Thursday, July 5, 2007
1 Peter 3:15 Always be ready to give a defense . . . for the hope that is in you . . .
THE GREAT VACATION
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, in her book "Gift from the Sea," remarked on one of the drawbacks of motherhood: "By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class."
By the same token, it could be argued that Christians are, in reality, the greatest vacationless class of all. As summer wears on, and familiar faces go absent from the workplace, we're reminded that there's no such thing as "time off" for a believer. Peter admonishes, "Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you." And that means always! At home or away, on the job or on the beach, the Christian stands ready to give witness to his faith.
However, the picture shifts somewhat when you remember what a vacation is, in essence. It has a lot to do with freedom. A vacation is defined as ". . . A stated interval in a round of duties, a period of release from work." In a very real sense, therefore, you could say that a believer's whole life is a vacation from the moment the Holy Ghost brings him to faith!
Just look at the millions who are held under the sway of false religions, who believe that they can win God's and man's approval through one or another work-righteous scheme. Now that's a rat race! Always working, always striving to keep God's Law written in their conscience . . . and always falling short.
Wouldn't a vacation be wonderful? Wouldn't it be nice simply to be released from that overwhelming responsibility of the Law? Well, that's exactly what our Lord has done for us, as Paul explains in Romans, "Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son" (Romans 8:2-3). Jesus came to earth to give us a vacation: to free us from the vain, grinding drudgery of work-righteousness. His substitutionary death on the cross was the hammer blow that burst the shackles of our sin.
True, this freedom is not boundless -- it is not to be equated to "a cloak for vice," as Peter writes (1 Peter 2:16). Yet what a glorious liberty it is. Having retired from the treadmill of the righteousness that comes from the Law, we are free to serve our Lord with truly productive lives, working toward goals that will endure not for a year or a decade, but throughout eternity.
