The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

AllanStanglin.com

Page 13 of 484

Concerning Galatians 5:4

August 5, 2025 / / 5 Comments

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been separated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” ~Galatians 5:4

Last week I encountered a stumbling block in our sermon text that threw me for a loop and upset my weekly preaching routine. I spent much more time in prayer and study and conversation with others than I typically do around a particular text. And I still don’t know if I adequately addressed it on Sunday.

We are preaching through Galatians here at GCR Church and for the past two months I’ve been comparing the circumcision issue that was dividing those Christians then to the legalistic lines we draw in the sand around our own issues that separate Christians and groups of Christians today. In Galatia, the Jewish Christians were telling the Gentile Christians that if they truly want to be saved, if they really want the full benefits of God’s salvation and citizenship in God’s Kingdom, they have to become like Jews. All Christians have to be circumcised, they must keep the Jewish holy days and feasts, they have to observe the food laws and cleanliness codes–they must become “like us.” That is the issue the apostle Paul is addressing in Galatians. He goes to great lengths in lots of different ways to assert that no one is saved by observing the law, we are all only saved by God’s grace and our faith in Jesus Christ. We are saved by Christ alone. If you add anything to Christ alone, if you require anything more than faith in Christ alone, Paul writes that you are “turning to a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.”

So, I’ve used plenty of examples in our sermons the past two months from my own experiences with the legalistic and sectarian churches of my upbringing. Our insistence that all Christians must worship like us and believe like us and baptize like us and eat the Lord’s Supper like us in order to be authentic Christians is divisive at best and, at worst, heresy. I’ve been comparing the first century Jewish food laws and circumcision rituals to our current day church structures and practices, our distinct worship styles and baptism methods and Lord’s Supper frequency, and our denominational names and titles and furnishings in our buildings.

If those comparisons are accurate–I absolutely believe they are–what do we do now with Galatians 5:4?

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been separated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” 

I know tons of Christians who are legalistic and sectarian. I’m related to a lot of these people; I love all these people. These wonderful people still insist on their Church of Christ distinctives and still enforce their Church of Christ traditions as part of what saves people. They believe and practice their rules and laws as critically connected to their salvation and their standing with God. So they still judge and condemn those outside their distinctives and traditions as unsaved. They refuse to call other Christians brothers or sisters in Christ. They don’t acknowledge their place in “The Church.” So, what about legalistic Christians? Are they not saved?

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been separated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” 

I really wrestled with that verse last week. I had a very tough time with it. I read what the apostle writes here by the Holy Spirit and it sounds really cut and dried, very clear. But I know God’s matchless love and his amazing grace is more than enough to cover me in my continued missteps and misunderstandings. I certainly don’t have everything all figured out. I’m not doing everything exactly right. And all of it is covered by God’s grace. Praise him!

I know God’s character. I know God’s history and his will and his heart. That same divine love and mercy and grace that covers me in my mistakes covers all those who confess Jesus as Lord in their mistakes. I know that. Yes!

But Galatians 5:4 is hard.

I consulted twice as many commentaries as I normally do during the week, but few of them even acknowledged my question. The couple that did referred back to Galatians 1:8-9 in which Paul writes that anybody preaching something other than Christ alone should be eternally condemned. He says it twice!

Well, yeah, I’ve known Paul was serious about this from the opening lines of the letter. This is a big salvation issue. If you’re insisting that others follow the law by keeping your traditions and the law’s rules in order to be saved, you’re not preaching the Good News. You’re distorting the truth. You’re dividing God’s Church. You’re condemned. Severed from Christ. Fallen from grace. Damned. Is Paul saying the same thing in both places? It’s the same letter to the same people about the same issue. I remember being very gung-ho about it during the first two sermons and since. But it just hit me differently last week.

I think maybe we’ve spent the past two months applying this to some of our specific issues: church structures, worship styles, denominational differences, women’s roles, spiritual gifts, baptism methods–all that stuff. And I think maybe I’ve preached myself into a corner so that legalism is an unforgivable sin. Legalism puts a Christian outside the grace of God. But, particularly my definition of your legalism. Your legalism according to my understandings. So, that can’t be right. I know there are plenty of sincere Christians who would view my “Gospel convictions” on things like the necessity of baptism or the sacramental function of the communion meal as “legalism.” So, how do we understand Galatians 5:4? And how do I preach it?

In addition to my extra prayers and study last week, I discussed this with just about anyone who would listen. I spent two full innings talking about this with Barry Thomas at a RockHounds game on Tuesday. I ambushed a lunch with Greg Anderson on Thursday to get his opinions. I changed the subject in a conversation with Jim Tuttle last week from the Cowboys to Galatians 5:4!

Here are the things we considered:

This verse is in the context of the freedom we have in Christ. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. This freedom is a gift, it’s a grace. Unmerited, undeserved, impossible to earn grace. Grace is something that’s given to us that we, in turn, must receive. And, the phrase “fallen from grace” might mean something different to us and me in our Church of Christ settings than it does to other Christians. I instinctively understand “fallen from grace” as no longer saved. Other Christians in many other traditions understand grace as extra blessings not directly tied to one’s salvation. Maybe. Either way, the very next verse affirms that the righteousness we seek only comes from God’s Spirit and it won’t arrive in its fullness until the day of glory. We’re waiting. If you seek righteousness or salvation by observing the rules and laws, you are cutting yourself off from the freedom that God desires for you. God’s not separating from you, you are separating from him or, more specifically, his gift of freedom.

Here’s how I preached it:

Paul says if you go down that path, you’re cutting yourself off from Jesus, from his gift, from his grace, from his freedom. When you’re holding on to the rules and the laws, your hands can’t be open to receive God’s grace, your heart can’t be open to receive this freedom in Christ. The rules and laws can’t save you. So, when you hold on tight to the rules and laws and you base your salvation on the rules and laws, you live with a guilt you were never meant to have. You carry a burden you were never intended to carry. You experience an uncertainty you were never meant to have. All that is the exact opposite of freedom! Or, even worse, you get real judgy about people who don’t keep your rules and laws or they don’t keep the rules and laws the way you keep the rules and laws and it hardens your heart and, eventually, sucks all the love right out of your soul. 

Praise God, we have been freed from all that! You and I have been freed from a tight-fisted, closed-minded, hard-hearted religion! God has freely lavished on us his amazing and matchless grace that saves us. We respond to his grace in faith, a complete and unreserved confidence in the goodness of God and his eternal promises. And the result of that grace and faith is freedom–freedom to love, freedom to serve, freedom to give and forgive, freedom to accept others and worship God and live every hour of every day with supreme assurance and joy! To seek justification by observing the law or keeping the rules just right separates you from that very life of freedom Christ died to provide for you. 

That’s how it ended up Sunday. Again, I’m still not sure I fully addressed it. But I praise God for his grace and I trust every Sunday that he places his proclaimed Word exactly where he needs it to go.

Peace,

Allan

Where “All” Becomes “One”

July 31, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” ~Galatians 3:26-28

I believe we are blessed to live in the country we live in, but the systems and structures and mottos and politics of this world will never unite anybody. The only place where the “all” becomes “one” is in Christ alone. In Christ is the only place where all people become one people. Our Lord Jesus is creating one global eternal community, not a bunch of them. So, in Christ, all the barriers are gone. There’s no more separation, no more distinctions or differences–everybody’s totally equal in Christ. The walls are down, the doors are open, the bridges are built! Now that Christ Jesus has come, all people have become one people!

To treat anyone differently, to deny anyone equal standing or equal freedom in God’s Church based on their nationality or their social standing or their gender is to, as Paul writes, proclaim “a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all” (Galatians 1:6-7). That kind of discrimination or distinction contradicts not just how we’re saved, but also why we’re saved. When we discriminate or make those distinctions in the Church, our actions contradict our message.

For illustration and application purposes, Paul gives us three pairings. All in the same context. All in the same breath.

In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. This is about ethnicity. He’s talking about nationality and culture, this is about color and race and language, anything ethnically that the world divides over. No one has to become a Jew to be a Christian. When we give equal honor and equal freedom and equal standing to Christians of all colors and from all nations and who speak all languages, then we’re proclaiming the Word of the Lord.

The worshipers in Revelation are singing to Christ Jesus in heaven. Listen to their song:
“You were slain, and with your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation!” ~Revelation 5:9

The saints of God come from all over and they’re singing the same song. If we treat Christians differently or show them less honor or give them less freedom because they’re a different color or come from a different country or speak a different language, we are proclaiming something different than God’s Word.

In Christ, there is neither slave nor free. This is about social standing and economic status. How a person is educated, what kind of job she has, or how much money he makes has nothing to do with how a person is accepted as righteous by God or how that person serves and worships in God’s Church. It’s totally irrelevant. If anybody’s getting preferential treatment at church, it should be the poor and the marginalized and the people on the outside. Listen to our Lord:

“Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed… Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame… Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in so that my house will be full!” ~Luke 14:13, 21, 23

Our Lord’s brother says it straight up in James 2, that if you show favoritism for a rich man over a poor man, you are sinning against God who has chosen the poor to be rich in faith and to inherit his Kingdom. If you only talk to Christians who have jobs, if you only eat with Christians who live in your zip code, if you only show honor to Christians who can pay you back, you’re proclaiming a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.

In Christ, there is neither male nor female. This is about gender and all the different dynamics that surround gender. This is about bestowing or not bestowing status or freedom in the Church based on a Christian’s sex.

It’s interesting to me that in a lot of our churches, in our Bible classes and small groups and in almost all our church settings, our Christian sisters are encouraged to express their full freedom in Christ and asked to exercise their spiritual gifts. But it’s different in the Worship Center. Generally speaking, women lead prayers and read Scripture and exhort the church at 9:30 all over the campus, but they’re not allowed to do those exact same things in front of the exact same people and the same God in the Worship Center at 10:30.

It seems like we should interpret and apply this third pairing just like we do the other two.

In 1 Corinthians 11, where the apostle Paul instructs women on how to pray and how to teach in the Sunday assembly, it’s in the context of we are all one together in Christ and how we need each other and each other’s spiritual gifts.

“In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.” ~1 Corinthians 11:11-12

In Christ, men and women are the same. No gender is better than the other, no gender is more honored or more gifted or more free to exercise those gifts than the other. Males and females are equal in Christ. Again, it seems to me we should interpret and practice this third couplet like we do the other two. We wouldn’t tell some Christians they can’t lead a prayer in the assembly because they’re Black. We wouldn’t tell some Christians they can’t lead the communion time because they don’t have a job. So why do we tell some Christians they can’t do those things because they are women? Paul sees these categories as the same.

Now, there are two verses in the Bible that are used to restrict Christian women in exercising their spiritual gifts, two lines addressing two particular concerns in two very specific settings. But we have this central passage in Galatians 3 and many others that call for and demonstrate this equal standing between men and women in Christ. It seems that if we restrict our Christian sisters where the Bible doesn’t, we’re proclaiming a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.

Peace,

Allan

Real Texan

July 29, 2025 / / 0 Comments

The day the boys were born, the Rangers were in fourth place in the AL West, three games under .500, and ten games back of the Astros. Since then, they’ve won 11 of 13 to pull into second place, four games back of Houston, and into the third Wild Card playoff spot.

Sammy and the El-Man are bringing that Rangers MOJO!

 

 

Well. Until last night. Yeeesh!

Who was that guy wearing the Jacob deGrom jersey last night in Anaheim?

Let’s Go Rangers. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sixteen years after its series finale, ‘King of the Hill’ is making a comeback with a full season of all new episodes beginning Monday August 4 on Hulu. If you’re even mildly interested, I recommend this excellent piece in the latest Texas Monthly by Sean O’Neal titled, “Why ‘King of the Hill’ is the Most Significant Work of Texan Culture in the Past Thirty Years.”

O’Neal puts ‘King of the Hill’ in the same category as Larry McMurtry and ‘Friday Night Lights’ for its serious and seriously entertaining treatment of what it means to be Texans living in Texas. What Mike Judge, the show’s creator, tackles so well is the plight of Texans who live in urban areas–84-percent of us now–attempting to live into and through the outsized Texas legends and myths and the expectations that come with them. ‘King of the Hill’ is also about relationships between dads and their sons, namely how the sons are almost always disappointing the dads and how the sons know it. And how they cope. I’m not sure how uniquely Texan that is. Texas might contribute to it.

What first attracted me to ‘King of the Hill’ in the late ’90s is how perfectly it captures my experiences growing up in southeast Dallas with the Tom Landry Cowboys, blue laws, St. Augustine lawns, traditional values and gender roles, and the State Fair of Texas. The random references to Luby’s Cafeteria, Tom Thumb, Central Expressway, and Drew Pearson are emotional for me. I also really love Tom Petty’s frequent voice work as Luanne’s boyfriend, Lucky. But what keeps me watching the re-runs today is that the show is ultimately about our identities as Texans: our copped attitudes, our inherited traditions, the foods we eat and refuse to eat, the weird mix of superiority and insecurity with which we’re all familiar. This brand new season features a freshly-retired Hank and their son Bobby as an adult chef working in Dallas. A lot has changed in Texas over the past 16 years, and I’m sure a lot has changed in Arlen. I can’t wait to see how Hank and his friends deal with today’s politics, social media, electric cars, and veggie tacos. But we’re all still Texans, trying to get along, attempting to do what’s right, trying to help our fellow Texans, and navigating all the ups and downs of living life with those we love the most.

The best part of O’Neal’s excellent article is near the end when he quotes Hank Hill as saying, “A big part of being a man is doing things you don’t want to do.” Hank’s not complaining. He just feels a certain understated pride in assuming the mantel of being useful. He finds identity and meaning in being the one other people can count on. In a lot of ways, that’s Mike Judge’s vision for what it means to be a Texan. Or, at least that’s the way O’Neal interprets it:

“Like being a man, being a real Texan isn’t about aspiring to some outsized, mythical life but about finding fulfillment in doing the things that need doing, the same way we’ve learned to embrace the things about Texas that, if I’m being honest, aren’t all that great: the heat, the harsh terrain, the Dallas Cowboys. We’re not super beings, but simply the descendants of people who arrived in some of the most unforgiving land in America and declared it, rather obstinately, to be heaven on earth. Our surroundings may have softened and shifted, but that stubborn self-reliance remains.” 

Read the piece. It’s very well-written. And maybe go to Whataburger for lunch today.

Peace,

Allan

An Indescribable Fullness

July 21, 2025 / / 0 Comments

What’s it like to be a Granddad? What’s it like to hold those new grandsons? How does it feel to have grandchildren? How does it feel to be a Granddad?

Well, I would tell you. If I could.

How does it feel to be incredibly, undeservedly blessed by God? What’s it like to watch your daughter’s face explode with unconditional love and unabashed joy as she locks eyes with her own babies? How does it feel to hold a precious baby boy who only lives because your wife forgave you and loved you and married you and said “Yes” to you a million times when you did nothing to merit any of it? What’s it like to marvel at the miracle(s) in your hands, this gift from God’s hand, as a personal experience of his love and faithfulness and grace? How does it feel?

I don’t know how to talk or write about it, other than in terms of a fullness of heart and soul, a fullness of life. A swelling of gratitude and thanksgiving, a completeness of joy and contentment, so full I could just bust wide open into a laughing, weeping, smiling, delirious mess.

How do you describe those moments when that little baby’s eyes are looking right into mine and I tell him how much I love him? How do you explain the feeling of being with your beloved daughter and her husband, in their house, taking care of those newborn twins together? Experiencing all of the emotions and hormones and questions, moving suddenly from overwhelmed to confident and back again during one diaper-changing. Being with their great friends from their great church and that little community of faith that is taking care of them so faithfully. Watching Valerie gush and coo over these boys. Watching David feed the boys at 2am, knowing how mentally and physically exhausted he is while studying for next week’s bar exam. Realizing how perfectly healthy Elliott and Samuel are and how every prayer you’ve ever prayed for your daughter and her husband and these boys is being answered right in front of your eyes by a loving God who loves them even more than I do. Feeling a massive hole in my soul knowing I’m not going to be with those boys today. Or tomorrow. Or for the next few weeks. A deep longing to be with them, to hold them, to speak to them, to feed them, and love them. And knowing that hole didn’t even exist fourteen days ago.

How do you describe all that?

I can show you pictures. And, get ready, I probably will show you more than you would ever want. But I don’t know how to articulate how this all feels. It’s an indescribable fullness of gratitude and humility and praise.

Peace,

Allan

Sammy and the El-Man

July 14, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Elliott and Samuel are not identical twins. As they approach their one-week anniversary of life and begin to fill out their faces and features, they do look more alike than they did on their birthday last Tuesday. But there are other differences, more subtle differentiations in personality and behavior, that are marking our twin grandsons as distinctive individuals.

The most obvious thing is the way Elliott prefers to have at least one arm straight up in the air at all times. Sometimes two; always one. It’s the funniest thing, the way his arm shoots up while he’s eating, in the middle of a nap, while he’s getting his diaper changed–all the time. Carrie-Anne says he’s praising God. I say he’s signaling for a fair catch.

 

Right now, I’m viewing Elliott as emotional and impulsive, while I see Samuel as contemplative and deliberate. Sammy seems serious, while Elliott seems ready to jump into action without counting the cost. Samuel’s little forehead is always wrinkled up and his arms always crossed in deep reflection. Elliott is fidgety and jumpy. They both have the deepest, bluest eyes. Elliott’s are opened more often. But Sammy’s, when they’re opened, are bigger and darker and striking in their depth. At this point, Sammy’s face is more expressive. The way he moves his eyes and mouth in seeming response to his circumstances, I keep expecting him to say something–something clever, something funny, something deep. I’ve been singing to both of them. Elliott prefers Tom Petty’s “All Right For Now,” while Samuel tolerates the Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers.” I’ve been talking to both of them about the things we’re going to be doing together very soon. And I’ve been informing them about our Creator and how loved they are by him and by all of us.

I’m sharing with you here two recently-released photos from the very first moments of our grandsons’ lives. One of the nurses in the delivery room Tuesday asked for David’s phone before the C-section and promised to take pictures. I didn’t see these until late Saturday. The first shot is Valerie seeing her newborn boys for the very first time and the second is their first family portrait. I think these are just incredible pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m in Midland today and tomorrow, taking care of some things around the house and the yard, before I head back to Tulsa early Wednesday morning for the rest of the week. This is our summer vacation this year — grandsons in Tulsa! And it’s awesome!

Peace,

Allan

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑