Plain ‘ol Sinning

Sept. 26

Read: Galatians 4:21-5:15

"Plain ‘ol Sinning”

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery… 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.” (v. 5:1,13)

In Christ, we are “children of the free” not “children of slavery”. (v. 4:31) This is what God intended and promised to his people all along… this is what it means to be “children of the promise”. (4:21-31) It is not always easy to trust that God has transformed us / is transforming us. It does not always seem like we have truly been “set free from our slavery to sin” (cf. Rom. 6:15-22) This doesn’t change what is TRUE about us. The same pastor I mentioned before, Andrew Farley, calls to light the way that we are “born into our identity”. We see this in the example above. The reason the scriptures use the children of Sara and Hagar as examples is highlights this very fact! Our identity does not come from our actions; rather it does from our proverbial “birth”. We were initially born sinners… so we SIN. We are re-born into the Spirit… as children of God… children of the promise… children of faith… so we LOVE. This is why it is so destructive to continue to call those who are in Christ “sinners” - it is ignoring their true identity, the presence of the Spirit within them, and what the scriptures say about them. We must “stand firm and not submit to a yoke of slavery” again. (5:1)

So what is the potential “pit fall” in all of this? What is it that we are afraid of? For many, the idea of embracing the sort of radical freedom in Christ that we have outlined here would lead to people “not behaving”… “being naughty”… “plain ‘ol sinning”. The fact is that sinning is still a problem that Christians must contend with - temptation is real. Yet the irony comes in thinking that “the list of rules” is more effective at defeating temptation or directing the actions of a person than their new identity and nature given to them by faith in Christ. Once we have received a spirit - have been spiritually “born again”- we have been given our new identity and a shift has taken place within us. (cf. John 3) We are no longer driven by our flesh. We are no longer identified by the “body of dust” that came from the material world. (cf. 1 Cor. 15:42-58) This is the internal battle that we feel each day; this is the source of temptation within us: our flesh and the patterns of thinking that we have developed because of it.

So the word reminds us: “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.” (v. 5:13) There is always the danger of us using our freedom in Christ as an opportunity for the flesh. The law has no ability to make the flesh righteous. The “rules” have no ability to transform our habits or satisfy our hungers. The Spirit, on the other hand, does! The next section outlines how we are to live out this freedom in Christ THROUGH the Spirit within us! For today, let us start with this simple instruction: use your new found freedom to love other brothers and sisters in Christ. We can start by serving one another. Now that you are convinced of your FREEDOM, we will look more at what to do with it! Love you guys. -JDP