Gal 5:1-4  “ It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

In the film Brave Heart, William Wallace screams out a final declaration before he leads his people into battle. He says something like “They may take our lives but they’ll never take our FREEDOM.”  A little while later on his death bed at his execution his enemies thought they had defeated him when Wallace wanted to speak. So they quieted the crowd to hear this rebel’s final words. They thought they had  won, they had finally broken the great William Wallace before his followers. The scene goes quiet and he begins to whisper something so they all listen intently thinking at this time he will repent of his ways. An eerie silence settles over the area turning the execution site into holy ground, then with one final gasp of air from his lungs he screams to the world  “FREEDOM”. At that moment his accusers realise that even though they had taken his life. Wallace had indeed still won the victory!

I have discovered that as human beings we love laws, rules and regulations because it is via this medium that we can test and measure just how we are doing in life and where I sit in the pecking order. They tell me if I’m acceptable to you, or if I’m better than you, or heaven forbid, you are better than me. Everywhere we go people are trying to project these laws on us. We get them placed on us at work, we get them placed on us at home. Every relational encounter is constrained by these invisible chains. In fact, we even project them onto ourselves in order to evaluate whether we are succeeding or failing in life.

The scriptures tell us that God gave the Law to put boundaries on sin because the fabric of society was in jeopardy of falling into complete anarchy. Rules and regulations were given to put a lid on sin. God had decided this far and no further. The trouble is most of us have spent so long under the law’s control and we have developed the habit of living from the position of rules and regulations. It’s what we are use to however, now in Christ we are called to FREEDOM. The trouble is that we don’t know how to live that way because suddenly the boundaries are taken away and we have no way to test and measure just how we are doing. This makes us uncomfortable because the only measuring stick we have is Jesus Christ and his instruction for us to live and walk in the spirit. This unprecedented level of freedom is foreign to our paradigm of thinking. It cuts across everything we have ever known so often we default back to what we know and are comfortable with. When we do this we actually fall from the grace that God has so freely given us.

Just as Paul was exhorting the Galatians 2000 years ago to fight for their freedom. Today you and I need to fight the same fight. We need to make sure we don’t allow anyone to steal the freedom we have in Christ. Not even US and our previous life! We are new creatures in Christ and our freedom is rich, full and complete. In fact it is so rich, full and complete that if not careful we can actually use that freedom to sin! But hey that’s another story.

My Prayer:  Father protect me from the tendency to want to hide under the rules, regulations and laws that I myself and others often want to project on me. Teach me to walk and live in the spirit and be comfortable with not having any other reference point to know how I’m doing in this life except Jesus Christ. Give me the courage of William Wallace to fight for my freedom in Christ until the very end. Save me from the fatal fall of thinking I can somehow outwork my salvation by the rules, regulations and laws when the truth is it began as a work of your spirit and it can only continue as a work of your spirit. It truly is a mystery of grace!