My life in Prison

Galatians 3:19-29

I’ve not shared the first 27 years of my life in detail with many people, because I was in prison for many of those years.  Now it was not the kind with bars, I was not restricted to one area; in fact, I was free to make choices, to some degree.  But the Warden of my prison was a hard master, he had laws and rules, some days he was very religious and other days he was the vilest demon of all.  He would come to me with the nastiest of thoughts and after I had acted on them, would shatter me with the law of God, and accuse me of being the worst of sinners.

As I look back on those days, what has become clear is the shrewdness of my master, he was very good at mind games, he loved to paint pictures in my mind of what I could become by acting on his suggestion.  After I escaped from prison, I began to ponder on why I was so blind to the Warden, and I discovered I was not the only prisoner of his tactics.  As a child my parents gave us rules to live by, and it was always our choice to obey or disobey, one brought blessing, and the other brought punishment.  But both parents told us there is a much higher law, a law that if followed will bring blessing but if not, will bring curses, it was the Ten Commandments from God Himself. 

But remember most of my early life was in prison, and the Warden was cunning and would ask me questions in my mind, questions like “Would a loving God really blame you for taking a peach from your neighbors tree?  The Warden’s voice sounded much like my voice; in fact, it was a voice I became very comfortable with.  Later that same voice would tell me I deserved, or it would tell me I was of little worth to anyone.  It seemed the harder I tried to follow those Commandments; the more the voice of the Warden exposed my inability to do so.

When I was a prisoner, I never saw myself in that light, in fact, I believed just the opposite I believed the followers of Christ were the prisoners.  The Galatian Christians were enjoying the freedom only found in a personal relationship with Christ, and some false brothers, acting under the authority of the Warden who held me captive for much of my life, began to tell them they needed Jesus plus.  And the Warden knows how to pile on the plus, take it from one whom he influenced for a long time.

So the apostle Paul poses these questions with answers: Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring (Jesus) should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” (Galatians 3:19-26, ESV)
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice