I Have A Dream Too

My wife had to work 11 1/2 hours today. I barely saw her. I had the day off because of Martin Luther King, Jr. Now that I'm no longer in college or in high school, I try to appreciate, all the more, the days that I get off. So I make a habit of spending at least 15 minutes of my day, if not a lot more, honoring those who are being honored in the holiday. I don't claim to know much on King, and I can't honestly claim that he has impacted my life greatly. But what I can say is that from most of the things I've read, I have respect for him and certainly for his cause. His "I Have A Dream" speech is wonderful, and as I read it today, I was reminded of a dream that I have too. Here's an excerpt of the famous speech:

And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

King obviously had to deal with a different type of freedom than I do today as a white American male. But is there is one aspect of life we all have to live with every day -- and that is our sinful natures. Unfortunately, without the mighty work of God in our lives, we are all also slaves -- slaves to this sinful nature. In the 4th and 5th chapters of Galatians, Paul speaks much on the subject of slavery and freedom. The "foolish Galatians" (3:1) unfortunately were believing in a false gospel that was persuading some to go back to a righteousness-by-the-law-type of thinking that is the very type of thinking Christ came to abolish! So, yes, Paul was very passionate about setting them straight. But don't we do the same type of thing today?

Galatians 5:1-5 - "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. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

You can replace circumcision there without about any other "righteous" deed. Don't we find ourselves doing the same thing, trying to make ourselves righteous by the deeds that we do? Let it never be! Christ is all my righteousness! (See the hymn "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus"). We also have another type of 'freedom' problem.

Galatians 5:16-18 - " So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law."

Often we also live as Christians confused about who we really are and why Christ came to die. Did he simply die just so some could go to heaven? Hardly. Not even close. For starters, one reason he came to die for us and be raised again is that so we can have the freedom to fight the sin in our lives. So often I hear amongst my brethren and within my own mind excuses for sin and complacency in the speech concerning sinful habits and actions. Let it never be! We have the freedom to live radical, holy, and pure lives! Yet so few do.

So I have a dream too. It's twofold and not that much different than that of Martin Luther King. I have a dream that as Christians, we everywhere will 1.) stop living as though we are under law, trying to gain justification by works instead of relying on the grace of God alone, and 2.) stop living as though sin is more powerful than the Holy Spirit -- that we would get up and fight to mortify the sins in our wretched bodies. The dream is mainly for myself. But also for you if you care. And also to the other "Christians" in the world who give the religion a bad name. Let us repent and enjoy the freedom that is ours so that we can too can say "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"