Freedooooom!

Galatians 5:1

[1] 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.

You are still a slave. You beat yourself up over every sinful action and thought then perform some useless penance, whether self-inflicted punishment, acts of repentance, or just wallowing in guilt for several days.

Punitive action on your part is worse than the sin you are trying to make up for!

"But I feel bad!"

You should!

Yes, that is because of the comparison.

The Law, according to the Holy Spirit, in the book of Galatians is a tool to point us to Christ. If you don't yet know Jesus, it proves that you cannot become like God. It reveals, brutally, that you are not even remotely good enough. It forces you to either lie to yourself that you can be good enough because you are better than "that guy" or turn to the judge and ask for mercy.

Here is the beauty if it! When you turn to the Judge, Jesus Himself, He reveals Himself, and saves your sorry butt. He accepts you anyway! You win!

THIS is the good news!

Actually, it is fantastic news!

Once you have met Jesus and have just a wee bit of trust in Him, believing that what HE did was enough, then the law becomes a slightly different tool. It does still show the perfectness of God, but now it goes from a condemning voice to a thermometer, a gauge that shows you where there is a shortfall of faith.

If you really believe that Jesus died for your sins. If you really believe that He did save you, then why would you go back to the law to condemn yourself? It already showed you that you would NEVER be good enough.

Jesus saving you, did not suddenly make you like God!

No, it is a process. He calls it Sanctification.

Jesus saves you. Then HE works to make you better, closer to Him. He could have made you perfect, had He wanted to, but He didn't. Stop fighting Him! Sanctification is the process of growth and change that you can do together WITH God. It is how God draws you closer to Him.

Let me explain: a man comes to Jesus. He is a loser and sees how crappy he is without God. Someone tells Him about the grace of God through Jesus, so He reaches out. Jesus reveals Himself to the man and saves Him. The man is elated! God is real and God loves him! It's a big deal! It's life-changing!

Yet, the man is still the man. He is born of the Spirit now, and a new man inside, but the man, the flesh, is still "the loser man". God is going to grow him into more.

In that process, God will use EVERYTHING in his life to mold and shape the man. When the man is low, He will use hope, success, and encouragement from all things around him. When the man is too high, arrogant, and proud... God will use sin to bring him back down to earth.

Yes, He will. You are not your own. This should have been clear on day one, the day Jesus took your life. Unfortunately, most teachers don't know God or the book well at all and say otherwise.

"You need to obey God!"

Ok, that IS true, but it is not the command to obey the Law that we should obey. No, it is the command to trust the Father! If you do, THEN you WILL obey the Law!

Faith creates action. If you trust God, when He says adultery is bad and will hurt you and yours badly... you won't do it.

Ah, but if you become proud, thinking that you shine on your own. That you are better than those around you, well, The Father will humble you IN the circumstances. You WILL fail!

Yes, yes He does this!

"But God loves me! He would never give me more than I can handle!"

If His goal is to draw you closer, and you are arrogantly moving away... He most certainly will. He will have you fail miserably, because the LAW was made to point you to Christ!

You fail badly, fall on your knees, and come back to Him. Then HE needs to rebuild your world... which He will do, if you repent, not just stop sinning, but turn back to faith in Him rather than faith in YOU!

Think David.

Think Peter.

Repentance has always been turning back to God in faith. So, the opposite of faith is turning from God and trusting in anything else. THAT is sin.

So, when YOU punish YOU, who are you trusting???

God, The Father, the One outside of time and space wrote your story... ALL OF IT! The question, the saving question, is DO YOU TRUST HIM?

Do you trust Him with your life, your choices, your actions? Do you trust Him to be GOD?

If you are still trying to obey the Law... you are still trusting you.

You will never compare to Jesus by how you walk. Instead of using it as a pass or fail test, use it as a gauge, a thermometer, to see how well you do actually trust Him. When you see a lack, which you will, focus on that area of doubt. Seek Him and His direction, His guidance, and His purpose for it all.

Make Him LORD... again, and again, and again...etc.

This thing is relational. It is intentional. Look, we would be perfect had He wanted it so. We are stupid and weak because He made us that way.

He has a plan.

He has a purpose.

He wants connection.

Do you trust Him?