice.  They have enemies and those they consider candidates for inclusion in their group.  The slavery of thought, word and action would attempt to drag me in, but my life is built on God’s promises and nothing else at its core.  Has God promised to save me?  Yes.  Has he promised to save all who come to Him?  Yes.  Has He promised to keep me?  Yes, again.  Can those human systems approach the love God has to include people? Not a chance.  Can they judge people as He does, knowing the end from the beginning and every intent of the heart?  No way.  The bondage of human reason and all its resulting judgments is clear as crystal before the eternal promises of God.  So let the persecution fly; adhering to the shifting doctrines of humankind brings ever more enslavement of mind and body.  Sadly, the ideological tribes are present in the church of Jesus Christ as well.  That happens whenever the doctrines of the tribe overarch obedience to Christ.  Certain pet sins are condemned while others are winked at or merely get lip service.  Certain virtues and gifts are vaunted over all others.  These are the signs of a church “Judaized” by imbalance and unholy alliance.  It’s no witch hunt to ferret out that which draws people away from faith in Christ and into mere human causes.  It’s a purification that must be done, starting with me.

Prayer:

Father, this is not pleasant to contemplate and even less pleasant to deal with.  I am at war.  Let me take every thought captive and teach others to do the same.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Law never saves – Galatians 3:23-25 (March 12, 2013)

Scripture:

Galatians 3:24-25   So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.  Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

Observation:

The Apostle Paul was furious that those in the church in Galatia had regressed in their faith, adopting the practices of Judaism and forsaking the simplicity and non-encumbering faith in the work of Jesus on the cross.  Those who had “bewitched” these believers could not have chosen a more formidable opponent in the debate over the role of Mosaic Law in history or its relationship to faith in Jesus Christ.  So in the third chapter, Paul wrote perhaps his best analytic exposure of that relationship that we have in the New Testament.  The Law is seen as preparatory, pointing the way to the faith which was to come.  The promise of the Messiah is seen as both predating the giving of the Law and forcing it into obsolescence once Christ arrived on the scene.  And in the verses above the temporary nature of the work of the Law is displayed in its role as “guardian.”  Paul would never denigrate the Law.  But he constantly cited its inferiority in redemption and weakness in changing the heart of anyone.  So it served its purpose in watching over people until the sacrifice of Jesus was given once for all.  At that point, justification had nothing to do with the Law but upon the work of Jesus done for each person who believed.  Once that was done and believed upon, there was no more need for the Law to watch over God’s people.  The well-understood motif – in terms of human commerce – of paying for one’s salvation was overridden by simply believing.  The Galatians’ regression was one of putting faith in their own works instead of that of Jesus.

Application:

I am not tempted by trying to win God’s favor by obeying Mosaic Law.  But do I invent my own law?  Do I interpret hardship as God’s disfavor and pleasant times as his grace?  If I do, I cheat myself of understanding grace in the midst of suffering and humility in the place of triumph.  Or, to speak of the end of things, am I ashamed this moment of my life ending and facing God, knowing all that I have not yet done?  If so, why?  If I believe my times are in His hands and that I am saved by the shed blood of Jesus alone, my agenda and inventory of what’s undone has no bearing on anything except my own anxiety.  Let me be rid of it!  And are there those among my ever larger family of faith that would put burdens on me?  I don’t mean asking for my help and allowing God to bring me into His service by serving them, I mean compulsory works by which I make myself acceptable to God’s family, and thus, to them.  No, I am accepted in the beloved, God has taken care of that.  This is not an excuse for complacency and a regression into predestination thinking, whereby nothing is worth doing because God is going to save who He is going to save.  No, it’s the most delightful purification of what I do before Him, knowing that He will prescribe the good works for me, having prepared them in advance (Ephesians 2:10).  If I labor outside of that grace then I labor in my own strength and will burn out.  Any fruit from that is God’s grace applied to my mistake.  Now I can work VERY hard as called by God, and see GREAT fruit through that labor, but the fruit doesn’t save me or make me more acceptable in His sight.  In glory, it’s a crown that awaits, but for me now it’s just another way to communicate mercy and overcome the law of works.

Prayer:

Father, hone in me a sensibility that hears Your voice and no other.  Grant that I would debunk the false call to work that’s advertised to win Your approval or presence or anything spiritual

What to boast in – Galatians 6:14-16 (November 7, 2012)

Scripture:

Galatians 6:14-16 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.   Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.  Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.

Observation:

Boasting is a sort of human interaction that draws attention to something one has, with the implication that the other does NOT have it or does NOT have it to the same extent.  The Apostle Paul forbade boasting because it was a raw expression of pride.  In the case of the Galatians, the boast was made that they had become Jewish believers through the rite of circumcision.  But this had only happened after Paul had worked so hard in discipling the people into Christ.  So his exposure of the inner purposes of the proselytizers was getting to their root – raw human pride.  Paul countered that his boasting was in what the world scorned – a dying savior hung on a cross.  And the act of dying was being reworked in him for it cast down pride in worldly things as a motive in his life.  So the act of circumcision as a way to prove one’s allegiance to God was a meaningless religious act; being crucified with Christ negated it as a way to accomplish anything.  And from that death came new life – a life of vital, vibrant faith made new every day by a relationship with God Himself.  THAT was to be the focus of the believer, NOT ritual or external religious ceremony.  The contrast was vivid and the heart attitude radically different.  The “rule” of grace brought – and still brings – peace and mercy to “the Israel of God” – those who walk in the true effect of God’s eternal plan.

Application:

What do I boast in?  I may never open my mouth to promote anything, but what do my actions promote?  Is it accomplishment, possessions, wealth in reserve, gifts, talents, intelligence, insight or anything else I have that I feel no one else has to the same extent?  Let the door of such promotion be shut and locked forever!  Those things provide me no hope, though I can enjoy who I am and what I have with thanksgiving welling up to high praise.  It is the cross that saved me and keeps saving me, allowing my inglorious death to all that would bind me.  It is the resurrection life that taught me to dance.  Boasting in those accomplishments – which could only have been achieved by Jesus, God’s Son – means to lift up the hopelessness of others, to touch them with the same healing that has touched me.  It means to exalt the good in THEM so that they see it as God’s work and promise fulfilled.  All are invited to the cross; all to the death of their self and clawing for prominence and prestige.  After it strips the believer of all claims of merit, the cross ennobles and bathes in love and rich, tender mercy.  God has, in Christ, given us more riches than we can attain.  THAT is boastworthy; THAT is for public display and promotion.  The new creation is the work of God; He’s done it in me and will do it in you.  Check it out, really.

Prayer:

Father, thank You for the cross, again and again.  Let me boast in nothing else for my vain ramblings take me far from grace and far into the land of sin.  Help me stay focused according to Your Word, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Free children of faith – Galatians 4:26-27 (November 6, 2012)

Scripture:

Galatians 4:26-27 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.  For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

Observation:

As Paul continued his attack on the practitioners of the religion he once espoused, he centered on faith in Christ as being the only thing that could save.  The religious system of Judaism was based on obedience to the Law, as enforced and approved of by the religious rulers in Jerusalem and at every synagogue throughout the Roman Empire.  If there was faith that achieved salvation in that system, it was a faith in works.  Faith in Christ is not bound like that, said Paul.  The difference is like that of Hagar – the slave woman and bearer of Ishmael, the child whose conception and birth was an attempt to fulfill God’s promise through human means – and Sarah – the barren wife through whom the real child of promise would come.  Paul compared two Jerusalem’s – one on earth and one in heaven.  In this language, the church is seen as the child of promise as heaven is its mother.  The long-barren Sarah is a picture of the age leading up to Christ, where heaven had held back its promise until the sending of its own Son in the form of a baby on planet earth.  In citing Isaiah , Paul said that that barren woman – heaven – now had greater (more, or more legitimate) children than that of the systems of humankind.  For law and religious observance had created offspring – fathered by tradition and hollow works of the flesh – but the faith in the Messiah was the real deal – with God Himself as Father.

Application:

This passage inspires no tribal hatred for those under religious systems, but only freedom from being in Christ.  Let me never let myself be put under the bondage of religious rules even by those in biblical, ecclesiastical roles.  If I pastor, and I do, let me focus on the urgency for all believers to be free in Christ.  This is not a freedom to sin but a freedom from it.  Allowing God’s expression of faith in my life is paramount – as He has wired me and set my life in motion in Christ.  Likewise the expression of faith in others will vary – never against the Word of God but displaying the full rainbow of faith’s hues.  Let me encourage that, treasure it and exult in its glory.  It’s not that there will be no ceremony, ritual or liturgical norm – it’s that all that must be kept alive or discarded as dead tradition.  For the tendency is for people to focus on the religious exercise and not the core faith from whence it originated.  Can I dance?  No, I’m a horrible dancer, but I may dance in Jesus.  May I paint, compose, write, sing, architect, build, teach, love and encourage?  If I am gifted in these the answer is not that I may but that I must, not out of duty but out of explosive joy.  For God is good and His creative unction in my life is the living testimony to my faith’s vitality.  If I am alive in Christ, then heaven’s shout of joy at my birth and life in Him has such an echo that it outdoes all religion and human achievement.  I will know the ultimate effect of the cross on my life only when I learn to be free indeed as a child of promise and not law.

Prayer:

Father, grant that I might live this way so that Your work in me can be displayed in all its glory.  In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Received by revelation – Galatians 1:11-12 (November 5, 2012)

Scripture:

Galatians 1:11-12  I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

Observation:

Paul went right after the error the Galatians had fallen into – mixing grace with law and allowing their salvation to be tainted by trying to qualify themselves before God by being circumcised and observing the letter of the Law of Moses.  In the statement above, he made the distinction between the traditions of men and the word of God.  He had been given that word given directly on his way to persecute the believers in Damascus.  So he knew the zealous purposes of the Judaizers having been driven by them even more than they.  Yet he was driven by them no longer and it was directly attributable to God’s personal and direct intervention.  That overrode his religion and set his life on the course that had brought him around the Roman Empire and to the founding of the church in Galatia itself.  So the revelation was superior to that of the testimony of those under the Law, passed down for generations.  And .. so was his new teacher – again, God Himself.  Following his fall off the horse and dramatic reversal of direction, the enlightened and Spirit-inspired perusal of the scriptures he had so diligently studied earlier had revealed Jesus throughout the Tenach, the Old Testament.   He then used the same scriptures as the Jewish teachers to advance the gospel based upon that revelation from Christ.

Application:

Do I accept the argument of people that my faith is just one of many paths made available by the words and religious practices of other people?  Do I demote its divine origin by settling for religious practice and rote recitation of law I can hardly obey?  If so I have fallen into the error of the church in Galatia, into obedience without divine relationship which is obeying mere men, however exalted in religious circles.  I need to escape the flint knife of circumcision, the dull ritual of ideological alignment, the hypocritical oppression of political correctness and platform espousal.  No, I can pray and be heard by the Creator of the universe.  All else is complete waste and tragic distraction.  At worst it will completely take me off the path God has for me.  Let me get back to the divine revelation, that simple but eternally powerful transforming Word that has been sowed so deeply into my soul.  There was no mistake there, no misguided walk into the light.  The light of God frees, it does not bind like the flashlight of human religion which looks only upon the surface.  Any obedience coming from that revelation is delightful and triumphant, NOT merely dutiful and momentarily pleasing to the masters of darkness.  For their pleasure is my ultimate cancellation while God desires me to be free indeed.  Hallelujah.

Prayer:

Search me O God and see if there be any evil way within me and let me walk in the way everlasting.  For You have known me and You have saved me.  I am Yours forever.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

I judge only one .. that would be me – Galatians 6:3-5 (November 7, 2011)

Scripture:

Galatians 6:3-5 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.  Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.

Observation:

Paul was writing to a church under the threat of religious legalism in Galatia.  He had been through the difference between trying to follow God via their own strength – with circumcision being the first definitive work of the flesh – and walking according to the Spirit of God – with the death of Christ being that which strengthened them to walk in His righteousness.  It was a clear argument with well known parameters.  But here Paul dealt with the issue of pride.  It was and is at the center of all human religion – doing good to look good in front of and in comparison to others.  Invariably it sets up a person for self-deceit where he or she thinks more highly of the self than is actually the truth.  Paul walked the fine line of self-congratulation in saying that the evaluation is a good practice, but it must be kept inside.  With the Holy Spirit to keep the believer sober and honest, one’s actions were to be seen and reflected upon.  The pride – that is, admiration or appreciation of something well-done – was to be in comparison to that one person.  This took away the destructive practice of looking to another as a measuring stick of one’s own spirituality – there were and are simply too many variables to allow that comparison.  And it was an interesting “load” that each one was to carry – the burden of hearing the Spirit, yielding to His voice and then self-evaluating resulting in correction/conviction or commendation.  But this load was and is that of the individual, for as a bottom line no one else could or should affect the relationship of another with the Lord or be ultimately responsible for the walk of the other.

Application:

Have I based my walk with God on a comparative glance at the walk of others?  Do their attitudes and actions either put me to shame or make me a proud person?  If so that is death and NOT the Spirit-led walk I am called to.  Let me learn to keep my evaluating look inward, being content with seeing progress in myself over myself yesterday, or last month or last year.  And even in that there are ups and downs that are an integral part of my healing and salvation.  That is, to paraphrase Joseph Garlington, I go from strength to strength but between those strengths is a whole lot of weakness.  Being tough on myself is as appropriate as celebrating – and may I do both! It is a curious teaching/preaching practice that sets me up for pride or shame; may I walk briskly away from its duplicity.  This is not a call away from accountability – indeed it’s a call into it.  I am accountable in humility – and in my ongoing evaluation of project John, NOT project Fred or Harry or Nancy.  Indeed, I can envision a community of self-aware and sharing “projects” wherein we learn from one another’s mistakes and successes, all growing towards conformance to the image of Christ we were destined to seek.  It turns out that this is high fellowship.  Carrying our own load has great delight when we are transparent and able to share.

Prayer:

Father, let me walk after Jesus, looking to evaluate only myself and know You as my Master, rich in love and abundant in mercy.  I give You the glory for it all, in Jesus’ name, amen.

For Freedom! – Galatians 5:1, 13-14 (March 14, 2011)

Scripture:

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

…

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Observation:

“What else would Christ set us free for?” might be the reply to the statement in verse 1.  Well, the Galatians had been infiltrated by Jewish adherents who were on making them observe Mosaic Law in addition to their belief in the blood of Jesus to cleanse them from sin.  This was completely incompatible with salvation by grace and Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians to state just that.  So the “yoke of slavery” was the bondage of a religious system that made service to God a joyless burden.  There is no freedom in such expression for one can never do enough to truly please God, Who is perfect.  Freedom, then, only came in a work done FOR them on the cross by Jesus.  But freedom had to be more precisely defined, or else the Galatians would take Paul’s point to mean that they were to indulge in all manner of selfish practice and pursuit.  After all, if one is free then what else would one do?  Well Paul made it very clear that the free he speaks of is freedom even over the selfish tendencies of the human heart – the flesh (“sarx” in Greek).   In contrast, this freedom gave the Galatians the power to server one another.  In practice this is a good working definition of humility for it incarnates the commandment of Jesus that His disciples love one another.  The contrast between the works of dead religion, which may well look the same when carried out toward the same recipients – the needy – was that love which originated from God and sent Jesus to die for “others” – that being the Galatians (and us today).

Application:

Given the tendency for those in religious circles to turn any spiritual belief into a human system, this stands as a crucial warning to all believers in the person and message of Jesus Christ.  There are small nuances of religious work that turn an expression of God’s love ever so slowly into a system of accomplishments that win God over to specially bless the one who does them.  This is completely at odds with the finished work of Jesus, which can never be repaid and which serves as a motivational model for His disciples.  If I am saved by the work of Jesus, then I can never save myself through ANY amount of religious behavior, executed by rote to win God’s favor.  Likewise, any practice that springs from the cross CANNOT be that which is primarily aimed at benefiting me.  There is great benefit in helping others; those works are arguably the healthiest things I can possibly do.  And when I do that, I exercise the freedom which Christ died for me to have.  Only in Him can it even FEEL like freedom, of course, for the selfishness of the cravings of the flesh is the unbeliever’s “normal” and “true freedom” though every act that nurtures only the individual in fact brings with it the yoke of slavery, for the self never has enough and the next thrill must surpass this one, however high it was.  Do I love like that?  Do I take up humility and find what I have that someone else needs?  I want to, and even wanting to shows the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life.

Prayer:

O Father, let me be free like that today!  Let me find the need and meet it, find the sad one and lift his or her spirits.  Grant that I would be my Father’s child, which His light shining through my life.  In Jesus’ name, amen.