The Fight of Your Life

Have you ever felt like you do the very opposite of the thing you want to do most? Kinda like George Kastanza in "Seinfeld" when he did the opposite of what his natural instincts were, and life went great for him! But for us in the real world, things usually don't go so well. For example, my heart's desire is to be patient with my kids. But all it takes is for my 1 year old to climb up and stand on the coffee table (for the 6th time) and patience is no where to be found in me.

Paul says this about himself in Romans 7:15-19. In one of the most honest sections of scripture, Paul describes that he does the very thing that he hates. Now if this is true of the author of about half of our New Testament scripture and arguable the most influential person in history aside from Jesus Himself, what does it say about us?

Paul really unpacks this in Galatians 5:16-25. Right off the bat, he says that there's a war going on inside of us...the "over-desires" of our flesh versus the "over-desires" of the Spirit. The parts of us that really love our sin slug it out against the parts of us that really love Jesus. And when we "lead" ourselves, so to speak, what we find in ourselves and coming out of ourselves is the terrible list in verses 19-21. But when we surrender to the leading of the Spirit inside of us, the unified, godly character of the fruit of the Spirit in verses 22-23 grows.

So how do you fight this battle? What do you practically need to do to defeat the over-desires of the flesh? Paul gives us 2 "training" tips in verses 24-25.

First, according to verse 24, we need to constantly remind ourselves of the gospel. We need to remember that Jesus has already won this war, and that the power of sin & the flesh was crucified on the cross! We then live daily in the power by daily living in the rhythm of confessing our sin and repenting of our sin and claiming the gospel promise of what Jesus has done for us. The over-desires of the Spirit are no match for the flesh!

Second, according to verse 25, we need to practically order our lives by the Spirit. This is the idea of "walking" - and looking back at Galatians 2:14, we get a clear picture that for our steps to be in line, we need to have a plan. There are 2 biggest parts of this plan: the rhythm of spiritual disciplines and gospel community. Spiritual disciplines are daily rhythms that we build into our lives to help us intentionally connect with God. These include things like scripture meditation, prayer, Sabbath, serving, giving, etc. Gospel community means that we purposefully open ourselves up to other Christ-followers and be transparent and honest with our struggles so we can receive love, support, encouragement, accountability, confrontation, and prayer.

This fight is gruelling. It is the biggest fight of your life. But take heart! The victory is secured because of Jesus. And he continues to fight with us and for each and every day.

Freedom

According to Mel Gibson, this was the last word uttered by William Wallace. Who knows? But it does expose our cultures common understanding of what freedom is: the removal of outside authorities telling us what to do (most commonly in a political sense). But is this what the bible really means when it talks about freedom? Not really.

Tim Keller I think appropriately defines freedom: being able to do what you most want to do. But then the question lies in: what do I most want to do? To answer that, you have to take a look at the condition of your heart.

The bible puts everybody on the planet into two camps: those with a regenerated heart and those with an unregenerated heart. The unregenerate are those who do not love Jesus and haven't been given a new heart by him. So the natural result is that their hearts are self-protective and self-interested. The regenerated heart is a heart that's made new by Jesus according to the New Covenant promise from passages like Jeremiah 31:33, 32:39-40 and Ezekiel 36:26-27. The regenerated heart's deepest desire is to please and obey God, who is the One who created the heart in the first place! You can think of it this way: a baseball bat will find it's truly enjoyable freedom when it is particularly used to hit a baseball, and not as a paperweight or doorstop; for that is what it's creator purposed it for.

This is point that Paul expounds in Galatians 5:1-15. Our true freedom is found only when our hearts are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and we are authentic Christ-followers (5:1-6). This freedom we have then needs to be protected because their are "wolves" out there who don't like the freedom that the cross provides us (5:7-12). And lastly our freedom is truly lived out not as we simply do whatever we want, but as we seek put other's before us and serve with a motivation of love (5:13-15).

So be free! Be understand that true freedom is only found in loving and following Jesus.

Living Gospel Dependence

The previous two posts contrasted two ways to live: slave or free. But how do you move from a life of slavery to a life of freedom in Jesus? We find out in Galatians 4:28-5:1.

1. Cast off your slavish tendencies. Galatians 4:30

Confess your sin...specifically your ability to depend on yourself and repent of it. Ask yourself, how am I depending on my own ability to find comfort, approval, power, or control apart from Jesus? Cling to Hebrews 12:1 and "lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely."

2. Remember who you are in Jesus. Galatians 4:28, 31

Because of your faith in Jesus, you are a fully loved, accepted, free child of God with all of the privileges that go along with it!

3. Stand firm in your freedom. Galatians 5:1

Because of your freedom, people will criticize you, tear you down, not know what to do with you, be angry with you, turn their backs on you, basically persecute you. In order to stand firm, it has got to be like a redwood forest. Redwoods are incredibly tall trees, but have pretty shallow roots. But their strength is that their root system interconnect. You must surround yourself in gospel community!

4. Cast of slavish tendencies. Galatians 5:1

Didn't I say this already? Yup, but Paul repeats it because as John Calvin has said, the human heart is a "factory of idols." Martin Luther's first of his 95 Theses stated the the entire life of a believer is one of repentance. Our natural bent is to make good things ultimate things, thus sinning by idolatry. We need to simply embrace the life of repentance.

May you truly live free.

Two Ways to Live, part 2

Sorry this has taken awhile; my old laptop finally died and I've been trying to get my new one up to speed.

The last post showed what a life of slavery looked like, as illustrated by Paul in Galatians 4:21-29 with Hagar and Ishmael. We now see the free way to live in this same passage, illustrated by Sarah and Isaac.

1. Live by God's promise, desire, and ability (Galatians 4:23).

It took much faith to conceive Isaac, for Sarah was old and barren! Only God could make that happen. Paul quotes Isaiah 54:1 here, which is a beautiful illustration of the gospel. Childbearing was so important in this time because it equated political, financial, and social success for not just the family, but for the entire community and nation! So how was a barren woman to rejoice? The only way for the barren - or the poor, marginalized, needy, or anybody deemed less than worthy by society - to rejoice is to have their hearts completely restructured by the gospel and all they need for their worth in Jesus and his ability to do great things.

2. Unburdened, loved, & accepted (Galatians 4:24, 26)

As Hagar symbolically represented the Mosaic Covenant, Sarah represents the New Covenant in Jesus. Jesus himself said in Matthew 11:28-30 that following him resulted in a light & easy load. Looking to the law for justification is fully removed, for we are justified by faith in Jesus.

3. Vertically focused (Galatians 4:26)

Paul sets our eyes upward on the perfect, heavenly city of Jerusalem that God will one day institute here. We look upward for our source of life, love and acceptance, living the life of a worshipper who is focused on pleasing God and not man (Galatians 1:10).

4. Persecuted (Galatians 4:29)

Christ-followers are certainly promised persecution in their lives! Sadly, much of the persecution comes not from "the world" but from those who actually claim to follow Jesus (or are religious in general). Freedom is seen as a threat, and insecure religious people always want to remove the threat.

Are these "markers for freedom" true in your life? Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the areas that you are still living as a slave so you can begin to turn toward freedom.

2 Ways to Live, part 1

"On whom we depend determines if you live a life of slavery or freedom."

This was my pre-worship gathering tweet yesterday morning. Jumping into Galatians 4:21-5:1, we see Paul allegorically comparing Abraham's two sons, Ishmael (mother: Hagar, a slave-bond servant) and Isaac (mother: Sarah, wife). Using this historical illustration, Paul shows us that there are two ways to live, slave or free. But it has nothing to do with anything political, rather, it has everything to do with your heart and whom you depend on to live each and every day.

The first way to live is by depending on self. This is the life that leads to slavery. Hagar and Ishmael represent this way to live.

1: Live by own desire and ability (4:23)

It took no faith to conceive Ishmael; Hagar was young and fertile.

There’s a lot we can do on our own that doesn’t require faith; and while it may produce immediate results, they may not be God’s desired results.

2: Burdened by law (4:24-25)

Paul is symbolically portraying Hagar as the Mosaic Covenant, which was given on Mt. Sinai.

The law is good as it shows us our sin and need for Jesus as our savior; the law is bad as it is looked to for righteousness, for we consistently break it and are burdened by guilt, shame, and bitterness.

3: Horizontally focused (4:25)

When Paul says “Present Jerusalem” he means to be relying on law and focused on behaviors and expectations from man. Being horizontally focused puts us in the position of God, because while there are always those we compare ourselves to that are “better”, we can always find others who are worse off so we feel better about ourselves. Either way, it is an idolatrous way to live, not a worshipful way to live; for fear of man replaces fear of God.

4: Persecutor (4:29)

Ishmael and his descendants (starting with his mom Hagar) have always been in conflict with Isaac and his descendants; Jews trace their ancestry through Isaac, Arabic peoples trace theirs through Ishmael…Middle Eastern conflict began because of Abraham living by his own ability!

But the greater principle here is that law is always in conflict with gospel…Jesus’ biggest “enemies” were the religious, legalistic, fundamentalists of his day Why? Because their systems of acceptance, control, and power are threatened. They are insecure. Irreligious people aren’t threatened at all.

One way to tell if you find you justification based on works is that you persecute (hateful & hostile) those who are different from you, whether it's racial, social, religious, geographic, gender, or ideological differences.

Do the markers of the "slave life" apply to you? If so, you need to check your heart for legalism and dependence on yourself verses true dependence on God.

We'll be back with part 2 tomorrow!