"When my wife Maria and I at long last received the call that the legal process was over, we returned to Russia to pick up our new sons, only to discover that their transition from orphanage to family was more difficult than we had supposed. We dressed the boys in outfits our parents had bought for them. We nodded our thanks to the orphanage personnel and walked out into the sunlight, to the terror of the two boys. They’d never seen the sun, and they’d never felt the wind. They had never heard the sound of a car door slamming or had the sensation of being carried along at 60 miles an hour down a road. I noticed that they were shaking, and reaching back to the orphanage in the distance. I whispered to Sergei, now Timothy, “That place is a pit! If only you knew what’s waiting for you: a home with a Mommy and a Daddy who love you, grand parents and great-grand parents and cousins and playmates and McDonald’s Happy Meals!”
But all they knew was the orphanage.
It was filthy, gloomy, and devoid of hope, but they had no other reference point.
It was home.
We knew the boys had acclimated to our home, that they trusted us, when they stopped hiding food in their highchairs. They knew there would be another meal coming, and they wouldn’t have to fight for the scraps. This was the new normal. They are now thoroughly Americanized, perhaps too much so, able to recognize the sound of a microwave ding from forty yards away. I still remember, though, those little hands reaching for the orphanage.
And I see myself there.
I want to see that orphanage one more time. Maybe, when the boys are older, we will visit. At the orphanage, I’m sure their eyes will widen as we walk up those cracking steps into that horror movie-looking front door. They’ll probably go limp inside, just like I did, when they see all those abandoned toddlers peering out from the corners of the doors inside. Maybe they’ll try to replay in their minds the circumstances of the nights they were born. I’m not sure what all they’ll think of the orphanage.
But I’m quite sure they won’t call it home." - Russell Moore
In the fourth chapter of Galatians, Paul addresses this very issue. Even though the people of Galatians had been freed from their sins, and given a new life in Christ, for some of them their former lifestyle still called their names. They had been rescued from their worship of man-made idols, death in their sins, and lack of hope and yet, some of the Galatians longed to return to their previous lives of bondage. Despite their new-found freedom, the grace and forgiveness found in Jesus Christ, some still heard the song of their old ways and even though it can be difficult to understand, longed to return to the slavery of their previous life.
Yet . . .
Is it really that difficult for us to relate to the Galatian people?
If I'm being honest, I too have occasions where I exchanged my freedom for slavery, my life in His Kingdom for my own personal slum. My old life, lived in the cage of my own depravity, still holds an appeal, centered as it is on my personal freedom to choose. It is almost too revolting to write, this propensity that I have to return to the ways of my flesh, discarding my robes of righteousness for the rags of depravity. Why? Why would anyone exchange a life of freedom and grace for slavery and sin?
Paul addresses this battle that we all face in the book of Romans, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:15-25)
When we turn from God and His gospel, it is like returning to a fifthly orphanage, to our personal pit of despair. And God recognizes the pull of our former life, the willingness to immerse ourselves into our past sins. Yet, He is patient, and He is forgiving. He longs to restore all of His children to their proper place in His Kingdom. But He will not force Himself upon us, He will allow us the freedom to choose, even if we choose unwisely. I'm reminded of C.S. Lewis' quote on this subject: "For God finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Paul addresses in chapter 5 of Galatians what we are giving up when we turn away from the grace of God, "“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.” (Galatians 5:1)
It is one thing to have walked the halls of freedom that Jesus Himself offers each of us, it is another all together to discard the cost that Jesus paid for our freedoms. Apathy regarding our salvation is a crucial first step back toward our previous lives. The enemy knows that if we walk in a state of constant gratitude to our Creator, our daily choices will most likely reflect this state of gratitude as well. So his agenda is simple, sow the seeds of distrust regarding the goodness of God, and then reap the harvest of ungratefulness that will soon arrive.
But we have a choice, a daily choice to pick a life of freedom with Jesus instead of our natural inclination to stay in the prison of our own choices. Jesus calls each one of us to daily renew our minds, to remember the cost of our freedom, the cost that He paid, to walk in His light, and not flee toward the darkness. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)
One pathway offers life. The other offers death. "There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death." (Proverbs 14:12)
Choose life. Choose freedom. Choose to walk in the light of His goodness. "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
The payoff is eternity, eternity in paradise with the One who loves you more than anyone else in this universe. “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” (Romans 6:22)
To learn more about becoming a Christ-follower, click HERE. If you have made that choice, I urge you to find a local Bible-believing group of believers and allow them to help you grow in your new life with Christ. I promise you that you will never find anyone who loves you more, than our Lord, Jesus Christ. He alone promises love that will last forever and freedom that will never end.
“Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.” (Psalm 118:5)
