Sleeping Dogs

 

For freedom Christ free us!  Stand firm, then, and be not again enthralled with the yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5: 1, Concordant New Testament 

There's a old adage which often tells us that we should let the past remain in the past.  Never to be resurrected again.  "Let sleeping dogs lie," they tell us.  That is, ignore an issue because trying to deal with it might cause a more difficult situation.  As many know, a sleeping dog can be unpredictable if suddenly awakened.  My experience is more with cats, but I'll go with it.  I mention this because there is a tendency in Christian circles to resurrect the past and continue to dwell in it.  The apostle Paul refers to this in Galatians.  Paul warns us to "Not be enthralled by the yoke of slavery."  Slavery?  What is it that Paul was speaking to?  Well, first of all we will need to somewhat define the word slavery I guess.  Google defines it as "The condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom."  Does this sound at all like the Christian life you are now living?  Are you laboring for something you find unreachable?  What was it that Paul was talking about here?  Well, believe it or not, many a believer has fallen victim to the yoke of slavery in their lifetime without realizing it.  It is a thought process that is so engrained in us that we often do not even realize that we're living it.  Yet make no mistake, we are slaves to it.  What is it?  I'm speaking to the very identity which we have mistakenly associated ourselves with for far too long.  The identity which places a divide between ourselves and God.  Now, rest assured that it has never been the Lords intent that He be separated from His loved creation.  From the beginning it was His desire that we be one with He and Christ Jesus {John 17: 21}.  That is His desire for us.  Yet instead of following our Fathers desire, we instead follow the lie of the accuser which has led us into the slavery which Paul spoke of.  The lie of our accuser is the same lie Satan spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden.  Eve bought into the lie of Satan, believing that if she ate of the fruit which the Lord instructed her not to, that she would "Be like God" {Genesis 3:4-5}.  Unknown to Eve, she already was like God {Genesis 2:7}.  Scripture tells us what happened from there.  Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, and mankind was branded with the sin they chose to accept.  Paul tells us that we all have sinned {Romans 3:23}.  We live the lie.  

Knowing this, that our old humanity was crucified together with Him, that the body of sin may be nullified for us by no means to be still slaving for sin, for one who dies has been justified from sin.  Now if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall be living together with Him also, having perceived that Christ, having been roused from among the dead, is no longer dying.  Death is lording it over Him no longer, for in that He died, He died to sin once for all time, yet in that He is living, He is living to God.  Thus you also, be reckoning yourselves to be dead, indeed, to sin, yet living to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Romans 6: 6-11, Concordant New Testament 

If you think that all is lost, think again.  For even after reminding us that were all once sinners by nature, Paul reminds us of the love and grace of the Lord God which saved us from ourselves.  Once again, in Romans, Paul speaks to our no longer being slaves to the sin {Romans 6:6}.  But weren't we slaves to the lie of the accuser?  Yes, we WERE.  Paul reminds us that our old humanity, that which was affected by the sin lie, has been crucified with Jesus on the cross {Romans 6:6}.  We are no longer slaves to the lie of the accuser, we have been set free in Christ {Romans 6:11}.  The lie of the accuser is that we are somehow separate from the Lord.  That we are our own independent self.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The Lord is a everyday part of our lives, even if we choose not to believe it.  It is Christ Jesus who now dwells in us {Galatians 2:20}.  We are not one in ourselves, but one in Jesus and the Father.  By choice, we can no longer be slaving to the lie of the accuser.  

There is no independent, self-operating self in the universe, except the One who calls Himself the I AM {Ex 3:14} and says, "I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God beside Me"{Isa. 45:5}.  

Norman Grubb, No Independent Self 

~Scott~