Training Wheels
Do you remember learning to ride a bicycle?
I don't remember having training wheels on my bike, but I remember my sister learning to balance with them. It was an experience that began with joy that soon faded as she felt more confident. She couldn't wait to be freed of those wheels.
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law - Galatians 2
We encounter this topic of justification by faith several times in Paul's letters. He seems to be saying that we don't have to follow the law, that the rules no longer apply, but I think there is more to it than that.
I like to think of it like learning to ride a bicycle.
Imagine you were never told that the training wheels on your bicycle are supposed to come off. You would learn to keep your balance, which is what they help you do, but after a while, you would find them frustrating. They get in the way when you make a sharp turn or need to lean to one side.
The works of the law are like that. Jesus and Paul after him, want us to see that sometimes we need to tilt the bike far to one side to avoid a collision or to make a quick turn to help someone. It is then that the wheels get in the way.
They were designed to help us stay up long enough for us to grasp the technique of riding without the fear of falling getting in the way.
It is not that we don't need to know the limits the training wheels represent. We cannot ride without them, but we no longer need to bump up against those limits to go on our journey.
The lesson I take away from Paul is to be truly alive in Christ, to be in the Spirit of God in all we do, understanding the value and purpose of the rules, laws and customs, but focused on the journey and not the process of balancing on two wheels.
More to come...