lion&lamb: Back Issue

Introduction: The Church and the Kingdom of God
Derek Poole

Comment: A Question of Belonging
Peter Wilson

From the Director
David Porter

Colosse
Michael Whitley

Revisiting the Kingdom of God and the Church
David McMillan

Faith and Practice - Baroness May Blood
Ruth Hutchinson

Ephesus
Heather Morrow

Lead us not into temptation
Alan Wilson

Galatia
Priscilla Reid

CEPU...a personal testimony
Ken Irvine

Econimail - Fancy Models or Straw Dolls?

Book Review
Ethel White

< Past Issues Archive

GALATIA
I will never forget those first heady days when many of us responded to the message of this enigmatic, fearless man. He spoke with conviction, and there were times when his fierceness was intimidating. Yet behind all he said was an overpowering sense of genuine concern for us. Even when he was ill he continued to teach us about the God who loved us so much that He sent his Son, Jesus Christ to rescue us by dying for us on a cross, so that we too could become children of God.

The incredible truth that there was a God who wanted to be our father and make us his children still overwhelms me and to discover that I was unconditionally loved was like music to my ears. Grace was a new concept in our world where we spent our lives trying to appease the gods. Nothing has ever tasted as sweet as this grace we discovered when Paul introduced us to Jesus Christ. There were no demands made on us, we didn’t have to meet any special requirements, we only had to believe what we had heard.

The truth of what we heard not only affected how we saw ourselves but how we saw others. To be honest, before this I don’t think I would have listened to someone who was sick because I would have assumed that they had displeased the gods in some way. But Paul explained that the life we were being introduced to in Christ was possible because God would give us His Spirit who would teach us and empower us to live in a different sort of way. Up to that point most of us were only concerned with our own interests. Paul explained this was living to please ‘the flesh’ but Christ was calling us to take a different path, to learn to walk by the Spirit and this would produce a completely different set of values in our lives.

We started to understand that what we were getting involved in was not just an individual thing but the beginning of a new community where people would be loved and accepted no matter who they were. Jesus Christ forgave our past and made us new people; we had been given a brand new identity as children of God.

The word on everybody’s lips was freedom, not some kind of self-centred anarchy with everyone pleasing themselves but a freedom to live for God who loved us so completely. There was a freedom to look out for each other and set aside old prejudices and attitudes. I suppose the best way of putting it is that we were offered relationship rather than religion.

We started off with such high hopes, with a freedom charter, which was the foundation of our lives together We had a vision to build a community based on our new prophetic identity as children of the living God rather than old allegiances and prejudices. We were bound to the Lord and to one another, not by a series of rules, but with an overpowering sacrificial love. We were part of a community where every person could feel accepted and equal, where we would seek to serve each other.

I have just come back from hearing a letter read that Paul has written to our church. It has really made me think. I suppose I just went along with what the new teachers were telling us because I thought as they were Jews they probably knew more about a relationship with God than I did. They have been putting great pressure on those of us who were Gentiles to be circumcised and to start observing the ceremonies of the Jewish faith. The freedom and joy that my new relationship with Jesus Christ had brought seems to have been whittled away and recently I have been feeling that I will never measure up.

Paul has accused us of being foolish and I must admit it does feel as if we have been duped and manipulated into thinking that what Paul taught us was incomplete and needed to be added to. They threw doubt on Paul’s apostleship and on his teaching but it was his teaching that brought us freedom. Their teaching has been like a heavy burden being placed on our backs. How could we have so quickly deserted the magnificence of that initial vision of being a community of grace, living in true freedom under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit?

Priscilla Reid is an elder of the Christian Fellowship Church, Strandtown. She is also a member of the ECONI Steering Group.

But when the time had fully come God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba Father”. (Gal.4: 5-6)

So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Gal.5: 16)

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal.5: 22) You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ. Here is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal.3: 26-28)

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal.5: 1)

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? ... You brothers were called to be free... The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. (Gal.5: 7,13,14)

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. (Gal.1: 7)

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified. (Gal.3: 1)