Ride on a Rope

...After beginning with Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?... so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit... Gal 3:3-14.

One fine day in 1859, Charles Blondin, the famous tight rope walker traveled to Niagara Falls. He stretched a three-inch wire over the gorge. There on this wire, he walked 1100 feet from one side to the other. He did this a number of times: blindfolded, in a sack, pushing a wheelbarrow, on stilts, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelet and standing on a chair with only one chair leg on the rope. But that’s not all. He also carried a man on his back over that tightrope. This must be one of the best examples of trust ever placed by one human in another. It’s either brave or stupid. Blondin carried his manager Harry Colcord on his back from one side of the Falls to the other. Imagine if halfway across Harry had said to Blondin, “Look, I appreciate that you’ve taken me this far, but I really don’t trust you anymore. I think I’ll do the rest myself. Let me down, and I’ll take it from here.” Can you imagine? He’d be a dead Harry from that point on. Having been carried that far, why in the world would he think that he could get the rest of the way across by himself? It sounds ridiculous.

Paul addresses a similar kind of situation in this passage. Paul evangelized the cities of Iconium, Lystra and Derbe of Galatian province during his first missionary journey. The Judaizers had infiltrated the churches in Galatia and taught that believers needed to follow Jewish religious requirements for their salvation. Galatians seemed to have accepted the false teachers and had abandoned the faith that Paul has taught them. Paul rebukes and admonishes the Galatians to turn back to the faith they were taught.  John Piper puts it this way, “The essence of the Galatian heresy is the teaching that you begin the Christian life by faith, and then you grow in the Christian life by works, that is, by drawing on powers in yourself to make your contribution to salvation.” We have started our Christian journey by Faith, when we received his salvation. But some eventually started depending upon own strength. If we try to live the Christian life by our own strength, we’ll only end up being condemned. We’ll never measure up. Christian life is no easier than a ride on a rope. There is always a chance to falter when tried with one’s own strength. We shall sustain only when we cling on to the master.  

Are you frustrated by the lack of progress that you see in your own life? Do you ever feel disappointed with yourself? Do you ever find yourself not living up to your own good Christian intentions? Here’s the key. Stop trying to improve yourself. The way you grow is the same as the way you became a Christian. It is by having the same unswerving faith all the way upon the ever reliable God, who promises to carry you all the way.

May God help us to have the starting faith all the way…..Amen.

Blessings

Daniel Solomon Raju