Pastor Lee Eclov, from Vernon Hills, Illinois, talks about his first visit to a health club in the 1970s. His friend Frank had invited Lee to go with him, and when they arrived, they entered a room filled with weight machines.
Pastor Lee had never seen those things before in his life, so Frank explained that they would spend a few minutes on each machine, exercising all the various muscle groups as they went along. Frank called it “the circuit.”
Well, there was a muscle-bound guy in charge – “no nonsense, tight T-shirt,” Lee said. He walked the group through the use of each machine, and after his tour, Pastor Lee sat down at the first one, while a few other folks took their places at the other machines. The guy in charge called out, “Two minutes on each machine,” blew his whistle, and Lee started to pull down a set of handlebars attached to some weights.
Nothing.
He had just worked this machine a few minutes earlier, but this time nothing happened. The weight he was trying to lift didn't budge an inch. He tried harder.
Still, nothing happened.
The T-shirt guy yelled at Lee – something like, “C'mon, you overweight daisy!” So Pastor Lee redoubled his efforts, but nothing happened. Pastor Lee thought his shoulder was going to separate. He was “sweating like a coal miner,” he says, until he gave up in shame. He looked down at the machine in defeat.
At that point, his friend, Frank, came over to help him out. Frank looked the thing over and discovered that someone had pulled the pin on the proper weight. Lee had been trying to lift all the weights the machine had – something like 500 pounds! But that was it for Pastor Lee. He gave up. He walked out, because he was exhausted by all the useless effort. (Lee Eclov, Vernon Hills, Illinois; www.PreachingToday.com)
Trying to keep all the rules all the time is a lot like Pastor Lee’s experience with that weight machine. It leaves you exhausted, frustrated and ashamed. There is a better way to live! And if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Galatians 3, Galatians 3, which shows us that better way.
Galatians 3:23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed (ESV) – 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 all the rules in order to feel accepted and loved. But now, because of your faith in Christ, you are no longer in that kind of a prison.
YOU ARE FREE!
When you trusted Christ, God freed you from the need to perform. God freed you 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 3:24-25 So then the law was our guardian” [Literally, the law was our pedagogue, our child-conductor, or baby-sitter] until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian… (ESV)
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 years old until they were considered adults, at about 16 or 17 years of age. And it was his job to make sure those boys got to school. It was his job to teach the boys to obey and to discipline them when they didn’t obey. 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 kid. 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 you with punishment every time you misbehave. But the good news is you who have trusted Christ are no longer under such a baby-sitter. You who have put your faith in Christ are no longer under the law. You are free, because…
YOU ARE LOVED.
God favors you unconditionally. God accepts you as you are and treats you as his own grown children. That’s right! God treats you as his full adult sons.
Galatians 3:26 …for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
The moment you put your faith in Christ, you not only became child of God, you became His full adult child. That’s the meaning of the word “sons” in this context. In other words, God doesn’t treat you like little babies in his family. He treats you 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. They’re all married and happily engaged in their careers, so 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 your children grow up, it is wonderful to relate to them as adults. You don’t have to discipline them any longer. You don’t have to clean up their messes. You don’t have to wipe their snotty noses or keep a constant eye on them anymore.
The fact is 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 I have 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 you who have put your trust in Christ! God enjoys relating to you as his adult sons and daughters, and He is proud of what you have become in Christ.
So quit trying to prove yourselves, because you don’t have to do that with God. He already accepts you as you are. God treats you as His own full adult sons and daughters. That’s because He treats you as his own son, Jesus Christ. You see, when God looks at you, He sees Jesus!
Galatians 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (ESV)
When you trusted Christ as your Savior, The Holy Spirit “baptized you into Christ.” Literally, you were immersed into Christ; you were submerged into His glory; you were plunged into His righteousness, so that you yourself are no longer visible.
Now, the only thing God sees when He looks at you is the beauty and glory of Christ. You are clothed with Christ; therefore, you are fully accepted by God before you say or do anything.
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 to 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 you come to faith in Christ, you put on a spiritual Toga Virilis. You put on Christ Himself. And now, God grants you all the rights and responsibilities of full adult citizens in His Kingdom.
He accepts you, not only as His child, but as a fully mature, adult son or daughter, because you have put on Christ Himself. So quit trying to prove yourself, because you have already proven yourself in God’s eyes.
Since you put your faith in Christ God treats you as a full adult son or daughter. He treats you as His own Son, Jesus. And God treats you as equally valuable sons. In other words, He has no favorite son or daughter.
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (ESV)
No matter who you 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 you 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.
Earlier this year (March 2016), NPR interviewed Francois Clemmons, who played the role of friendly Officer Clemmons on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood for over 25 years. Clemmons was the first black actor to have a recurring role on a children's television series. Surprisingly, Fred Rogers was clearly going out on a limb to cast Clemmons as a police officer. Clemmons knew this and expressed his reservations: “I grew up in the ghetto. I did not have a positive opinion of police officers. Policeman were siccing police dogs and water hoses on people. And I really had a hard time putting myself in that role. So I was not excited about being Officer Clemmons at all.” Still, Clemmons eventually agreed to take on the role.
Over the decades he spent on the show, there's one scene in particular that Clemmons remembers with great emotion. It was from an episode that aired in 1969, in which Rogers had been resting his feet in a plastic pool on a hot day. Clemmons recalls, “He invited me to come over and to rest my feet in the water with him. The icon Fred Rogers not only was showing my brown skin in the tub with his white skin as two friends,” Clemmons said, “but as I was getting out of that tub, he was helping me dry my feet."
Clemmons says he'll never forget the day Rogers wrapped up the program, as he always did, by hanging up his sweater and saying, “You make every day a special day just by being you, and I like you just the way you are.” This time in particular, Rogers had been looking right at Clemmons, and after they wrapped he walked over. Clemmons asked him, “Fred, were you talking to me?”
“Yes, I have been talking to you for years,” Rogers said, as Clemmons recalls. “But you heard me today.” Clemmons says, “It was like telling me I'm OK as a human being. That was one of the most meaningful experiences I'd ever had.” (www.npr.org/ 2016/03/11/469846519/walking--the-beat-in-mr-rogers-neighborhood)
God has been telling some of you for years, “I like you just the way you are.” Please, let this be the day that you really hear Him in your heart. Whether you are red or yellow, black or white, No matter what your background, No matter what your struggles, God loves and accepts you just as you are.
Because of your faith in Christ, God treats you as His full adult son or daughter. He treats you as His own Son, Jesus. He treats you all as equally valuable sons.
And finally, because of your faith in Christ, God treats you as a rich heir. God treats you as better than a billionaire, because that’s what you are.
Galatians 3:29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (ESV)
You see, Christ is a descendant of Abraham. In fact, according to vs.16, Christ is THE offspring of Abraham, to whom God had promised a rich inheritance. Well, if you belong to Christ, if you are part of His body, then that rich inheritance is yours, as well. It is yours, because if you are in Christ, the offspring of Abraham, then you get everything He gets.
Romans 4:13 talks about “The promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world…” Did you hear that? In Christ, the offspring of Abraham, you are an heir of the world!
Step aside, Warren Buffet. Donald Trump, “You’re fired, because in Christ I own the world.” You see, when you trust Christ with your life, you are not only a child of God. You are not only an ADULT child of God. But you are an adult child of God who has succeeded far beyond anything anybody could have ever imagined.
You have nothing left to prove to God or to anybody else. So stop trying to lift the unbearable weight of trying to earn God’s acceptance or anyone else’s.
Instead, understand and know this in your heart: YOU ARE FREE, BECAUSE YOU ARE LOVED! You are free from the constraints of the law. You are free from having to measure up. You are free from the pressure to perform, because God already treats you 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. Please, let it grip your heart: YOU ARE FREE, BECAUSE YOU ARE LOVED!
George Beverly Shea put it well when he wrote the words to this song:
There’s the wonder of sunset at evening,
The wonder as sunrise I see;
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me.
