I’m all ready to go out for a day of peace and relaxation. Then I get in the truck and slowly back the trailer down the ramp until the boat is resting on the water. I get out of the truck, step onto the front of the trailer and climb into the boat. I sit down, turn on the ignition key to start the outboard motor, and then put it in reverse to back off the trailer. There have been a few times when the boat didn’t move. It would rock and do unusual things until I figured out that I hadn’t unhooked the boat from the trailer. Rather than being set free to feel the peace and tranquility of floating on the water, I was still tethered to the trailer.
It had carried me to the point where joy and peace could be found, but once I was at that point, I needed to be unhooked from the trailer to experience the wonderful and exhilarating freedom of being on the water.
I think the Law of Moses and the prophets are like my trailer and my boat represents the Christian life of faith. They go together. The trailer is important. I can’t journey from one place in my life to another without it. The Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments are important to me. I can’t live the Christian life without them.
But there is a time and a place where the two need to be separated in order to find the peace and the joy that the Christian life can bring to us. Like a rope held my boat to the trailer, something holds us to the law until we are liberated from it.
The question is: What is the rope that keeps your boat, your Christian life tied to the law? To say “sin keeps us from joy” is true. And the apostle Paul said with the law came sin, so it’s the same thing. To be a slave to sin is to be a slave to the law. And we, in Christ, are no longer under the law – even though it’s helpful in many ways.
How do we detach from the law and sin that comes with it? St. Paul said, “We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, apart from works of the law.”
Faith in Jesus Christ is what allows us to detach ourselves from required obedience to the law so we can enjoy the peace and freedom of living as a Christian.
Boats can be a metaphor for the church. The church can be a wonderful instrument that leads people to great joy and peace in their lives, but if the boat can’t be unhooked from the trailer, there can be no peace and joy. It’s like saying, “Hey, world, come and sit in our boat. It’s a great boat. We can cook on it; we can read a book in it; we can sunbathe on it. Come and join us.”
What does the world say? “That’s nice – but who wants to sit in a boat on a trailer? You guys are so tied to the law, you’re slaves to it. You have no freedom. The day you can detach yourselves from that trailer, we’ll be glad to join you. We want some joy. We need some peace. We need some freedom. We can’t find any where we are and we don’t see any with you because of all your arguing, so we’ll just keep looking until we find someone who has it.”
When Christians start living in the freedom that faith in Jesus Christ gives us, the world will be able to see joy, peace, and freedom in the church of Jesus Christ. Then maybe they’ll be attracted to the body of Christ.
Faith that Jesus has paid for the sin of the world - past, present, and future - unhooks me from the mentality of being required to obey the law to get to heaven.
Being unhooked from the law doesn’t mean I can throw the law away. It’s too valuable and too necessary to throw away. There’s a fine line between freedom and stupidity. How can I get my boat to the lake if I don’t use a trailer? The trailer helps me get to places in my life that my boat can’t get to by its own means.
In the same way, the law helps me on the journey to wonderful places in the Christian life. The law keeps me out of trouble. A trailer prevents the road of life from tearing up the bottom of my boat. The consequences of breaking the law don’t disappear just because I can unhook myself from it. If I steal, I still suffer the consequences of stealing.
Jesus has freed us from slavery to sin and the law. Believe it and you will have no fear of what God might do to you whenever you break it. The only thing you need to fear now is what the road will do to you if you don’t use a trailer to journey to new places in life where you can experience peace and joy and freedom.
The truth is found in Jesus Christ. Have a little faith. Unhook yourself from the law and sin. Throw your rope to him. He will set you free to enjoy places of peace and rest in your life.
Peace - PWM
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