Freedom For Today

“When I think of all this, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the benefit of you Gentiles… assuming, by the way, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending his grace to you Gentiles. As I briefly wrote earlier, God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me. As you read what I have written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ. God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by his Spirit he has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets.”

God’s plans are a mystery, and I cannot begin to explain to you why God has done certain things in a certain order any better than Paul can. So let’s start with what we know: God chose people. He first offered his grace to the Jewish people, at times sparing non-Jewish people groups in Old Testament times as well, and through Jesus extended grace to the whole world.

We don’t always know how things will turn out in life. Sometimes even when we think we know the plan, there are things that come later we never expected. Or sometimes a story seems over until God opens a door that didn’t seem possible. We don’t always understand, but we do know that God loves giving gifts and offering grace.

Here’s your freedom for today: God is an includer. There is room for you at God’s table, no matter what your background or who you are. Grace is offered to you. We forget that grace is by definition undeserved. You don’t have to earn it or do something to get it. God is more than able to embrace you in whatever filthy condition you show up in. And he’s more interested in loving you than making you look good on the outside. He doesn’t want to fix you, he wants to bring you to a place where you are totally free. It’s a mystery, but God wants me and you for all of eternity.

“So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.”

What does it mean to be part of a family? For all of us, we have a slightly different answer to that question. Some have had wonderful family experiences, while others have lived with pain or abuse. Regardless of your past, most likely you have some kind of ideal in your mind about what “family” should mean.

In God’s family, the word “unity” is supernatural, beyond anything we have experienced or imagined. We are not just the family members, but we are also the fibers of his house itself. Jesus is the cornerstone — the most critical piece of the entire foundation. We are so intricately connected and together we create a space for God’s Holy Spirit to dwell.

Here’s your freedom for today: we are all part of God’s dwelling place. In America we often get caught up in individualism. We forget that the Bible talks so much about the church as a collective body. Your relationship with Jesus is not just about you. Our faith is centered around God and is only possible with all of us together. You can’t live the Christian life alone because it does not reflect the spiritual reality that we are one united body. What does it mean for you to connect with your spiritual family this week?

“For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.”

The law always made the Jewish people unique. No other group of people had divine laws inscribed in stone by the finger of God. Other gods seemed to want things like child sacrifice and fertility rituals. The Jewish God had built in laws about justice for the oppressed and freeing people from slavery and debt. Even with the goodness of his laws, God chose to tear down the wall that separated his people from the world. Not to encourage them to live a different way, but to encourage the world to join the family.

There is still hostility in our world, but there is absolute peace in God’s kingdom. We share one Spirit, given to us directly by Jesus. Anyone who is in God’s family must be a reconciler. It is our mission to the world to hold our arms wide open — a reflection of Christ’s posture with us.

Here’s your freedom for today: God has torn down every wall. He has invited you in. He has been kind to you even in the midst of your sin. What are some ways you can do that for others? What are some unorthodox, unfair ways you can choose to love? What is one wall you can tear down to help someone come to Jesus? Christians sometimes feel like we must be the morality police, but God has not invited us to live that way. He has abolished the law so that we might understand and deliver his grace.

“Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called ‘uncircumcised heathens’ by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.”

I’m not sure how long you have known God or how well you feel like you know him, but no matter how long or how well it is not enough. The Jews knew more about God than any other people group on earth. They knew him intimately and he had been directly involved in every aspect of their lives, culture, religious practices, and legal system since the beginning. Yet even the Jews often missed the heart of God, focusing more on earthly practices than on eternal realities.

If you are not a Jewish person by birth, then you are considered a Gentile. You were not part of the original family clan chosen by God, but ultimately his intent was always to offer salvation to the whole world. We know this from the prophets in the Old Testament, like we can read in Isaiah 45:22-23. Before Jesus, the rest of the world didn’t know much about God except what they saw from the life of the Jewish people. With Jesus’ arrival, the message became overt and clear: salvation is for everyone.

Here’s your freedom for today: Jesus wants to bring you close. That phrase “brought near to him” makes me think of an embrace or a close whisper in the ear. A gentle “come here, child.” He’s been whispering to his chosen Jewish children for their entire history, and he’s beckoning to your heart right now. Whether you have known Jesus your whole life or whether you don’t really know him at all, there are deeper places to explore. Don’t be satisfied with your status quo with God. Press in. Go deeper. Come closer. Be nearer than you have ever been before.

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

What is grace? We hear that word thrown around a lot; we even use that word for mealtime prayer. In Greek, that word “grace” (charis) means “favor,” or “bending down to show kindness.” Imagine a king reaching down to bestow gifts upon the commoners in his kingdom. Pure generosity that cannot be earned and is not deserved.

Sometimes we try to earn God’s love. We try to add up our good deeds and hope that impresses God. But there is no reward because there is no deed great enough. Instead, we are the wondrous craft of the master craftsman who takes tremendous pride in his work. He had some pretty awesome thing in mind when he hand-made us.

Here’s your freedom for today: you don’t have to earn a thing with God. You’ve already got his love. You don’t need to do anything to get more of it. He’s already shown you grace. You don’t need to beg for gifts or kindness. He loves you. He wants you. He’s lavishing you with generous grace and adopting you into his family. He wants all the credit which means you don’t have to work to get any. Take a deep breath. Stop trying to earn things. Just sit and let him love you today.