Paul sees this and is like, "Yeah, no guys. Rules, regulations, and law aren't where we meet God." This isn't Paul giving the Galatians a free pass. This isn't Paul telling us to go buck wild. This isn't a "get out of jail free" card. This is an encouragement that we don't receive grace through perfectly upholding the law. I can easily get distracted in my faith by wanting to do things right and well. When that distraction takes hold, showing up at church on Sunday is more important than spending time in the Bible during the week. There's a certain piety that becomes more valuable than an authentic relationship with the One who I claim sustains my very life. It becomes more important to me to appear righteous and holy versus actually having a genuine closeness to Jesus.
But, like I said earlier, this isn't then an invitation to do whatever we want. I was struck so deeply this morning by Paul's words in verse one where he states, "Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." The use of yoke is meant to show us that our freedom is not meant to lead us back to sin. Paul is showing us that our sin is a burden, it oppresses us. We are given freedom so that we may know and experience the beauty that it is to live a whole, healthy life. We weren't given freedom to walk right back into what was enslaving us. I mean, we can choose that. But why? Why would I choose being enslaved when I've been given the gift of freedom? Sometimes our sin is more comfortable, because we know it and it's familiar. We choose to be enslaved. It's like when a child doesn't know what's good for them but we do because we're adults.
When you read child, just also substitute my name in there because LORD KNOWS that I constantly do things that aren't good for me. That's not a good use of my freedom. It's like if I ate Los Betos Carne Asada Fries for dinner every single night. I know it's not good for me. I know it's going to make me sick. I know I'm going to feel like trash. So, why would I continue to pull up through that drive through and do it on a daily basis? Because it's comfortable and for a moment it feels good. I just want to clarify that I don't eat Los Betos Carne Asada Fries every day. If I did, I would surely perish.
We all have our, "I know this isn't good for me, but I do it anyways" type of thing. Is it a person? Maybe it's an unhealthy relationship that you're enslaved to. Maybe it's insecurity. Maybe it's addiction. Maybe it's anger. Whatever it is, we all have our thing that we've given the time and space in our lives and now it seems to be apart of us. In Galatians 5:9, Paul writes, "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." When I read that, I had this "Ooooh yeah I hear that" type of moment. If you asked me point blank, "Jess, do you want to be free or do you want to be enslaved to your sin?" I would look at you like you were crazy and say, "Be free, ya dingle dangus." But, does my life reflect that? Oh no. My life, a significant portion of the time, does not reflect freedom. I'm enslaved to my own insecurities, my anxiety, my fear, comparison, selfishness, and the list could go on forever. Jesus calls me to be free from this, well, He invites me in to freedom. But I look from my foxhole where I'm surrounded by burdens of my own making and say, "Cool but I'm good, thanks Jesus." Or, even worse, I look from my foxhole and think, "I could never be free from this, I've done too much, I've gone too far." Jesus wants to take our Carne Asada Fries. He wants our shame. He wants our anxiety. Our fear. Our sin. Our whatever we've clung to instead of embracing His freedom. He invites us to give it all to Him.
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus is inviting us to trade our burdens for His love and grace. His love and grace isn't obtained by following all of His rules, like we learn from Paul in Galatians. We are freely given His grace and love through faith and mercy. It doesn't make sense and I hope I'm never able to make sense of it. I hope I just forever live in an appreciation of it: an appreciation that helps me discern between the spirit of the law and the letter of it and an appreciation that helps me understand freedom, in it's truest and purest sense.
We live in a time where we've allowed ourselves to give so much of our mind, body, and soul to things that enslave us. I just can't do that anymore. I'm tired. I'm weary. I won't live in a way where I voluntarily enslave myself to something or someone that will just leave me more tired, more weary, and more burdened. I know that sometimes it can be tempting to think of freedom as just a pipe dream. It's something that we talk about, sing in worship songs, or read about, but the beauty of freedom in Jesus is that it's already been gifted to us. We just have to allow ourselves to receive it. I hope you join me in living in that freedom, because I know it is be better than what the world offers us or what the world would like us to believe that freedom is.
