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Emancipated

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. – Galatians 3:23-25

Every once in a while a story comes out…usually from Hollywood…about some child actor frustrated with parents and seeking to be emancipated. As children they are under the authority and, ostensibly, protection of their parents. They are legally in the custody of their parents. That’s the state of being in which children live, a state of custody.

Paul declares to the church in Galatia that we, too, lived in a state of custody up until the time Jesus Christ came and set us free. Pleading on our behalf and paying the price Jesus has brought us into a full adult relationship with our Father in Heaven. So now we have a choice. We can live in the freedom and responsibility that comes with adulthood or we can continue to live in custody to the law. But you should know that life in custody is just as oppressive as it sounds. It’s a life lived in constant awareness that you must do this and not do that. Much like children there are curfews, allowances, grounding and punishment meted out to those in custody.

If, more often than not, you find yourself worried that God is upset with you or that you’re not good enough or that you’re suffering some consequence of not having been a ‘good child’ then you’re living in custody. That’s not God’s intention for you. The expression of God’s intention for you is Jesus Christ. His death on the cross has set you free from custody. It would be a shame not to live like that is true.

Prayer
Father, thank you for setting me free from the custody of the law. Help me, each new day, to live the emancipated life that is mine by your grace and mercy through the work of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.