- But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
At one time, we did not know God and followed the empty, worth-less idols of our hearts, and we still wage war against the idols that pop up in our hearts daily.
But Paul states we have come to know God. No, actually, rather we have come to be known by God. Of course, God knew us before we came to know Him, but the moment we came to know Jesus, we have come to know God personally, and that is a result of God revealing Himself to us through other people, books or other means through which God revealed Himself in Christ Jesus to us.
Paul's argument is that how can we turn back again to our worth-less self-efforts to curry favour with God, as if God saved us because we behaved well and did lots of good things to please Him.
No. It would be absurd just like a child believing that unless he/she does lots of good things to please his/her parents, they would abandon/forsake him/her. Yes, it would be just as absurd as a child who believes his/her sonship/daughtership depends on how much he/she worked for his/her parents.
If parents' love for their child does not depend on their child's performance of good works, how much more would God love us unconditionally.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for a life of sin doing whatever we want. Because as you know, if a child tries to play on a motorway, what parents would not protect her/him by establishing boundaries, and telling her/him that they can play on the playground freely, but not on a motorway. Are parents being intolerant because they would be restricting their child's freedom of choice, and expression of self-will to play however and wherever that child wants to play? Absolutely not!!
Then, how much more would God who is infinitely wise express His love in giving us guidelines and boundaries in His word to protect us from harm and danger?
Another point is that children grow to become like their parents. It is imperative and inevitable that if we have been truly saved and truly put our faith in Jesus, we would grow to become like our heavenly Father, namely our Lord Jesus, who showed to us who our heavenly Father is. This is God's promise in His word,
Philippians 1:6
- For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:22
- He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
Jude 1:24
- Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy
So, let us be like a child who thanks their parents for giving birth to them, and thank parents for their love and grace rather than being in fear and putting confidence on one's own self-efforts and works to keep their sonship/daughtership valid, which would be ludicrous.
Let us thank God in whom we have been born again and let us follow Him just as a child would follow His parents and become like them (A child takes after their parents even when their parents are imperfect and sinful, how much more we would/should/must take after our heavenly Father who is perfect in grace, mercy and love.)
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