Results tagged “Freedom”

Galatians 4:1-7 - I've read this over maybe 4 times just now. It feels like there's some profound truth in there that's eluding me, but maybe it's simply this:

Jesus changes everything. Everything.

We were once enslaved children, now free men. Once slaves, now sons and heirs. Once under law, now adopted as sons.

I think I tend to operate as if nothing has changed when in reality everything has changed under Jesus.

Galatians 4:9 - As if on cue, Paul gives me a spiritual dope slap. "... how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world ... ?" Indeed, but I am so forgetful.

Galatians 4:21-31 - Paul contrasts the sons of Abraham's two wives, one a slave and one free. He pleads with them to remember that they are children. like Isaac, of the promise, children of freedom.

Yet Christians today pile rule upon rule, attempting to live right by becoming slaves to them instead of embracing the undeserved freedom from Christ and letting it compel them to live by righteousness.

Galatians 2:1-2 - Paul in chapter 1 insists that the Gospel he preaches came not from men but from Jesus, yet here he says that he went to Jerusalem to present his Gospel to the leaders there, "in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain". Even though he was confident in what Jesus had given Him, knowing that Jesus had spoken also to them (and first), he wanted to be sure that they were in agreement.

Galatians 2:4-9 - He who once a zealot for the law, to the point of punishing law breakers with death, now just as zealously defends the Gospel of freedom and refuses to allow those who would claim we must still submit to the law any ground.

Galatians 2:11-14 - The church needs men of boldness like Paul, who for the sake of the purity of the Gospel will stand up, publicly, to leaders whose "conduct [is] not in step with the truth of the gospel". Paul paid a price for his convictions as do those today who dare to call false gospel false. Of course, Paul's standing for the Gospel ultimately cost him his life at the hands of those outside the church, but I imagine that day he ruffled a few feathers among the brothers that day.

Galatians 2:20 - "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." I struggled with this before becoming a Christian and I've since heard others express the same struggle. The commitment to Christ is complete and total surrender. From the outside, it seems as if you will loose your very identity, becoming some religious clone of every other Christian, robotically living the same life as any other disciple. As this verse says, we are no longer ourselves, but Jesus in the flesh. It's scary and it sounds boring.

But while there is truth to those ideas, that I die and succumb to Christ, that does not produce like Jesus like duplicates in the way that a photocopier does. The beauty of God's creation in humanity is that His will and Jesus can be expressed in a huge number of ways. We are still individual expressions of the will of the Father, when we surrender to Him and live out Jesus instead of us, the real us He created is revealed. on two disciples are alike, just like no two sinners are and none of us are a complete expression of who He is. Only when we come together as the church to we begin to fully experience and express Him.

Far from being boring, when we let go and surrender to Jesus, only then we are able to live up to our potential, becoming, finally, all that He created us to be.

Romans 4:1-12 - Obedience to any law of God without faith is of no value. The power is in the faith, not the deed. Abraham was an example of this. He sought God and believed in him. He did not try to reason with Him or question Him, he simply believed Him.

Faith is about us worshiping God and acknowledging Him as almighty and we as subservient. The mindset of obedience says I'm am sufficient and God must accept me if I obey. The mindset of faith says that I am inadequate, but God has promised therefore I am accepted.

The reward of obedience is at the end of a long, difficult road that we cannot travel, the gift of faith is received at the start of the journey and makes straight the path ahead.

Romans 4:18-21 - The familiar story of Abraham believing God when told he would have many offspring at 100 years old. "Fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised" is what it says in verse 21.

What about us? Aren't we "as good as dead", broken by sin and defeated? Yet God primisses us new life, now and forever. Do we believe Him? Do we live like we do?

I for one am tired of living as if I am still shackled. I am not. Imagine a prisoner set free, yet he remains in his cell, staring at the open door, not feeling that he's ready to leave. Crazy? Yet that's how I too often live.

God promised me freedom, in fact it is already mine. Why am I content to stay in my cell? I refuse to act as if I am still tied down by sin.

Galatians 5:1-6 - How should we look at this passage? Paul argues that Christ came to free us, and if we attempt to find our justification on the law then Jesus is of no value to us. So, what then of things like expectations of members (we were just talking about this at Pinikidion's place)? Would Paul rail against them?

Well, if it was an attempt to define what a Christian is and force others into their mold, then I believe yes. If it's simply a matter of proclaiming who they are, then perhaps no.

A Christian is justified through Christ alone, no careful following of any rules - and Paul was talking here about God's rules, not man made Church rules - can make us right with God. A church that proclaims that unless people act as they believe, they are not Christians (as we most certainly used to do) would earn the rebuke of Paul, based on what I see here. But, the church that simply says that this is the kind of Christians we are, we stand for these practices and believe in them, teach them and follow them would not necessarily. If they can do so without passing judgment on the rest of believers, then good.

An argument can be made, convincingly I believe, that such statements serve more to exclude and to comfort those inside and that perhaps whatever is gained in defining themselves and knowing who they are, is lost in shutting out those who might come into fellowship and bring new understandings and wisdom.

It's always good to ask why? Why do you want this rule or that? Paul claims here in Galatians that following the rules is of no value for those who follow Jesus. In fact, Jesus' coming signaled the end of the era of rules. Having a set of rules makes us feel good about who we are as a group and help us draw a line of distinction between us and others. A boundary can protect us, but can also keep us from maturing to where we can find our own way. The Christian raised within the safety of a boundary, flounders and wanders when those boundaries are removed and is danger because they have no means of determining what is safe and what is not. Inside the boundary, everything was safe.

Certainly, God has things He approves of and doesn't and a church should stand up for and against what God does. But we must be careful and not mistake the standing for principals for the work of Jesus. No amount of vehemently proclaiming what God hates or loves will ever save anyone, only Jesus can do that. And rest assured, there are some who don't follow your or my rules that He will save as well.

Galatians 5:11 - Paul refers here to "the offense of the cross", what does that mean? I think I've always just skipped over that, but what is it? Paul's talking about salvation by grace here, calling the law useless here. He's quite adamant about it. What's the implication? That we are powerless, that none of the good we can claim, no deed we have done is of any value. The cross strips us of our pride, shows us for the failures that we are in following God. Jesus on the says that we are not good enough, in fact so far away that a man had to die to bring us back. To those who think they are something, what an offense indeed!

Galatians 5:16-24 - This is a passage I'm well familiar with, we went to it frequently to teach about what Christians should and shouldn't do. But this is written in the context of freedom, not as rules to be followed as it is frequently taught and we never visited the first part of the chapter with the last. In urging them to not allow themselves to be fenced in, Paul also warned them of the dangers of unregulated freedom. Paul challenged them to regulate themselves rather than to let others do it for them. And he says that the works of the flesh and the fruits are the spirit are clear, seek the one and flee the other.

Galatians 4:1-7 - The ESV continues the 'guardian' theme here, relating it to an heir as a child. Until the time set by the father, the heir is practically no different than a slave. Until then, he is under guardians and managers. His coming of age frees him from thier control and protection. Paul says that we were once slaves to 'elementary principals' (the law, I assume) until Christ came and we became sons and co-heirs with Christ. As cool as this concept sounds, I get the feeling that I'm somehow still missing the majesty and impact of it. It seems that it ought to feel more profound than it does, if that makes sense.

I'm a son of God, with all the rights that implies as a mature heir, not simply a servant or a child. What do you think that should mean in our lives? If I really understood this, I guess what I'm asking is, how would I live?

Galatians 4:9 - Not that we have found God, but He has found us.

Galatians 4:8-11 - Paul criticizes them here for returning to their old ways, specifically observing special days. Thinking about the general state of the church in the US, where Easter and Christmas are so important, it makes me wonder what Paul would say to us? Do we really get what Christ came for? Did he come that we should have nice buildings, egg hunts and Christmas plays? That we would light candles in wreaths and stop drinking for lent? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate these things too, but if this is what our religion is, and for too many that is what it is, then we have completely missed the point.

Galatians 4:12-20 - You can feel Paul's anguish about the Galatians, that they have returned to the old ways when he has seen, and taught them, of the freedom to worship God as an heir. Looking around, when I see folks falling back into traditional patterns, missing the grace of Jesus and not living in it's freedoms, am I in anguish? It seems that we can get worked up about major sin, but we tolerate folks missing out on the full freedom and joy in Jesus far too easily. I wonder if that's because we are too far removed from it ourselves? That's convicting right there, wow.

Galatians 4:21-27 - The implications of this passage hit me harder than it has in the past. Abraham had two son, one born through the rules (man and woman come together, sperm meets egg, baby is born), but for the other the rules, if you will, didn't work. No matter how many times step one was performed, steps two and three didn't follow. But God stepped in and, through a promise, fixed the process. It was only through the promise that Issac was born.

It's the same for us. The theory holds that through following the law, we can see God. Follow the rules, be with God. But the rule don't work. No matter how many times we try, the process fails as we cannot keep the law. But God steps in, and through the promise of Jesus, He fixes the process and in the promise we are reborn.

I ought to be ashamed at how often I fail to be amazed at what God has done for us - for me - in Jesus.

Galatians 2:2 - Paul went up to Jerusalem to meet privately with the leaders to present what he had been teaching. To show them the way? No, "to make sure [he] was not running or had not run in vain" I like that he went privately, to not stir up controversy but to find unity, and that he went not to teach but to learn.

Galatians 2:8-9 - The ESV speaks of 'Peter' in verse 8 and 'Cephas' in verse 9 (also in verse 11, and in chapter 1). NIV uses 'Peter' in both places.

Galatians 2:14 - He went originally in private and reached an agreement, but when he saw Peter acting publicly contrary to that agreement, he challenged him publicly.

Paul sets himself up here as one who has championed the Gospel of freedom over the slavery of the law. Galatians 1:1-2:14 seems to be establishing who he is and what he has stood for as back ground to what he's about to lay out.

Galatians 2:15-16 - Paul contrasts Jew with 'Gentile sinners' in verse 15, which might be offensive if he didn't essentially lump them both in the same group in verse 16 saying that "by works of the law no one will be justified".

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.

Galatians 2:20

I wonder if we really understand the implications of this. Romans 6 describes how we die with Christ in baptism, do we really understand it? Do we live as if the death that comes to all has already come and gone for us? That which most men dread and attempt to put off, death, we have willingly embraced with Jesus. We are already dead and are only now truly alive in Christ.

I think if we really understood this concept, that we are already dead, we've already passed from death to life, we'd live differently. (Check out my study of Romans 6 from 2 years ago where I elaborated on this powerful idea more.)