The Holy Spirit breathes Freedom into you.
A Roman-Catholic once said: “In our church, we talk a lot about the virgin Mary, but I think we sometimes forget she had a son.” If a catholic can admit that so honestly, it gives me good reason to confess: as strict Lutherans, we sometimes seem infected with Protestant extremism. It’s not like: “We spend so much time talking about Jesus that we forget he had a mother.” No, our creeds profess Mary and her virginity. But we’re also quick to point at her sinfulness, her inborn evil. If we do speak of her positively, we discuss her good traits at arm’s length and with bland general terms. We feel nervous about studying her up close or specifically as if doing so might hypnotize us into purgatory or secretly put us on the pope’s mailing list.
The fact is: Mary daughter of Heli would feel sick to her stomach if she knew the cult following she has; the prayer beads, vigils that ask her for miraculous help. Praying to Mary is wrong. It’s false to claim she had no sinful nature. But it’s a good thing to study her up close. Paul did that in Galatians 4:4. “When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman.” It’s also a God-pleasing thing to admire or honor her with our words. In Luke 1, her cousin Elizabeth told her: “Blessed are you among women.” And Mary agreed. She sang: “Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”
We’d agree: the Holy Spirit inspired Mary and Elizabeth to say those things. But what exactly happens when God inspires someone? How does it work? We tend to think that people got words from God by something like a portal opening in the sky. Or maybe they had dreams or just heard his voice like any other sound in their daily routine. We imagine God spoke to them through overwhelming sensations or mystical feelings. But none of those notions help us very much because not everyone gets messages from God like that today. Plus, we don’t even know if people like Mary or Elizabeth received their divine inspiration like that. Of course, Hebrews 1 says: “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets at many times and in many ways.” So, perhaps Mary did get direct revelation from the Holy Spirit when she sang her song in Luke’s Gospel.
But, if you only remember one thing today, let it be this: You cannot find the Holy Spirit apart from Scripture and you cannot find Scripture apart from the Holy Spirit. That goes for Mary too. She seems like a girl who knew her Bible. God could’ve zapped her out of nowhere with the words in Luke 1. But it also could’ve happened that this Jewish teen heard the Isaiah scroll enough in synagogue that she used it for her song. Put Luke 1 and Isaiah 61 side-by-side. “I will rejoice greatly in the LORD. My soul will celebrate because of my God, for he has clothed me in garments of salvation.” Then, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, because he has looked with favor on the humble state of his servant.”
“But, no,” we think, “that can’t be right. Mary was special. It can’t be that she just listened carefully to God’s Word and some Bible verse moved her to compose this beautiful song. That’s too easy. That’s something any Sunday school 2nd grader could do. I could do that.”
Yes, you could. True, Mary had a job unlike any woman in history: give birth to God. But that didn’t erase her personality or other normal human traits. You don’t have a lesser Holy Spirit than the Virgin Mary when you speak biblical words either. Paul said: because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!” God puts the Holy Spirit in you; the same Spirit who conceived God the Son in her womb, the same Spirit who moved her to sing: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
It’s tempting to think there must be a routine I should follow to get that Spirit. I want to know God’s will for me. I’d like some insight into my future. Logically speaking, I must have to do something to get the Holy Spirit to reveal details like that to me as he did for Mary.
It only makes sense, right? Use this formula. Say the right words. Act the right way and good things will happen for you. It makes so much sense Paul calls it the basic principles of the world. But he didn’t mean that as a good thing. When Paul said: the basic principles of the world, he meant the foundation of all manmade religions.
He wrote: What I am saying is this: As long as the heir is a young child, he is no different from a slave. Although he is owner of everything, he is still under guardians and managers until the day set by his father. The Galatians knew about inheritance laws. Paul said: A child who gets to inherit the whole property looks no different from a worker on the property who will never own any of it. Although the kid in one sense outranks the staff, the experienced workers mostly get to tell the kid what to do. That won’t change until the child reaches some age at which the parents would let him start running the estate.
Paul made this comparison: when we were younger children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world. Paul says “we” and means Old Testament Jews. He wrote: we were enslaved. They had to follow laws about skin diseases, court cases, and murder or adultery suspects. They had sacrifice and worship protocol, priestly uniforms and tabernacle rules. And, don’t forget, God commanded all of this.
Then Paul insults that religion. He calls it: “the basic principles of the world.” That may not sound like an insult, but “basic principles of the world” was the Jewish way of describing all other false religions. Outside of God’s Word, every other religion uses the basic principles of the world. That means: You have to do something good for God before he’ll do anything nice for you. That’s how the pagans thought of their idols. “I have to put in my time or pay money or suffer my fair share of pain and I can then expect my god to return the favor.”
Most shocking though, Paul called God’s Old Testament system: the basic principles of the world. He said: “Even God’s requirements can become a religion of Satan, if doing them leads you to give yourself credit for getting saved.” With the Galatians, it was circumcision. God commanded it. But even that law of God became devil worship when they thought Jesus couldn’t save them unless they got circumcised.
Paul wrote: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons.” Remember the child inheriting his parents’ mansion? God made Old Testament believers like that. The child’s status looked lower than a butler or maid. He has to obey the servants. They get to rule him even though the kid owns the whole property. So too, ancient Jews looked like kids under that law code; rest on the Sabbath, get circumcised, eat this diet. But, when the Christ came, he ended all the enslaving rules.
Jesus set us free from diet, circumcision, and worship laws. He freed us from slavery to laws period. He was born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons.
A worker at a Christian gift shop recommended a book to me called Untethered. She said it was for helping adults guide lawless unruly kids toward obedience and good behavior. Bless that saleswoman’s heart. It’s true. Kids have a rule-breaking problem. Far too many are okay with experimenting with godlessness. Teenagers specialize in leading “untethered” lifestyles (as the book title suggests).
I didn’t buy that book. Galatians illustrates why that was a good choice. Paul’s solution here is not that rebellious kids need more rules or policies or life tips to straighten them out. Can you imagine the title of that book if we’d refocus the wording? The book’s premise was: “Kids these days are untethered.” What solution does that suggest? “Kids ought to be tethered.” That’s not the spirit of adoption by which God made you his child. You wouldn’t adopt a poor battered orphan only to keep the kid on a leash. Jesus redeemed you; not to reprogram more laws into you like a robotic slave, but to set you free.
Remember this if ever you wonder: What am I doing wrong? People who ask that assume things would go better, if they’d keep rules better. That might happen. But things might also go poorly after you follow all God’s instructions. Either way, your place in his family does not depend on your rule-following. Paul wrote: you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Indeed, as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. In Jesus, whatever you decide is already right with God. You are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ.