When Being Good Isn't Good Enough: 21 Days of GraceSample

The Freedom to Be a Friend

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you .  .  . ?” (Galatians 3:1)

Freedom is not just another word for nothing left to lose--or maybe you have discovered that it is. Maybe you have lost (or tried) everything else. When you don’t have anything else to lose, you discover something wonderful: You are free! The horrible effort to protect, rationalize, hide, and pretend is gone. All you have left is Jesus. Of course, as I believe Ron Dunn said, you don’t realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you’ve got. When He is all you’ve got, then you know that He is all you need. 

The Christian faith isn’t about rules or religion or theology or doctrine or conformity or trying to please other people. The Christian faith is about a relationship with someone who loves you and who has given you the freedom to be His friend. 

The further we get from that freedom, the further we get from New Testament Christianity and the more our Christianity resembles every other religion—merely a system for keeping the baser instincts of human nature in check. In other words, Christianity becomes a system of rules and regulations. If we live by them, our Christianity becomes pure drudgery with a vague hope that God will reward us in heaven for the drudgery. If we don’t live by them, we either lie about it or give up altogether.