Freedom’s Relationships (Galatians 3:23-29)
Danny Cox, a former jet pilot turned business leader, tells his readers in Seize the Day that when jet fighters were first invented, they “flew much faster than their propeller predecessors. So pilot ejection became a more sophisticated process. Theoretically of course, all a pilot needed to do was push a button, clear the plane, then roll forward out of the seat so the parachute would open.”
But there was a problem that popped up during testing. Some pilots, instead of letting go, would keep a grip on the seat. The parachute would remain trapped between the seat and the pilot’s back.
The engineers went back to the drawing board and came up with a solution. Cox writes:
“The new design called for a two-inch webbed strap. One end attached to the front edge of the seat, under the pilot. The other end attached to an electronic take-up reel behind the headrest. Two seconds after ejection, the electronic take-up reel would immediately take up the slack, and force the pilot forward out of his seat, thus freeing the parachute.” (Danny Cox, Seize the Day: Seven Steps to Achieving the Extraordinary in an Ordinary World, Career Press, 1994; www.PreachingToday.com)
The pilots needed that device to launch them out of their chairs. Question is, what will it take to launch us out of ours? We get so comfortable with our traditions. We get so comfortable with our rules and regulations that we hang onto them long after they are of any use. What will it take to launch us out of our legalistic systems, which can only take us down?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Galatians 3, Galatians 3, where we learn some things that might help.
Galatians 3:23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. (NIV)
I.e., faith in Christ. You see, there was a time when all of us believers were in prison with the Law as our prison guard, keeping us under lock and key. Oh, it was not a prison with bars and barbed wire, but It was a prison of do’s and don’ts. It was a prison of expectations placed upon us that we could never meet. It was a prison of trying to measure up to someone’s external standard in order to feel accepted and loved.
But now, because of our faith in Christ, we are no longer in that kind of a prison. WE ARE FREE! When we trusted Christ, GOD FREED US FROM THE NEED TO PERFORM. GOD FREED US FROM THE DEMANDS OF THE LAW. GOD OPENED THE DOORS TO ANY SUCH PRISON AND REMOVED THE PRISON GUARDS.
So please, don’t stay in your prison cell any longer. Instead, walk out of that prison of perfectionism. Get out from under those unrealistic expectations, which can only lock you down, and enjoy your freedom.
In the film The Shawshank Redemption, Ellis "Red" Redding spent his prime wasting away in prison because of a reckless act of violence he had committed as a teenager. After 40 years of imprisonment, Red was finally released to enjoy the long awaited freedom he wanted so desperately.
However, he couldn’t free himself from the habit of asking for permission each time he wished to use the men’s room. He had become “institutionalized.” His new life scared him, because he’d grown accustomed to the structure behind bars. Imprisonment had become safe for Red. He didn’t have to exercise his own decision-making. Someone else did the thinking for him, and now, on the outside, he faced a prospect more daunting and terrifying than incarceration: freedom.
At one point, Red contemplated various ways to break his parole and return to the security of his prison cell. He summed up his dilemma in one line: “It is a terrible thing to live in fear.” (Graham Johnston, Preaching to a Postmodern World: A Guide to Reaching Twenty-First Century Listeners, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2001, pp. 126-27; www.PreachingToday.com)
People caught in the trap of legalism are no different than Red. They are scared to death of the freedom grace brings, because it is much easier to retreat to our cells of dos and don’ts. It is much easier just to have somebody tell us what to do than it is to make decisions for ourselves.
But that’s not what God wants for us. God has freed us from all that. So get out of prison, and stop listening to your babysitter. That’s right. That’s how the next verse describes the law. It is not only a prison guard. It is a baby-sitter. Look at it.
Galatians 3:24 “So the law was put in charge” – Literally, the law became our pedagogue, our child-conductor, or baby-sitter – “to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” (NIV)
Galatians 3:25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. (NIV)
We no longer need a baby-sitter. In Bible days, this baby-sitter was usually one of the household slaves. He was given charge of his master’s sons from the time they were about 6 or 7 until they were considered adults, at about 16 or 17 years of age. & It was his job to make sure those boys got to school. It was his job to teach the boys to obey and discipline them when they didn’t. He carried a rod, which he used on the boys every time they got out of line.
It reminds me of a baby-sitter I had when I was a child. Now, most baby-sitters are nice. To a kid, that means you can get away with anything. You can have all the cookies you want. You can go to bed as late as you want, and you don’t have to clean up your toys. When my brother and sister and I were good, we got that kind of baby-sitter – usually a high school student from down the street.
But when we were misbehaving, my parents always threatened us with a “mean” baby-sitter. Her name was Mrs. Redkay. Now, with a name like that, we were sure she was a secret KGB agent; and, boy, did she make us behave. We could have only two cookies, and they had to be eaten at the table. She made us pick up our toys and sent us to bed early, even though we weren’t tired. I never saw it, but I was sure she had a big stick somewhere to clobber us if we ever misbehaved.
That, my friends, is the law. It is a mean, strict baby-sitter, which threatens us with punishment every time we misbehave.
But the good news is we believers are no longer under such a baby-sitter. We who have put our faith in Christ are no longer under the law.
We are free, because WE ARE LOVED. GOD FAVORS US UNCONDITIONALLY. GOD ACCEPTS US AS WE ARE AND TREATS US AS HIS OWN GROWN CHILDREN. That’s right! God treats us as His full adult sons.
Galatians 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (NIV)
The moment we put our faith in Christ, we not only became children of God, we became His full adult children. That’s the meaning of the word, “sons,” in this context. In other words, God doesn’t treat us like little babies in his family. He treats us as His mature, grown-up sons and daughters.
When our children were little, we put them under the care of a baby-sitter every time we left the house, but now they are grown. Two of them are married, one is in college, and it would be silly for us to hire a baby-sitter to watch over them today. They don’t need it.
Those of you who have little children know they require your constant watch and care. They are labor intensive, but let me tell you, it does get better! When our children grow up, it is wonderful to relate to them as adults. We don’t have to discipline them any longer. We don’t have to clean up their messes. We don’t have to wipe their snotty noses or keep a constant eye on them any more.
These days, I enjoy having adult-to-adult conversations with my children on the phone. I enjoy their company when they come to visit, and I enjoy the friendship that is developing with these wonderful young adults. I am proud of all my children. In fact, I am very proud of what they have become as adults.
Do you know that’s the way God feels about us! God enjoys relating to us as his adult sons and daughters. & He is proud of what we have become in Christ. So quit trying to prove yourselves, because you don’t have to with God. He already accepts you as you are.
God treats us as His own full adult sons and daughters. That’s because He treats us as His own Son, Jesus Christ. You see, when God looks at us, He sees Jesus!
Galatians 3:27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (NIV)
When we trusted Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit “baptized us into Christ.” Literally, we were immersed into Christ; we were submerged in His glory; we were plunged into His righteousness, so that we ourselves are no longer visible. Now, the only thing God sees when He looks at us is the beauty and glory of Christ.
We are clothed with Christ; and therefore, We are fully accepted by God before we say or do anything.
In the sheep fields in Scotland, every once in a while you will see a little lamb running around with what looks like an extra fleece tied around its back. In fact, if you look closer, you’ll see little holes in the fleece for its four legs and usually a hole for its head. When you see that, it usually means its mother has died.
Now, without the protection and nourishment of a mother, any orphaned lamb will die, but if you take an orphaned lamb and try to introduce it to another mother, that new mother will butt it away. She will not recognize the lamb’s scent and therefore will not accept the new baby as one of her own lambs.
But thankfully, most flocks are large enough that there is a ewe that has recently lost a lamb. The shepherd will skin the dead lamb and make its fleece into a covering for the orphaned lamb. Then he’ll take the orphaned lamb to the mother whose baby just died. Now, when she sniffs the orphaned lamb, she will smell the fleece of her own lamb. And instead of butting the lamb away, she will accept it as one of her own. (From Peter Grant’s sermon, In What Way Is Jesus Christ Different? www.PreachingToday. com)
In essence, that’s what God has done for us. When we trust Christ, He clothes us with Christ who died on a cross for us. That way we become acceptable in His flock. In fact, He Himself accepts us as his own children!
But He does more than that. Like I said before, He accepts us as adults!
In the Roman world, in Bible days, when a young man came of age, he went through a very significant ceremony. In that ceremony, that young man was clothed with a special toga – the Toga Virilis – which signified his passing from childhood into responsible adulthood. When that boy put on the Toga Virilis, the whole community began recognize him as a man, and he was granted all the rights and responsibilities of full citizenship.
That’s the picture we have here in verse 27. When we came to faith in Christ, we put on a spiritual Toga Virilis. We put on Christ Himself. & Now, God has granted us all the rights and responsibilities of full citizenship in His Kingdom.
He accepts us, not only as His children, but as fully mature, adult sons and daughters, because we have put on Christ Himself. So quit trying to prove yourself, because you have already proven yourself in God’s eyes.
He treats us as full adult sons and daughters. He treats us as His own Son, Jesus. And God treats us as equally valuable sons. In other words, He has no favorite son or daughter.
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (NIV)
No matter who we are – Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, black or white, rich or poor, young or old, Republican or Democrat, Blue collar or White collar, No matter who we are as a believer in Christ, it makes no difference with God. He loves us all the same!
In fact, God does not value Billy Graham any more than he values the weakest believer in His family. No! He values us all the same. He values YOU as much as He does Billy Graham. He values YOU as much as He values Mother Theresa. He values YOU as much as He values the greatest saint who ever lived. We are all ONE in Christ, so we have nothing to prove. Each of us is just as valuable to God as any one of us.
One day, Mister Rogers was making a trip to California and decided to pay a visit to a teenager with cerebral palsy. [Tom] Junod wrote about the incident and he said, “At first, the boy was made very nervous by the thought that Mister Rogers was visiting him. He was so nervous, in fact, that when Mister Rogers did visit, he got mad at himself and began hating himself and hitting himself, and his mother had to take him to another room.” Mister Rogers waited patiently and when the boy came back, Mister Rogers said, “I would like you to do something for me.
Would you do something for me?”
On his computer, the boy answered yes.
Then Mr. Rogers told him, “I would like you to pray for me. Will you pray for me?”
Junod says that the boy was “thunderstruck,” because “nobody had ever asked him for something like that, ever. The boy had always been prayed for. The boy had always been the object of prayer, and now he was being asked to pray for Mister Rogers, and although at first he didn’t know if he could do it, he said he would, he said he’d try, and [for many years] he kept Mister Rogers in his prayers and didn’t talk about wanting to die anymore because he figured Mister Rogers is close to God, and if Mister Rogers likes him, that must mean God likes him, too.”
After the incident, Tom Junod asked Mister Rogers how he knew what to say to make the boy feel better.
Mister Rogers responded: “Oh, heavens no, Tom! I didn’t ask him for his prayers for him; I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. I asked him because I wanted his intercession.” (Wendy Murray Zoba, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Christianity Today, 3-6-00, p.45; www.Preaching Today.com)
Mister Rogers understood the value of even a Cerebral Palsied teenager to the Kingdom of God.
My friends, we are ALL valuable to God, even though there are times when we hate ourselves and hit ourselves for our own spastic spiritual behavior. God does not view us as any less valuable, because we struggle. He treats us all the same, so we have nothing to prove.
God treats us as full adult sons and daughters. He treats us as His own Son, Jesus. He treats us as equally valuable sons.
And finally, God treats us as rich heirs. God treats us as better than billionaires, because that’s what we are.
Galatians 3:29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (NIV)
You see, Christ is a descendant of Abraham. In fact, according to vs.16, Christ is THE seed of Abraham, to whom God had promised a rich inheritance. Well, if we belong to Christ, if we are part of His body, then that rich inheritance is ours, as well. It is ours, because if we are in Christ, the SEED of Abraham, then we get everything He gets.
Romans 4:13 says that “Abraham and his [seed] received the promise that he would be heir of the world.”
Did you hear that? In Christ, the Seed of Abraham, we are heirs of the world!
Step aside, Warren Buffet. Donald Trump, “You’re fired, because in Christ I own the world.”
You see, we are not only children of God. We are not only ADULT children of God. But we are adult children of God who have succeeded far beyond anything anybody could have ever imagined. We have nothing left to prove to God or to anybody else.
WE ARE FREE, BECAUSE WE ARE LOVED!
We are free from the constraints of the law. We are free from having to measure up. We are free from the pressure to perform, because God already treats us as His full, adult, incredibly successful children.
David Seamands, in his book, Healing for Damaged Emotions, describes a missionary who had a different view of God. As a result, he ended up leaving the mission field a broken man. His name was Dr. Joseph Cooke, who later became an anthropologist.
Dr. Cooke said, “I invented an impossible God, and I had a nervous breakdown… God’s demands of me were so high, and his opinion of me was so low, there was no way for me to live except under his frown… All day long, He nagged me: Why don’t you pray more? Why don’t you witness more? When will you ever learn self-discipline? How can you allow yourself to indulge in such wicked thoughts? Do this. Don’t do that. Yield, confess, work harder.
“Most of all,” Dr. Cook says, “I had a God who down underneath considered me to be less than dirt. Oh, He made a great ado about loving me, but I believed that the day-to-day love and acceptance I longed for could only be mine if I let Him crush nearly everything that was really me. When it came down to it, there was scarcely a word or a feeling or a thought or a decision of mine that God really liked.” (David Seamands, Healing for Damaged Emotions, p.84)
Perhaps, that’s the way some of you feel about God this morning. If you do, I hope that what you heard today changes all that. I hope that what you heard today frees you from the pressure to perform, so you can begin to enjoy your relationship with the Lord.
He does NOT consider you to be less than dirt. On the contrary, God is proud of what that you have become in Christ. There is no pressure to perform anymore. You don’t have to work to please Him anymore, because He is already pleased with you. My friends…
WE ARE FREE, BECAUSE WE ARE LOVED!
