Friday, December 19

Scripture: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law (Galatians 4:4). 

Observation: Paul is explaining to the Galatian house churches why the law of Moses, with its 613 commandments, is no longer binding for someone who has faith in Christ and why striving to comply with the law is counterproductive. The purpose of the law was to help God’s people live in righteous ways. The law spells out what the righteous ways are and what a person is to do when they veer off course. Paul calls the law a “disciplinarian” earlier in the letter, meaning the law follows the carrot-and-stick method of teaching behavior. The carrot is the reward for doing the right thing; in this case, compliance with the law meant God was happy with you. The stick is the punishment for doing the wrong thing; in the case of the law, the way to avoid being punished by God for wrongdoing was offering the appropriate sacrifice. All Jews since Moses lived “under the law,” such that the one and only way to live a good life, a life God rewards and doesn’t punish, is compliance with the law.

But then God sent his Son. Jesus was born “under the law” like all other Jews, but through him God did something different. His act of self-giving, the sacrifice of his very self, was an innovation totally separate from and apart from the law of Moses, and thereby opening up a new pathway to righteousness in the eyes of God. Human beings are not the ones who walk this pathway. Jesus already walked it. His sacrifice accomplished what the law could not do: it made us righteous in God’s eyes on our behalf. This is righteousness done for us and in spite of us. God is well-pleased with us independent of what we do or don’t do, because Christ’s sacrifice covers us. That doesn’t mean God is happy with everything I do or signs off on all my thoughts and behaviors. But it does mean God’s love for me is non-negotiable. There’s nothing I do or refrain from doing that could talk God’s love for me up or down. 

What Paul is trying to make plain to the Galatians – because other preachers have come behind him and stomped on his message – is that no one, neither Jew or Gentile, is bound to comply with any law in order to deserve God’s love. Even more, all attempts to be good enough in the eyes of God are self-defeating, because in trying to earn God’s favor, we limit our comprehension of God’s limitless love for us. There’s nothing I can do to talk God’s love for me up or down, but in trying to earn that love, I hold myself back from receiving God’s unconditional love for myself. This I must not do, or I will miss out on freedom. Freedom is the one-word summary of Paul’s gospel. Because of the gift of God’s Son, we are free from the guilt of our sin so that we don’t have to do a thing to convince God to accept us, we are simply accepted as we are; and we are free for a life of joy and kindness where our good intentions and good deeds are unchained by the fear that God wouldn’t accept us otherwise.

Application: I will accept freedom. I will live like a person who believes God’s love is non-negotiable. The carol says that at Christmas, “the soul feels its worth.” I will explore the full worth of my own soul, for my soul must be so valuable to God that God shattered what humanity thought religion was for, the attempt to force God to approve of us, to show us that God’s approval was already a fundamental law of the universe. I will also live in response to this freedom, as a person who is set free for a purpose. I will delight in being unleashed on the world for the specific purpose of doing all I can to work for Jesus’ vision for the world, a world less like the world and more like heaven.

Prayer: 

Holy One, I turn to wondering what you could do through me

   If I accepted the unconditional truth

   Of my non-negotiable freedom?

You broke physics and shattered religion and

Became mortal so I would see what was always behind the veil:

You want me.

   Good enough is a grabbing at empty air. 

You want me.

You bound yourself in skin and closed the air between us to show

You want me.

What might you accomplish through me if took hold of my freedom?

How many more smiles would I wear?

How much rest would I take?

Gifts of food and calls and hours with company on the couch, how many more?

Hands dirty from serving instead of busy from worry, how much more?

Glimpses of your goodness because I bothered to notice, how many more?

In my grabbing for good enough I retreated farther into a cage.

Then you came and kicked down the door and stayed with me

Until I was ready to walk out.

Holy One, it’s time to go. The fullness of time is now.

It’s time to accept the law of the universe that you are 

Well-pleased with me. 

It’s time to live as the breathing thank you note 

For being set free.