This morning I opened my Bible to Galatians 5 once again. It seems I have been spending a fair bit of time in this chapter recently. Anyway, the first verse is what I want to focus on today.
Galatians 5:1 NIV: "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."
This is a very famous verse, one that I have quoted or read many times, yet this morning there was a freshness to it, and a new insight, as far as I remember anyway. :-) Paul is writing to remind the Galatians of the Gospel, and calling them back to the mind-set they originally had understood. I think in general, its good for all of us to spend time assessing our lives, our thinking and our living, to see if we are still following the Gospel as we should.
I love Paul's statement and its implications. He says the Jesus set us free so that we might experience freedom, and then implies that its up to us whether we experience this freedom or not. In other words, Jesus has accomplished everything to set us free. He has broken the chains of sin and death, fulfilled the law, opened the way to the Father, given us a new covenant, and it is totally up to us to live that way or not. Our choice! Our free-will!
Now Paul, in a larger sense, is referring to the law of the old covenant when he is talking about the bonds or yoke of slavery. The original Greek says it more like this - do not again in the yoke of slavery, become entangled or caught. The yoke of slavery, although it can mean literally that, was also commonly understood to mean the requirements of the law. I like the word entangled, as it helps describe the process the Galatians were apparently sliding into, starting to observe the law in small ways first, but then as questions arise about where to draw the line, where to stop, they find no clear answer and slide back into what they know, or knew.
Although most of us have never had to meet the requirements of the law, I think Paul's statement can be applied to us in the realm of sin and disobedience. We have been set free by Christ from all that binds us, and in Him we experience forgiveness, mercy and compassion. He calls us out of a life of darkness into the light. However, many of us, after walking in the light, will take occasional strolls into those dark areas once again. The problem is that we can find ourselves entangled in sin once again, for there is a familiarity to our old ways, and it is often more comfortable than walking in the light. However, the longer we dwell in the shadows, the more entangled we become. It is important to realize that this was our choice, and we must change our mind and choose differently to get out of the entanglement. Jesus already set us free, He already gave us the power to walk in this freedom, and we must choose that path.
I think these verses can also apply to the false spirit of religion as well. The false spirit of religion would try to resurrect the requirements of the law, and turn our faith into some sort of activity checklist that is supposed to enable us to achieve righteousness. What is supposed to be relationship based, becomes task based. Our faith is in Him, in our relationship with the Lord, not in what we have learned about Him, and some set of tasks He taught us to do.
That is why Jesus said He lives in us, why He gave us the Holy Spirit. Our faith is in Him being present in our situation, not riding in from Heaven to deal with situations we have learned He will intervene in. So much of the Old Testament speaks of visitations of God, where comes to rescue His people, but the reality of God's desire was expressed through the tent of the tabernacle. God intended to live in the midst of His people, so that they knew He was always present, so they didn't need to wait for Him to show up. The spirit of false religion is built around the premise that God isn't present, and isn't interested in relationship. There is no focus on the living God, other than being the one to whom all the activity is dedicated. There is no expectation of daily interaction, no intimate meetings of the beloved, just tasks to complete, and rules to follow.
We were talking about this last week at church, about the fact that rules are easier and someways cleaner. We don't really have to change our insides, just our external activities or appearances if we are just following rules. We can complete the tasks perfectly and keep score of how we are doing, but never change inwardly. Others can keep track of our progress and make judgements about our level of compliance and fulfillment of the tasks assigned. It seems neat, clean and easy to administer, but Paul calls it the yoke of slavery. Anything other than the Gospel, other than relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ can become this yoke to us. Most importantly, it is our choice whether we live in freedom or under the yoke of slavery.
My encouragement today is to look at my life, to take a good honest appraisal of my faith walk and see if I am sliding back into old familiar ways of enslavement, becoming task oriented rather than relationship focused, whether I am serving a distant god, or whether I am living in union with Him constantly present? It is for freedom that Jesus set me free!
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