Restore to Me the Joy of Your Salvation:
A Return to Slavery
In our new lesson series Restore to Me the Joy of Your Salvation we are discussing the waning, if not an occasional loss, of our Christian joy. How difficult it is when we can no longer find peace or celebrate what once was the greatest joy of our lives!
We’ve discussed Psalm 51 and David’s loss of joy due to unrepented sin (Well, There’s Your Problem) and the solution: repentance, ministry, and worship.
We’ve examined Elijah’s Mount Carmel Blues due to his disillusionment after the great victory for Yahweh at Mt. Carmel. Elijah saw the culmination of his life’s work as Yahweh proved definitively to Israel that he was God and not Baal. What a spiritual high! It is no surprise that this was followed by a spiritual low when he learned that those in power were not persuaded — Jezebel sought his life. We distilled three principles from his story that can help us when we hit lows following spiritual highs: (1) self care; (2) spiritual grounding in the character and work of God; and (3) a refocused vision of the future.
Sunday’s lesson is not narratively based. It originates in Galatians—a wordy, deep, argument against embracing again the slavery of the Torah. Paul’s audience was struggling with those who would impose the burden of circumcision upon gentile Christians.
For the sake of clarity, let’s overlay another narrative (a true story) that might help us understand what Paul is saying in this text.
There once was a woman married to a very harsh, hyper-critical man. Nothing she did would please him. Every day, when he left for work, he would give her a list of things she must do that day, exactly as he specified. She felt like a slave. Her life was miserable. She had no joy. What love she had for the man was slowly being destroyed by the way he treated her.
In the course of time, her hyper-critical, demanding husband died and she eventually remarried. Her new husband was the polar opposite of the first. He treated her with grace. He was active and expressive with his love. When she failed, as all humans do, he was forgiving and supportive. Her life was so different now with joy, fulfillment, acceptance, and love.
One day she ran across one of her first husband’s lists. She felt an immediate reminder of the pain he had caused and her previous feelings of not measuring up. However, as she read over the list, she was startled; she was still doing everything on the list, only with joy. Everything that had made her feel like an unappreciated slave, she was now doing out of love and appreciation for her new, loving husband.
Well, if you can forgive a slightly sexist (but true) illustration, you can understand Paul’s argument to the Galatians and the point I’m making about losing our joy due to religious legalism, perfectionism, and traditionalism.
Galatians 5:1-6 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. 2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
We lose our joy when we allow others to enslave us again to legalism, perfectionism, and traditionalism.
I’ll say more in my lesson, Joey
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