I have been challenged recently about how much we are tempted to water down the Gospel. Luther said that religion was the default setting of every human heart (or words to that effect!). We are always tempted to reduce things to what we have to do (religion). We often fail to understand or forget that the Gospel is about being freed from what we have to do. Paul said to the Galatians that it was for freedom that Christ had set them free! We, just like the Galatians, seem to want to go back to slavery, to having to do certain things. We are like the Israelites who kept wanting to go back to Egypt!

The NT makes it so clear that this freedom that we have will change us. 1 John tells us that this freedom enables us to fulfil the new commandment (a new expectation) which is so much like the old commandment (the old expectations from which we were set free). The new expectation is that we will love one another.

If there is any way that we are going to be the people God wants us to be, if we are going to change and learn how to love, then we must first embrace the freedom we have in Christ. Otherwise nothing changes and we do not have a Gospel that is good news. We simply have a religion where we try and meet the old expectations...something we can never do.

Christ has set you free, so be free, and in being free... be changed!