“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world...?” – Galatians 4:8, 9
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” – Galatians 5:1
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” – Galatians 5:13
From the beginning, our story has been about rescuing the lost…healing the brokenhearted…setting the prisoners free. We were “slaves” of our sinful nature which had pulled us away from God’s design and, then, continued to lie to us about the One who truly loved us. The further we got away from the original story the more blurry the memory became and we forgot what it was like to be free and to be in fellowship with our Father. Then, when all hope seemed lost and things were at the worst…Jesus.
He brought light into our darkness and broke the chains of our sin…our selfishness and pride…our doubt and fear. The One we were told we could never trust has demonstrated His love for us “in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). By responding to His love and taking hold of His extended hand, we were pulled from the muddy deception of this world and experienced freedom for the first time in our life…we were born again.
Now that we are reconciled to Him we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light (1 John 1:7). But…we are very forgetful people and we are constantly being tempted to return to our bondage. The one who held us in chains is still trying to get us to live like slaves. He is still whispering in our ear to get us to doubt all that Jesus has done for us. “You cannot trust Him.” “He is not concerned about you” “He is the one who wants to enslave you”. Lies…lies…lies. It is his language (John 8:44). He is a liar. Do you remember the beginning of our story? Nothing has changed.
The world is a noisy place and sometimes we forget where we have come from. We forget what it was like to be enslaved to our sin. Like Israel when they complained to Moses, “Why did you take us from Egypt? We had plenty to eat there and they treated us well.” What? How could they have so quickly forgotten their horrible…hopeless situation. When we review the story, it is obvious that they have been dramatically rescued and we wonder how they could be so ungrateful. But, spiritually we do the same thing.
As time goes by and life is still hard and God doesn’t make everything good, we begin to complain and the memories of our old misery begin to take on a certain comfort and desire. We forget the pain and the despair and we begin to listen to what the world has to offer. Temporary pleasures and empty promises. “Come back”…”Remember when you could do whatever you wanted?”
Some of those in the Galatian church were struggling with these same things. Especially when life gets a little tough…or a lot tough…we are tempted to long for the old days when we were at the whim of every selfish desire. We forget the depth of the suffering caused by our sins and we long to go back.
Shake it off! O Christian, do not use your blessed freedom to wallow in self-pity! You have been set free! You have a Savior who has not only rescued you but walks with you at this very moment. He has promised never to leave you alone no matter what. Yes, life is hard at times and doing the right thing is not always convenient but before you start complaining…remember…YOU ARE FREE! Thanks to Jesus you are free! And He is there to give you strength…hope…and to just hold your hand through it all.
Paul reminds us all today, that our story is one about being set free. Let us use it to to follow God’s lead!
Your story is about being set free!