My Lawmaking Heart
If you worshipped with us last Sunday, you will remember that we finished our look at the first sermon that we have recorded that Paul preached. (Acts 13). In it we noticed that the people of Antioch in Pisidia, a city in the region of Galatia, were begging Paul for more when they heard the "good news.” In Jesus they could have forgiveness of sins and be freed from everything which they could not be freed from through the law of Moses. Part of our observation Sunday was that, while we may not feel an obligation under the Jewish law system, we ourselves are "lawmakers" imprisoning ourselves and others by performance rather than resting in the absolute free grace of the Lord.
This week I had an opportunity to observe how this can so easily work out in my own heart. While helping out with an event, I was moving chairs and tables, and performing other menial tasks in order to help make the event successful. While I was doing these things, I noticed other people standing around talking and presumably not helping. Immediately, the "law" flashed through my mind and heart, that in order to be righteous one needed to help with necessary tasks. That's it. That is the law. You either are in the right or in the wrong. I did not consider whether these people had been helping previously and were taking a break. Nor did I consider what might be going on in any of their lives that would necessitate a conversation. The only thing that I was focused on was my own righteousness for moving chairs, and the others unrighteousness for their failure to be helping. My law had me bound.
This is why Paul says in Galatians, neither circumcision nor uncircumcised counts for anything, but the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love (cf. Gal. 5:2-6). Applying this to my situation, the scripture is saying that neither moving that chair nor not moving that chair counts for anything, but all that matters is faith -- namely in a God who has called me to be serving in that way in that moment, and that my identity is in him not this task -- expressing itself in love to my fellow event planners and attenders.
As the Holy Spirit gives us eyes to recognize the way that the law works in our own hearts, we more easily see why the gospel is such good news. Not only are sins forgiven, and we are counted righteous in Christ, but we are freed from having to perform in prescribed ways or requiring others to perform in like manner. To be clear, I’m not talking about freedom from actions that would bring sorrow to our Savior, but rather the extra laws that we place on ourselves or on others. Or to say it another way, the way that we take or give value to ourselves or to others, that is in addition to the value that the Gospel says is ours in Christ. Learning to live in Gospel reality is the great invitation for our life of sanctification!