Stand Fast part 2
Here, in a nutshell, is what I'm trying to say in this Rant series: "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another" (Galatians 5:13). That's as simple as I (or Paul) can make it. It's not freedom TO sin. It's freedom FROM sin. It's freedom TO love. We were in bondage... before the cross. Then, because of the cross, through the cross, on in the cross, we were set free. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." I have every confidence that the Father answered His Son's prayer. And not only forgave us for not knowing what we were doing... but shined the light of the world (that we are) on us, and in us, and through us so that we could see clearly. So that we could know what we are doing... and what we ought to be doing. And the best part is... He wiped the past away. Doesn't hold that portion of our life that my dad likes to call "wandering in the wilderness" against us. I've also heard it called "going around the mountain." I like both pictures. Basically it's when you don't even know what you don't even know. When you think you have life all figured out... but you really have no idea what life is about. Your youthful indiscretions. The things you did when you didn't know better. Trying to get whatever you could however you could. And I really believe--up to a point--that's just called being young. Because when you know better, you can do better. The problem is when you don't learn from your mistakes but just keep making them over and over and over. That's called insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? At some point you have to learn and grow. Look at 1 Corinthians 13:11, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." When we're young, we need someone (our parents) to take care of us. Which can--trust me, my nine year old lets me know--sometimes feel like bondage. Because you can't always do what you want. A lot of the time you have to do what your parents think is best for you. And, of course, as a parent I'm simply trying to train him up in the way he should go. But the point is, when we get to where we can do whatever we want... it's easy to overcompensate. To abuse our freedom. To use it, as Paul warned against, as an occasion to the flesh. And guess what: Even then God doesn't punish you. He's not in the punishing business. He's in the grace and mercy business. He's in the love business. He knows that love wins. That love endures. That it is the GOODNESS (not the scariness) of God that leads men to repentance. That only by seeing a more excellent way will we ever turn from "our" way. And then, once we experience that more excellent way (that is Jesus, that is love) we will be able to share that more excellent way. We will understand that standing fast in our liberty really means loving people with everything we are and everything we have. It means giving what you've got, not trying to get what you think you haven't got. It means free FROM sin, not free TO sin. It means... free to love!