Independence Day
Today’s reading (Galatians 3) is about as freeing, exciting, and problematic thing as you could possibly read. Why freeing and exciting? Because we learn that we get into God’s good graces, into a relationship with Him, and into Heaven not through our feeble or best attempts at it, but by the Spirit of God, and by the grace of God made available to us by Jesus when He died on the cross. Our role is not to be good enough, but to believe what we heard, and place our faith in Jesus rather than ourselves, and in response get baptized thus clothing ourselves with Jesus.
Wow. Knowing it’s wasn’t, isn’t, and will never be about how good I am, but it’s all about Jesus and what He’s done for me. That is freedom.
So why is it problematic? Because, I think, so few church goers get this. I bet if you did in-depth interviews with everyone in America who goes to church, a big chunk of them would reveal that they believe (like the Galatians) that they have to observe God’s law and be good enough. And I bet you’d find that many understand they were saved by grace, but believe that the rest of the journey is through law/works.
This coming Saturday is July 4th where we remember that we are free because so many gave their lives to give us that independence. Maybe we should have some kind of Christian Independence Day, featuring Galatians 3, where we’re reminded and we celebrate that we are free because Jesus gave His life to give us that independence? Sound good? Alright people, let’s go cook some hotdogs!