Thursday, 1 February 2024
"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."
Do not allow yourself to slip back into a life that is driven by the expectations of others!
In this passage, Paul is writing to people who have spent their whole lives driven by religious legalism and religious guilt. Even though they have come into the freedom of Jesus Christ, there is the constant pull of the way of thinking they grew up in-a way of thinking that wants to grip their emotions. The constant feeling that the guilt is right, even if I rebel against it.
You may have grown up driven by religious guilt, too, or maybe it is relational guilt that drives you because of the family environment you grew up in.
Yes, the Bible teaches that we have broken God's moral laws and are legally guilty before God and deserve his judgment. But for believers in Jesus, that legal guilt has been completely removed by Jesus, who took our guilt and died for our sins on the cross.
Your Christian life is not about being guilt-driven into a life of religious performance. No! It is about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Reject any attempts to guilt you into a religious way of life. Instead, just start loving Jesus. His word will show you the way.
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