Standing in an Open Door

Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1, WEB)

A man let out of prison can still act like a prisoner. He can flinch at the guards who no longer have authority over him, and he can keep to the small square of floor he was used to, because the walls have lived in his mind longer than they lived around his body. Even with the gate standing open, his habits keep him inside a cell that no longer holds him. Paul writes to men like that. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

The freedom is already yours if you belong to Christ. That is the strange part, and the part that is hardest to feel. You are not working toward the door being unlocked; the door is open and has been open since the cross. The command is to stand firm in what is already true, to stop walking back voluntarily into the cell you were carried out of. Paul does not tell you to earn your way out. He tells you not to walk back in.

Lust offers itself as a return trip to that cell dressed up as relief. It knows the shape of the old room and it makes the old room sound like rest. Standing firm means recognizing the old yoke when it is held out to you and refusing to bend your neck for it again, not because you are strong but because you are free and would rather live like it. The yoke is real, and it is offered daily, and the refusing is a daily thing too.

Some mornings standing firm is all you can manage, and that is enough. You do not have to march. You do not have to feel triumphant about it. You only have to refuse to go back in, to keep your feet planted in the doorway that Christ tore open, and to let the standing itself be your answer to the old master's voice.

Jesus, you opened the door at a cost I cannot repay. Keep me standing in it today. When the old chains are offered, help me leave them on the ground.