Mon, Sep 29, 2008
Living Free
This chapter opens with Paul's statement "It is for freedom, that Christ has set us free...". Like so many other verses in Scripture, I've read over that many times without really understanding the meaning behind it. Christ's death on the cross has freed us from having to serve the Law. We no longer have to live under the law with it's sacrificial system to achieve forgiveness for our sins. The death of Jesus has accomplished that for us...for the rest of our lives. But Paul is warning the Galatians not to allow themselves to become enslaved by the law once again, and for that matter, not to become enslaved by anything else, such as sin. There are many things in the world that have the capacity to enslave us. Some of them good, many of them bad. We can become enslaved by our devotion to a sports team. We can become enslaved by an addiction to pornography...even as Christians. I see as many or more Christians enslaved by "good" things as I do suffering from various sinful habits. But Christ has set us free so that we can live in complete freedom. The key is found in verse 16 where Paul writes that we are to walk by the Spirit. Practically, this means living our lives under the direction of the Spirit, i.e. asking Him what we should do with our time, treasure and talents. I don't think the answer is commonly going to be live comfortably in the suburbs...