Coconut
Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
- Messages
- 4,663
No Fences
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? ( NKJV)
How foolish can you be? After starting your new life in the freedom of the Spirit, why are you now trying to erect fences around your flesh?
(that is akin to the Israelite s longing to go back to Egypt after their deliverance from its slavery by the way)
l++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++l
You know all that the Letter to the Galatians is about, and you know the two prominent words;
– Liberty –
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" ( – A.V.)
– and sonship.
Not servanthood, nor slavery, but sonship; the liberty of sons. They are the two great words of that Letter.
But what are the fences there in Galatia? They are the fences of tradition, of legalism, and all such things. (touch not, taste not, handle not - you must, you must not)
You know, dear friends, it is very easy to get tied up with these fences! Anyone who has ever been on a farm, knows about barbed wire fencing. It will snag your flesh comin and goin!
The persistent peril through the ages of Christianity is to crystallize itself into something set, something fixed. You have some light, some revelation, something of the immensity of truth, just a fragment of it, and it is not long before you begin to form that into a set system and make it the limit, saying that this is what people must believe, they must come within this horizon, and they must behave like this.
It becomes a system again:
'You must... you must not!';
and there is no difference between that and the Old Testament
'Thou shalt... thou shalt not!'
Christianity has fallen into that peril, and is continually doing it, making Christ smaller than He is, making Him less of a Shepherd than He is; erecting Truth into something fixed and set +++++ man made fences.
Now you notice that when the Spirit did come, as we have the record in the Book of the Acts, the one thing that these old Jewish disciples experienced was a marvelous deliverance from the bondage of the Law; and how the Holy Spirit was working all along against any fixed barriers!
(adapted from TAS - the grave clothes of legalism)
No fences.
Joh 10:9 I am the gate. All who come in through me will be saved. Through me they will come and go and find pasture.
No fences.
*sigh*
No fences.
Gal_5:1 Christ has set us free! This means we are really free. Now hold on to your freedom and don't ever become slaves of the Law again.
No fences.
Gal_5:13 My friends, you were chosen to be free. [But] don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use your freedom as an opportunity to serve each other with love.
No fences.
(Hey now I get to stop being all caught up in trying to set myself free from this barbed wire, and I get to focus on living and sharing and caring and enjoying my life!)
Freedom, glorious freedom! Ah...feel the wind in my hair!
The [But] is not a fence. The [But] is the wind in the wide open pastures that carries you...as far as your eyes can see...wherever you roam...
Joh 3:8 The wind goes where its pleasure takes it, and the sound of it comes to your ears, but you are unable to say where it comes from and where it goes: so it is with everyone whose birth is from the Spirit.
No fences...imagine that.
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? ( NKJV)
How foolish can you be? After starting your new life in the freedom of the Spirit, why are you now trying to erect fences around your flesh?
(that is akin to the Israelite s longing to go back to Egypt after their deliverance from its slavery by the way)
l++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++l
You know all that the Letter to the Galatians is about, and you know the two prominent words;
– Liberty –
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" ( – A.V.)
– and sonship.
Not servanthood, nor slavery, but sonship; the liberty of sons. They are the two great words of that Letter.
But what are the fences there in Galatia? They are the fences of tradition, of legalism, and all such things. (touch not, taste not, handle not - you must, you must not)
You know, dear friends, it is very easy to get tied up with these fences! Anyone who has ever been on a farm, knows about barbed wire fencing. It will snag your flesh comin and goin!
The persistent peril through the ages of Christianity is to crystallize itself into something set, something fixed. You have some light, some revelation, something of the immensity of truth, just a fragment of it, and it is not long before you begin to form that into a set system and make it the limit, saying that this is what people must believe, they must come within this horizon, and they must behave like this.
It becomes a system again:
'You must... you must not!';
and there is no difference between that and the Old Testament
'Thou shalt... thou shalt not!'
Christianity has fallen into that peril, and is continually doing it, making Christ smaller than He is, making Him less of a Shepherd than He is; erecting Truth into something fixed and set +++++ man made fences.
Now you notice that when the Spirit did come, as we have the record in the Book of the Acts, the one thing that these old Jewish disciples experienced was a marvelous deliverance from the bondage of the Law; and how the Holy Spirit was working all along against any fixed barriers!
(adapted from TAS - the grave clothes of legalism)
No fences.
Joh 10:9 I am the gate. All who come in through me will be saved. Through me they will come and go and find pasture.
No fences.
*sigh*
No fences.
Gal_5:1 Christ has set us free! This means we are really free. Now hold on to your freedom and don't ever become slaves of the Law again.
No fences.
Gal_5:13 My friends, you were chosen to be free. [But] don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use your freedom as an opportunity to serve each other with love.
No fences.
(Hey now I get to stop being all caught up in trying to set myself free from this barbed wire, and I get to focus on living and sharing and caring and enjoying my life!)
Freedom, glorious freedom! Ah...feel the wind in my hair!
The [But] is not a fence. The [But] is the wind in the wide open pastures that carries you...as far as your eyes can see...wherever you roam...
Joh 3:8 The wind goes where its pleasure takes it, and the sound of it comes to your ears, but you are unable to say where it comes from and where it goes: so it is with everyone whose birth is from the Spirit.
No fences...imagine that.
