Archived Daily Manna | Rejoice Fellowship | A mission to release people to rejoice in the world.

Message: We looked at this little paragraph from Galatians yesterday, but the idea is so powerful that we must give it a little more attention. Paul’s verbatim statement is, “If you are led by the Spirit (or spirit), you are not under the law.” Why does he repeat this here? It is certainly a point he has made clearly enough in the preceding chapters. Almost certainly, because he wants us to keep it in mind as we read or hear his commands not to commit sins of the flesh. Paul, by Giotto Imagine Paul, if you will, as a parent handing the car keys over to a 16-year-old to drive somewhere alone, for the first time. Said parent might well be unable to refrain from giving advice: “Don’t talk on your cellphone; remember to keep your seatbelt fastened; etc.” The silent, unsaid understanding is that the driver will not have a parent to protect him or to keep him from doing something stupid and dangerous. It is the unsaid message that Paul gives, when he tells the Galatians that they are not under the Law. Paul is about to launch into a rampage of specific advice-giving as to what conduct is permissible and what conduct must be avoided. Just as the young driver is no long a “slave” to the parent sitting in the car with him, the Christian is no longer slave to the Law. But as every parent will realize, parents are not disciplinarians because they like to punish their children; they are protectors, and the discipline is a form of protection, truly an act of love. Guardian angel by Murillo God trained the Hebrews for 15 centuries, disciplining them by physical punishment whenever they broke His commandments and rewarding them with tangible gifts when they obeyed the Law. He treated them like a good master might treat a slave, or a parent might treat a child. But no more. When Christ came, He set us free — for better or worse. God is not necessarily going to punish us for our sins while we are on earth, nor reward us for our good deeds. We might get an earthly benefit from our faith — e.g. millions of recovering alcoholics who have saved their lives through faith -- or suffer from a bad deed; but the Christian paradigm, being Christ Himself, is rather the opposite. The world saw perfect goodness in the human person of Jesus, and it mocked Him, stripped Him, and killed Him. In many respects, living under the Law (and the delusion that one might find salvation under it) was easier; and that is why it came first. But God knows that freedom has its own difficulties and burdens, and that is the very reason that He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us. (John 16:4-15) What Paul means to say, then, is meaningless to those who have not experienced the Holy Spirit: Do not sin, even though you will not be punished for it. Do good, even though you will not be rewarded for it. Once a Christian fully grasps Paul’s message, a concomitant knowledge arises: other people, also, will most often not be punished for their sin, at least not by God. If they find Christ, He will redeem them; if they do not, they will go to hell. Christians waste a good deal of time worrying about the sinfulness of non-Christians, rather than their salvation. We might, in fact, find a certain amount of sin in our judgment of others, even if we ignore Christ’s specific prohibition in Matthew 7:1-6. Pride in one’s own morality can easily become self-glorification.