Driver's License
“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.”
- Galatians 5:1 NIV
It’s funny the things that come to mind sometimes…
Like when my girls began learning how to drive and were able to get their Driver’s Licenses. Thus giving them the opportunity to drive just about anywhere at any time… with proper parental approval, of course.
And they did just fine learning the responsibility of getting behind the wheel.
But I saw it in each of them... that freedom calling. The kind of freedom that driving can give you.
No longer waiting for someone to pick you up.
No longer begging someone to take you here or there.
No longer having to comply to car rules and radio station settings.
Just them, a car, and the freedom of the road.
Well, truth is, they may not have felt all that... but I sure did. Just me, a 1973 Buick Regal, and some minimal semblance of a curfew.
Freedom indeed!
As I think about the freedom and responsibility that comes with driving, I’m reminded of the great freedom and responsibility that comes with faith in Jesus Christ... and I’m reminded of today’s passage.
When a number of Gentiles in Galatia became Believers and Followers of Jesus, there were some Jewish Believers who began to add rules, methods and conditions for being saved and for growing in Christ.
In this letter, Paul reminds these new Believers that Jesus died to set us free... set us free from sin and set us free from a long list of rules and regulations that bound the Pharisee and many Jewish people.
It wasn’t about circumcision and wasn’t about following the Law or customs anymore, it was and is about the grace, mercy and forgiveness that Jesus gives. True freedom is about trusting and believing Jesus... that He is who He says He is and did what He said He’d do, does today and will do in the future.
This Freedom doesn’t allow us to do whatever we want because that would lead us back into the bonds of slavery...
slaves to our own selfish desires...
slaves to our sin...
slaves to the whims and desires of others...
Thus making the Gospel for not.
Responsibility then follows…
As Believers... as Followers of Jesus... we have the responsibility to not pervert or change the Gospel for our own purposes, but to live what we say we believe, and live for the Truth... the true Gospel of Jesus, who lived and died and lived again so that we might have life, eternal life, an abundant life.
It is our responsibility to live in freedom and share with the world around us the freedom that comes from a relationship with Jesus.
It is for freedom that we have been set free.
So today, as we step into our car or truck to go to work, school or on the many errands we have to run, recall the freedom that driving brought so many years before...
And remember the freedom solely found in the life and blood of Jesus Christ.
Keep the Faith... Carpe Diem
