"Freedom"

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." (Gal. 5:1) The Law of Moses enslaved. The legal approach to God by works to be saved enslaves! Too many are conforming to a legal system of salvation that enslaves. The result: many are told what think, what to feel and what to do. You must do this or that if you are going to be saved and most of the time, it is the Bible verses misused or abused. Control, people want to control. Elders want control. Teachers want control. That's what the Law did. While many promise freedom it is really bondage that results.

While the legal system works it's relationship to the Lord, it can't afford to talk about the real things that need to be taught to encourage one another and build true faith. It was Paul that spoke plainly to the Corinthian brethren: "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died." (II Cor. 5:14) Too many are afraid of the love of Christ to control! We talk about issues of the past, prove points of teaching to put down those who disagree while making us look better and the souls sitting drown in all the empty talk. The teachers sometimes are so far removed, they don't understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions (I Tim. 1:7). Legalism kills and puts a yoke of slavery around the neck of God's people.

That's what happened to the Jew's. They had such difficulty in exchanging the Law of Moses, being told what to think, where to go, how to go about life for Christ. They had been under the "Law-works" principles for so long it was difficult for them to accept salvation by grace of God through faith. The legal systems banner reads: "DO THIS AND THOU SHALT LIVE!" It is alive and well in many congregations of our Lord. The freedom of salvation in Christ Jesus banner reads: "LIVE AND YOU WILL DO THIS!" Paul wanted to know from the Galatian brethren if they were so foolish thinking they had begun by the Spirit and now keeping a law system by the flesh was going to take them to maturity (Gal. 3:3)? In other words, are we saved by the grace of God and kept by our human works? How foolish is that? Only a fool would attempt to do God's work of grace and love with human power and law keeping! "Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited." (Heb. 13:9)