Let’s think back to when our children were toddlers. As soon as they became aware of their surroundings, they began inherently learning about cause and effect. For example, they discovered that when they threw a ball up into the air, it came down. When they ate too much birthday cake, they had stomach ache.

As parents, we understandably assisted in this learning process. We reinforced the word hot with our toddlers. They knew that if they touched the oven, they would get burned.  We warned our four-year-olds to look both ways before crossing the street, so they didn’t get hit by a car. When our children were in elementary school, we taught them that excellent study habits result in good grades. We insisted that our teens obey the speed limits, lest they receive a ticket. When our children headed to college or entered the workforce, we reminded them on more than one occasion that if they had strong work ethics and personal discipline, they would get ahead in the world and be able to provide for their families.

We were right to teach our children about cause and effect because our actions have consequences in the physical and spiritual realms. If we jump from a cliff, we will pay a huge price. If we break the laws of society, such as shooting someone or stealing from a bank, we will go to prison. If we don’t love God with our whole hearts or love our neighbors as ourselves, as Jesus commanded (Matthew 22:37-39, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27), our relationship with God and others will be sorely affected.

Now, here is the rub. This cause-and-effect principle can become a tripping point that prevents us from fully receiving God’s grace. I speak from experience. As a result of learning cause and effect too well, I struggled with receiving the full measure of God’s grace in my earlier walk with the Lord.

I identify with a comment Paul makes in his letter to the Galatians. “In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world” (Galatians 4:3). According to William Barclay, elementary principles or stoiccheia was “originally a line of things; for instance, it can mean a file of soldiers. But it came to mean the A B C, and then any elementary knowledge.”¹ The ESV commentary tells us that Paul is referring to Mosaic law for the Jews and the basic pagan concepts followed by the Gentiles. Author of Enduring Word, David Guzik, however, broadens our understanding of the words “elementary principles” to include the “ABC’s of the universe” such as cause and effect.

Many of us, whether we realize it or not, are both governed and enslaved by this principle. Deep down—somewhere in our souls, where we as toddlers learned that if we touch something hot, we will get burned—we continue to believe that we get what we deserve. We are believers who live in spiritual conflict. There is a constant battle raging inside us between our natural inclination to be works oriented and our belief in God’s grace. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that we are still trying to earn our way to heaven. We haven’t fully discovered the measure of the freedom that is ours through Christ and his work on the cross.

Let’s be honest. We will never receive what we deserve, which is eternal damnation and separation from God. Regardless of how hard we try to be good—how many meals we deliver to shut-ins or Sunday school classes we teach—we “all sin and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Good News is that we are “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:24-25). “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). When we fully surrender our hearts and lives to Christ as the Sovereign Lord, relinquishing our need to be in control or to fulfill the desires of our own hearts, we discover the true meaning of freedom, and therein lies true joy.

None of us want to be enslaved to the elementary principle of cause and effect, nor do we want this for our children and grandchildren. We want our families to enjoy the freedom of redemption found in Christ Jesus. We want them to receive their spiritual adoption, “no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:7). 

My husband and I did a stellar job of teaching our three sons the cause-and-effect principle; however, we were not as effective teaching about God’s grace. For those of you who identify with this statement, I have good news. It’s never too late to talk with our children and grandchildren about the freedom we’ve found in walking a grace-filled life.

PRAYER:

Father God,

Thank You for loving us and creating us to live a life free of the bondage of this broken world. We don’t want to live as slaves to the principle of “cause-and-effect” anymore, nor do we want this for our children, grandchildren, or the generations coming after them. 

We want to stop beating ourselves up for not being perfect or living up to our expectations. Freed of having to earn our way to heaven, we want to experience joy and gladness instead of mourning and shame. 

We want to live our lives in a way that glorifies you, remembering that by your grace, we will never receive what we deserve. We once lived as slaves to the law, but you have washed us in Christ’s blood and set us free as your adopted children.

Thank You, Abba.

Amen.

 ¹ William Barclay, The Letter to the Galatians and Ephesians: Revised edition (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), 35.