Walking with a Broken Leg

Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. Galatians 3:23–25 (NIV)

One day you see me and I’m wearing a huge cast on my leg. I tell you I broke my leg pretty seriously, and the doctor says I have to wear the cast for at least three months as I learn how to walk properly.

About a year later, you see me still wearing the same cast, and you’re really concerned. You ask me if my leg has actually been permanently damaged and if I’ll have to wear the cast forever.

You say, “I thought that cast was supposed to re-train you to walk after your accident.”

Then, I surprise you by telling you: “Oh, the cast. You know the doctor told me I’d really made great progress and he wanted to take it off after three months. But I wouldn’t let him. I mean, it’s gotten pretty comfortable to walk on and, just between you and me, it’s a bit frightening to think about walking without the cast.”

The cast is the law, and the cast is meant to teach us how to walk with God after the surgery performed by Jesus to clear out all the decay and infection in our sin-wounds.

There is nothing evil about the cast; God created it to help us walk again.

But the cast was never meant to be a permanent solution. The Spirit inside us is the long-term solution to walking the way God wants us to walk.

 

Discover how God can work through the worst of circumstances in Jon Walker’s new book, “Breakfast with Bonhoeffer.” Gut-wrenching honesty, real world faith, not just another ‘feel good’ Christian story, this book shows how God works through the worst of circumstances, including disease, divorce, and financial downfall.