"Tell them that it's human nature"--A study of Galatians (Question 7--The Line in the Sand)

 

"What then has become of your blessedness?"  Galatians 4:15

Paul has conversations like I do..."What about this?" "Why did this happen?" "Here's the answer.." "Oh and one more thing...." "When were you going to address this?"  "I just thought of one more point..."  His writing is so off-the-cuff, like he's hashing out the argument out loud as he goes.  Since this is a letter, he's  not expecting an immediate answer, so he's having to imagine both sides of the conversation.  I often have a running dialog in my head. Two voices--me and the one I'm arguing with-- and I'm always winning.  👌But Paul didn't have that "luxury".  As a biblical author, Paul was being led along by the Holy Spirit to speak these words to the Galatian church.  He could ask the questions to make them think, he could encourage them, build them up, put them down; but God would be the One to guide them in ultimate truth.  After the 6 questions

1. Who has bewitched you?

2. Did you receive the Spirit by law or by faith?

3. Did you begin by the Spirit only to be perfect by the flesh?

4. Did you suffer in vain?

5. Does He who supplies the Spirit do so by law or faith?

6. How can you become slaves again?

this is the 7th question, the line in the sand.  "Where, then, is your blessing?"  He doesn't want them to think he's only pointing out the bad; he's thankful for their patience and care for him, both past and present.  He doesn't want to be the bad guy.  Paul so badly wants to see them choose life that he compares it to labor pains.  

 

He knows the Galatians see the line in the sand because they are dangerously flirting with both sides of it.  While they care for Paul, essentially their pastor and father in the faith, they are allowing the enemy a place at the table, too.  The false teachers are wooing them over to their side, and who doesn't savor a little extra attention? But it's not good!!    Paul, always with the big feelings, has dark wishes for those pushing salvation by circumcision, (or at least salvation plus circumcision).  He says if they love circumcision so much, maybe they could just go ahead and cut the whole thing off.  😟😟😟(Paul said it, not me...)

We probably don't think much of circumcision or any certain Old Testament laws as pertains to salvation.  But we are not immune to the enemy's dark romance.  When we have our "mountaintop" experience with God, the moment Jesus saves us, it's just so....real.  We breathe it in, we know it, we take it to heart, and we are ready to do all the things.  But something happens on the way down the mountain. We allow ourselves to be bewitched.  We forget that we did nothing and God did everything.   We can't accept that there's not something we should be doing to somehow deserve this. We pick some reasonably spiritual things to fill in the perceived blanks.   Because our human nature is arrogant.  From the garden of Eden to Mount Sinai to Galatia to Pinckneyville and beyond, we have always thought we only needed God to get started, then we will take it from there.  Why?  Why? We can tell him that it's human nature, but it's not the excuse we think it is.  

The choice is theirs.  The choice is ours.  On one side of the line is slavery; on the other side is freedom.  For the sake of freedom, Christ set us free.  Our purpose is to be free.  Our calling, the calling of the Spirit in our life, is to freedom.  To wide open spaces.  

"He brought me out to a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me."  

2 Samuel 22:20

"I called to the LORD in distress; the LORD answered me and put me in a spacious place." 

Psalm 118:5

It sounds like an easy choice, the easiest choice ever.  But our human nature, the flesh, doesn't think so.  It would leave behind the wide open space for the dungeon of sin again and again. 

When we walk with the Spirit, there is freedom.  When we walk with the enemy--our flesh, our human nature--there is slavery.  The choice made will be reflected in every single aspect of the life wheel we examined in the beginning--self, behavioral, social, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. For good or for bad.  

Human Nature--"...sexual immorality, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and anything similar."  Galatians 5:19-21

Spirit--"Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23 

Where then is your blessing?  Where is your blessedness?  If you've never breathed in the sweet salvation of Christ, I pray you start there.  You've heard His gospel, it's in your mind now.  Breathe it in.  Take it to heart.  

If you've allowed something or someone to bewitch you, go back to the beginning.  Take another deep breath.   Think on it, take it to heart. Reorient yourself to the calling of your Savior. 

Then let's take the next step together--hand in hand with the One who rescues us from this present evil age.  Out of slavery, out to where the only thing that matters is new life in Christ.   Out into freedom.  Out into the wide open spaces.  Because He delights in us.  

Cause I wasn’t made to be tending a grave
I was called by namе
Born and raised back to life again
I was made for morе
So why would I make a bed in my shame
When a fountain of grace is running my way
I know I am Yours
And I was made for more