This morning we were in Galatians 2:11 – 21. Tomorrow the study will be on Galatians 2:20. For years I have been struggling with a question surrounding this passage that connects to much of Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. I have written about this some here if you search for Colossians 2:9 – 10 in the search box above you will see a few of them.
In Galatians and the other passages I mentioned, Paul tells us that we are free from the Law; that we are complete in Christ. The bottom line for that is that there is nothing that I can do to increase or decrease my standing in Christ. I am complete. The problem is that Christ and Paul both tell us that we need to be in the Word of God, we need to pray, we need to engage in other spiritual disciplines as they did. (By the way a great book on this is Willard’s, The Spirit of the Disciplines.
) As believers we tend to substitute those disciplines for the Law and in so doing they become a law for us. We tend toward legalism, competition, merit, performance based lives. We measure things. The houses we live in, the cars we drive, the schools we attended, and we tend to categorize ourselves and people with whom we interact based on those measures. It is wrong but we do it, or at least I am prone to do so.
Back to the question. I have worked through – that is an overstatement – I have introduced this concept to a lot of believers. Most, including me, struggle with the concept. They begin to understand it. But it seems to be a continual battle to keep from viewing our lives in Christ as complete rather than based on merit. So the question is it possible to raise our kids in a way that they are delivered from performance in their relationship with Christ and live from the beginning of their relationship with Him in the full knowledge of their completed position in Him.
In my experience the answer seems to be no. I don’t like that answer. My prayer is that my kids do a better job than I did with theirs so my grandkids will always know Christ that way.
I have more thoughts on this but will save them until tomorrow.
) As believers we tend to substitute those disciplines for the Law and in so doing they become a law for us. We tend toward legalism, competition, merit, performance based lives. We measure things. The houses we live in, the cars we drive, the schools we attended, and we tend to categorize ourselves and people with whom we interact based on those measures. It is wrong but we do it, or at least I am prone to do so.Back to the question. I have worked through – that is an overstatement – I have introduced this concept to a lot of believers. Most, including me, struggle with the concept. They begin to understand it. But it seems to be a continual battle to keep from viewing our lives in Christ as complete rather than based on merit. So the question is it possible to raise our kids in a way that they are delivered from performance in their relationship with Christ and live from the beginning of their relationship with Him in the full knowledge of their completed position in Him.
In my experience the answer seems to be no. I don’t like that answer. My prayer is that my kids do a better job than I did with theirs so my grandkids will always know Christ that way.
I have more thoughts on this but will save them until tomorrow.
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