Freedom and Slavery

Chuckle: "People say that hard work never killed anybody, but on the other hand, I've never known anybody who rested themselves to death."

Quote: "The will of God never takes you to where the grace of God will not protect you." --Unknown source

"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" (Galatians 5:1 NIV).

A major hurdle we all have to clear is the one that says we have to earn our way into God's favor by doing good things for others and complying with a set of behavioral standards. The writer of our passage, the apostle Paul, formerly known as Saul, once persecuted the church and was zealous about keeping the Jewish Law and traditions because he believed he could earn God's favor through these activities. He tried his best to stamp out the early church because he felt that was what God would have him do.

Saul's persecution of the church may appear totally without justification to us. It's hard for us to understand how he could be so off-base in his understanding. However, when Saul met the crucified and risen Lord Jesus he realized that favor with God comes through God's grace by faith in Christ alone, not in blind obedience to a set of rules.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV). Christ transformed Saul and gave him the name, "Paul," and sent him as a missionary to the gentile (non-Jewish) world. We can be just as off-base as Saul was if we depend upon our being good to earn us salvation.

Through Christ we stand in God's favor -- accepted, beloved, and free from the power and penalty of sin! Stand firm then in the freedom of God's favor today. Don't try to earn it but just stand in amazement and let your life show your gratitude for it.

The freedom God has given us through Christ is the freedom to serve Him, not freedom to do what ever we want, because that would lead us back into sin by making us slaves to our selfish desires. Some might say that freedom to serve Him doesn't sound much like freedom.

Listen to this illustration: Some years ago in Los Angeles as man was walking down the street with a sign on his shoulders. The front of it read, "I'M A SLAVE FOR CHRIST." The back of the sign read, "WHOSE SLAVE ARE YOU?" That's a good question, because all of us are slaves to one of two masters -- sin or righteousness -- Satan or God.

Let Paul put this freedom and slavery in perspective. "But now that you have been set free from (slavery to) sin and have become slaves (servants) to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:22-23 NIV).

Love, Jerry & Dotse