Randy Wray’s Blog

Here’s another contribution from my friend Danny Mann. Quite appropriate for the upcoming 4th of July weekend.

You ever write one of those MAD letters? You know what I mean? They lost your reservation at a hotel - MAD letter. The service was bad at an expensive restaurant – MAD letter. Or, heaven forbid, the airline sent your golf clubs to Acapulco while taking you to Hawaii – VERY MAD letter. If you haven’t written one, you’ve probably thought about it – and you’d be in pretty good company.

Paul wrote a MAD letter. It’s in the New Testament. It’s called Galatians. It seems that, as Paul would go into a town and start a church – get things up and running and move on – there was this group of troublemakers who followed him around and messed up his message.

They would say things like, Paul’s doing the best he can but he never met Jesus in the flesh. His sermons are a little off.” “See,” they would explain, “ before you can become a Christian, you have to become a Jew. You have to observe all the written and oral laws, celebrate special days like Passover. And, sorry guys, but we need to talk about circumcision.”

They were adding things to the simple gospel of Jesus. And it ignited a fiery apostolic anger in Paul’s heart. So he wrote a MAD letter and shot it off to the churches he had started in the region of Galatia. He used phrases like, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” And, “Let them be eternally condemned.”

He was not a happy camper. Paul was giving his life in service to the gospel message and he wanted to make one thing perfectly clear – don’t mess with The Message! Toward the end of his letter, he uses a curious phrase – “It is for freedom Christ has set us free.” (5:1)

I remember reading that phrase when I was younger and wondering what in the world he meant – “It is for freedom we’ve been set free.” To me it was like saying, “It is for lunch we are having lunch.” – it - “It is for sleep we are going to sleep.” - sort of redundant. Wow, Paul, you have a great grasp on the obvious. But now, years later, I think I know what he meant.

Freedom - it’s in our songs. It’s in our most beloved speeches – “Let freedom ring!” It’s fused into the fiber of who we are as individuals, who we are as a nation. Our country is only 229 years old. Paul was talking about freedom 2000 years ago. Was Paul’s concept of freedom the same as ours?

I wonder. As I look around, I see a lot of people who are enslaved by freedom. You think I’m nuts? We’re free to smoke. We get hooked on nicotine. We’re enslaved. We’re free to consume alcohol. It takes over our lives. We’re enslaved. We’re free to access pornography on the Internet. It consumes our time and wrecks our relationships. We’re enslaved. See how it works?

But those are the easy targets – cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women. We are free to pursue happiness. Happiness, many believe, is wrapped up in stuff – big houses, expensive toys, the finest clothes. So we work like crazy, long hard hours, to make the money to buy the stuff that brings happiness. Our families suffer. We have depression, heart attacks and high blood pressure. We’re enslaved. And if you’re sitting there, nodding your head saying, “You tell ‘em, Danny!” - take care. More than likely, you’re enslaved too.

Think you’re a better person than most? Morally superior? To be enslaved by self-righteousness may be the most dangerous enslavement of all. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

Pure, perfect freedom doesn’t exist in this world. Different degrees of freedom do, but perfect freedom doesn’t. In two days, we’ll celebrate Independence Day. It’s something worth celebrating. My sense is, that Paul celebrated Independence Day everyday. Because the freedom he was talking about is forever freedom, perfect freedom. And it’s only available through the glorious grace of God.

Wouldn’t it be something – if we could let that kind of freedom ring – and more than ring, let it reign?

Have a safe and free holiday weekend!