6/25 - Galatians 5

Gal 5
I talked with my bible study group last night about these 'moments' I have where I truly am focused on God and sincerely desire to follow Him at all costs. I'll generally have this experience sometimes after church or Bible study or even while blogging. These heightened moments of spirituality, I don't think they're disingenuous by any means, but don't seem to last very long. If this were sports, you might say I'm a streaky player who experiences periods of greatness and then again periods of equal and opposite mediocrity. My challenge is: how do I translate these experiences from 'moments' into a lifestyle? I think the problem is my tendency to refocus on my wants & desires and less on God's.

Galatians 5:1: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." Christianity offers us a tremendous amount of freedom and thank God it does. This is a challenge, however, because this liberty we have can be dangerous if used incorrectly. What we eat, the clothes we wear, the entertainment we choose - none of these things get us in or out of heaven. That's not to say that these things don't have consequences and, more importantly, may not be what God wants for us. Taking part in any of our various earthly pleasures, whether inherently sinful or not, can be dangerous for this reason and can put us in conflict with the first & second commandments. Hence Paul's warning - do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. His message to the Galatians was not to be entangled with legalism because they had been convinced by a false teaching that circumcision was necessary for salvation and this undermined the grace of God - the only means by which salvation is offered. No matter what our 'yoke of bondage' is, we shouldn't allow ourselves to be so easily drawn back to the things that God has called us from. Easier said than done I suppose.

I guess it comes down to relationship. There's nothing wrong with having perfect church attendance, doing community service, giving to the poor or paying tithes unless your motive is wrong. Are we trying to earn heaven points or genuinely offering ourselves as a sacrifice of gratitude to the Saviour? The fallacy of the first act (or one fallacy at least) is the tendency to stray away from it because the focus is you, not God. Honestly, I have a lot of work to do to get to the point where my actions are fully rooted in my love and gratitude for Christ. This takes an intimate relationship with God, and I pray I can get closer to Him daily so my actions will please Him. I'm not sure this blog is making as much sense as I hoped it would, but the whole point is that I want my actions to flow out of a love relationship with God & not a legalistic approach to spirituality.

5/31/09 - 2 Corinthians 3

Freedom. The human soul desires it more than almost anything. Just the mention of freedom springs forth hope and life in all of us. The state of humanity is such that everyone desperately needs freedom, whether its from addiction, abuse, poverty, depression, debt, loneliness, money, or even sports. It's truly a glorious thing to experience freedom from any of these things. I believe that there's a longing in all of us, believers and non-believers alike, to be free from this world - a longing for something better, something more real.

Chapter 3 discusses the superiority of the 'spirit' of the law over the 'letter' of the Law. The letter of the law, a.k.a. the law of Moses (including but not limited to the ten commandments), required so much from us that Paul went far enough to say that it "kills us" (v. 6). The Law required total righteousness from us and without it, we would stand condemned.

"Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law..." (Romans 3:19-20).

With this righteous requirement and our conflicting inability to live perfectly, Paul concludes that the Law brings death. This isn't to say that the Law itself is evil or even useless to us. The Law brings death in a similar way that the law of gravity can bring death - if you test this law from too high an altitude, it will surely produce death. In either case, it's our choice to defy it that brings death, not the Law itself. These laws simply point out the consequences of our actions. (Galatians 3:19-24, Romans 5, Romans 6, Romans 7:7-12)

The Israelites used to worship and rejoice at the mere reading of the Law (Nehemiah 8:3, 5-6). Moses face actually had a glow around it after he encountered God's word (Exodus 34:29). So if this Law, which leads to death, was found to be this glorious, how much more should the should the Law of the Spirit? The Law of the Spirit, that of the new covenant found through the death & resurrection of Christ, now offered life. The new covenant gives us the righteousness, through Christ's shed blood, the Law could never give (Romans 5:18-21). It relieves us of the restrictions of the Law. It offers to us a relationship with our creator, rather than a strict adherence to rules. It invites us to fall in love with Jesus, who loved us first. It gives us freedom.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (v. 17).

This freedom we have as Christians isn't a pass to do whatever we want and fall back on the old "I'm saved anyway" excuse. That would be the opposite of freedom in that we re-submit ourselves to the slavery of sin. This is the freedom that frees us to worship God without rules and regulations. Its the freedom to eat, dress, talk, watch movies, have fun, or do whatever, as you like without falling into the trap of allowing these 'liberties' to overshadow God or fail to bring Him glory.

God, thank you for freeing me. You know how I am so don't let me abuse my freedom. In all I do, allow me to honor You.