You, my brothers, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature… (Galatians 5:13).

Paul has been hammering us with the fact that you can’t earn your salvation; it is the gift of a gracious God.  There are no magic words, no sacred rituals, no self-sacrifice or noble deeds that can replace what Jesus did for you on the cross.  You are free from all that.

And yet

There is danger in freedom.  How easy it can be, once we have grasped the basics of our freedom in Christ, to run headlong from legalism, right past liberty, and on into license.  

Once upon a time, I had a job that occasionally involved driving a golf cart.

Details will be withheld to protect the guilty.

Anyway, the carts had regulators on the carburetors  that prevented you from driving faster than the proverbial snail.  One lovely day, a coworker discovered how to remove said regulators, and we discovered that these little carts were capable of rather astounding speeds.

We did not handle our newfound liberty well.

But when liberty gives way to license, destruction is not far behind.  

In life

or a golf cart

or your walk with God

Be free, Beloved.  But be safe.

Happy Thursday.