Living by the Spirit

Topic: Christian Liberty

Today we are privileged to zero in on three Biblical principles.

Spiritual Principle One: You and I are called to be free.

This is the main emphasis of the entire book of Galatians. Paul has hammered away on this theme, coming at it from every possible direction.

Now he nails it down to this straightforward assertion: "You, my brothers, were called to be free" (Galatians 5:13a).

At one level, that is a very exciting statement. At another level, that's a bit scary for those of us who have a modern notion of freedom which says that "anything goes."

Perhaps that is the great problem of our day, and any day. Some of us love to hear talk about "freedom." There's part of us that wants to live in the reality that anything goes.

There is something in each of us, at the same time, that pulls back from this concept of freedom. We feel more secure where we are surrounded by rules that confine us. We get a bit scared out there in that big, wide world where there is no security of fences to help us feel secure in our own territory.

This year, Anne and I have adopted two, adult male dogs, King Charles Cavalier Spaniels. The first one, Monty, we brought home on Christmas Eve. He is a little five-year-old Blenheim. The second, Travis, we brought home on Labor Day weekend. He is a little Tri-Color. Both these dogs love the freedom to roam. At the same time, we discovered from the breeder that they are happiest when they have a secure space, quite limited in size, where they feel comfortable. To bring them to a brand-new environment, as we did, and give them immediate access to the entire house was quite disconcerting. It is better to make clear what is their safe space to which they can return, so they are not insecure, than suddenly thrust them into a whole new environment of freedom. It is too much for them to handle.

When we did that too quickly, we saw that it produced anxiety in these perfectly housebroken little fellows. They reverted to some anti-social behavior, making their mark on some of our prize furniture in an endeavor to create a safe place, familiar to them.

True freedom does not mean that "anything goes."

Anything does not go!

Remember the woman we talked about last week who was puzzled by this series in Galatians? For her, Christian faith was defined by her endeavor to obey the Ten Commandments and to live by The Golden Rule. All this talk about living under grace, not Law, became confusing. Her response was, "So I don't have to obey the Bible? I can just go out and commit adultery? It doesn't make any difference?"

No. You see, that's the old nature at work in which we don't quite know how to handle the freedom that is ours in Jesus Christ. In some ways, we are more content to be surrounded by a fence of "do's and don'ts." Set us free to roam, randomly, in a much larger environment, and we become inclined to mess up and be counterproductive in what the Bible calls "sinful ways."