You know, I've realized I'm kind of picky when it comes to Bible translations. Yeah, you are, because you're the guy that underlines half the page and then argues with the footnotes. And I'm a good arguer. But, you know, I care about two things, faithfulness to the original text and just being able to read it without feeling like I'm reading a dictionary. Which is why we're grateful for the support of the Christian Standard Bible.
The CSB was created to be accurate and readable, helping people engage God's word with confidence and clarity. And it's sponsors like the CSB that help make this podcast possible. To learn more, visit csbible.com. Five. My aim is regardless of what my husband does or Does not do.
I want to be gracious to him. I want to live in light of the work that the spirit is doing in my heart. And Ultimately, whether he does right or not, that ain't got nothing to do with who God is calling me to be. Welcome to Family Life Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I'm Ann Wilson.
And I'm Dave Wilson, and you can find us at FamilyLifetoday.com. This is Family Life Today. All right, Portia.
So we found out yesterday you're sort of a gamer. And even, you know, Ann wants to ask you about Marvel because she's a Marvel. We go to like Iron Man and I. Did you know they had a Marvel video game where you could be cues? No, no, no.
We don't want to know this. We do not. I totally want to know this. I mean, we go to whatever movie we come home and she has to watch every movie prior. Yes.
Right on, Ann.
Okay. But yeah, the game was fun too.
So I love Marvel everything. All right, we're not here to talk about Marvel.
Well, and we're talking to Portia Collins, and your book is called Finding Freedom in Christ, which is an eight-week study of Galatians. Can you just kind of rewind a little bit? Because we heard your whole story. Previously, so kind of give our audience a little background of how you came to Christ and what was going on because we're all like Galatians, you say, changed your whole life. It did.
It did 100%. As I was saying yesterday, I was a church girl through and through. I knew all the church lingo. I grew up in a little small missionary Baptist church, and I'm from Mississippi. Like I said, you hear the southern accent, but I knew all the religious things, what the church people do.
But I didn't really know who Jesus was. And it was right after I graduated college. It started, I would say, during my college years, but really coming into an understanding of who Christ is and what He does for us right after I graduated college. And one particular night. The Lord, through a series of circumstances and things, I had just reached a point of brokenness, of desperation.
And she had been living like a prodigal kind of life. Yes, I was living. Yes, yes.
Now, externally, I looked like the model citizen. I, you know, had good grades in college. I graduated summa cum laude. I, you know, had a good job, nice car. I got my big girl apartment and all of this, looking like.
the picture of what it is to be a model person. Having it all together. Having it all together, but pulling that back, my heart was so far from God. And I was really the God of my own life. And because of that, there were a lot of hard things that I dealt with that my sin ultimately brought me to.
And that broke me so and really put me, honestly, it perfectly positioned me. to a place Where I could like hear and receive truly who Jesus is. And so, this particular night, like I said, I'm dealing with this brokenness, this desperation. I went back to the fundamental thing that I learned as a church girl: read your Bible and pray. You gotta look for the Lord.
This seems like a bleak situation. Read your Bible and pray. And so, it was this growing habit for me where I would come in once I got off work every night and I would read scripture and I picked Galatians solely. Off the fact that it was six chapters and I could read it in one sitting. Really?
Yeah. But it was the providence of God. And reading that book changed my life. It felt as if this weight had been lifted from me, all of my striving. trying to put out like who I am as this Perfect person, like that was gone.
And then all of the shame that I dealt with from. Not pursuing Jesus and falling into just radical. Seeing, like that was lifted as well to the point. Where you said you were laying on the floor? Yes, I was.
After I finished reading this book, I was face. to the floor. Weeping. I don't know if I've, you know, ever been face to the floor. No, no, no.
No, I've been on the floor. I don't know if I've heard anybody talk about I read a book of the Bible. And in that moment, God showed up. You know what I'm saying? Especially even Galatians.
Pretty deep. It's pretty heavy. Who would have ever thought? Yeah, and Paul, in some ways, the Apostle Paul is sort of criticizing them trying to find life in works. But that's what happened.
But it also makes sense because you're a Bible scholar. You call yourself a Bible nerd. I'm a Bible nerd. And so, of course, that's what took you to your faith. That God would use that.
And it has become so pivotal. I wrote a Bible study on it. Like it impacted me so. And even if you know how this came about, there were publishers that wanted me to consider writing something else. And I was like, no, it has to be this because this is where my life changed.
Like for real. Explain the, I'm a recovering legalist. A recovering legalist. We know you ain't saying that. A recovering legalist, a recovering perfectionist.
Because that's a lot of what Paul's getting at in 100%. Yes. If we're honest, you know, apart from Christ, we are just wired to want to. Be those self-sustaining, self-like, we want to do it, we want to feel like we're the ones who are doing it. Yeah, we want to earn it, and so that's me, you know, even now as.
A woman in ministry, you know, I know there are so many things that I know from reading the Bible that functionally is a war every day, like taking what I know and applying that and allowing God to work in my heart because I want to do a good job. I want to, and it's the problem is not pursuing excellence, the problem is not being a person known for doing a good job. The problem is when we start to root our identities in that, and that we think that our place before God. Is of our own doing. And that's not the case.
Like our standing before God is because of Jesus, period. There's nothing else that there's not a comma there or semicolon. It's Jesus, and there's nothing else that we add to that. And so for some of us who struggle with identity and we like to be identified by the things we do. We have to come back to books like Galatians and C.
Listen, there's nothing that you do. Bet changes. Ultimately, how God sees you. This Jesus changes how God sees you.
Well, here's the question I got. You're probably doing the same thing: is how do we get that out of our mindset? This legalistic, rules-based Because it's in every one of us, even if you know the word, and as parents, we can put that on our children. I was gonna say, I put that on you. Like, don't you know the word?
Yeah, like, what are you doing over there? And you're right, what are our kids doing? She's not kidding, she does put that on me. But I remember that, I remember one time doing a chapel for Detroit Lions, and I said to the guys, or I think it was Bible study, I said, Let me ask you something. Games on Sunday from Thursday to Sunday.
Do you sin? They're like, nope. Monday to Wednesday, Houston. Yeah. And it's like they're, they, they, and I knew the mindset.
It's like, I got to be really good because I want God to bless me on the biggest day of my week, Sunday, my salary, everything. And so that's in there. That's that works theology that if I do good, I do good, God's going to bless me if I don't. And I'm closer to fire. That is in there.
And Paul is destroying that argument.
So, you know, it makes me want to go particularly to a passage where Paul is saying the law came 430 years after the promise.
Okay. And so he's really teaching us, and this is really explain that.
Okay, so the promise that was made to Abraham, we always, Father Abraham, and his sons.
Okay, and so the Lord promised to Abraham that he would make him into a great nation.
Now, this promise is honestly far. Far-reaching. Like, he wasn't just talking about a whole bunch of people. He was really talking about how he's going to save his people. And God's covenant to save his people came 430 years before even one law was written.
So, If He gave us the promise before the law. Then, why do we think that we got to keep the law for the promise to be good? He never intended, that was never the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law was to help us. And the text calls it a schoolmaster.
Basically, it was to keep us from going further and further into sin. And then it was also to show us we ain't as great as we think we are. Because without the law, we wouldn't really know. the depths of our sin. Like we would gloss over that.
And here's the thing. We even see that. I've been reading in my Bible in a year. I remember you saying you read.
So far, we've gotten now up to Joshua. And so, like, even now, I see those folks didn't know that they were just messing up and just crazy as all get out until the law came. Please do your own version of the Bible. Yeah. We talked about this in the Porsche Standard verse.
And here's the thing. Even when Moses, like, he finally starts. You know, there's so much specificity in the law. And it's like, how does he even know to talk about it? Because they were already doing it.
So, this is a response to what's already happening to say, Hey, you should not be doing this. That was the purpose of the law to really kind of expose our sin and not to crush us. But to turn our faces toward true hope. I mean, it's Galatians 3:28. Thank you.
Thank you. So you're talking about it says, So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. Correct. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
100%. Is that. Where you get the theme, finding freedom? 100%. Explain.
I mean, and honestly, it's all through the book.
So I love the way Paul writes, and you will notice this in most of the epistles that Paul writes. He gives you this rich doctrine at the beginning. Like he lays out what it is that we should be knowing. He's correcting the error. And then on the back end, he gives us the noun wood.
Like, I always say that the $10 words that I use: orthodoxy and then orthopraxy.
Okay. So he gives us what it is, and then he shows what does this look like in practice? Right. What we know and what we do. And that's no different here in this book.
He's showing us in the beginning part: this is what I want you to know. He's correcting something that they've fallen into error in. He's laying it out that doctrine. And then when he gets to chapter five and six, he's like.
Now, let me show you what that looks like.
So, the doctrine first sets them free in that it corrects a mentality that has them bound. They think I got to add circumcision to me believing in Christ so that I could be saved. In fact, they had been convinced of that from some other religious folks who thought they knew what they were talking about. He's freeing them of a bad mentality, and then he's showing them now, this is what it looks like to walk in freedom. On the back end, not because you're earning something, but this is what happens if you truly believe in Christ and you've been and dwelt with the spirit, then this is what it looks like to live freely.
All right, so I like Ephesians, this is what we know. This is who He is, and this is Colossians, all of them. Romans, if you go through and you look, you will see He gives you that doctrine, and then He shows you.
So, He's giving them a doctrine of, Listen, y'all ain't free. What you thinking, your mind's a bound because you think that you got to supplement your faith. That's wrong. He corrects that and urges them, I want you to think freely. This is what the gospel is.
And then he tells them on the back end: now, this is what this looks like when you live this out. Mom, anger happens. The yelling, the snapping, the hiding in the bathroom with cold coffee. But what's really underneath your anger? Mom of four, Janelle Breitenstein, shares practical help and biblical hope in a free five-session video series.
Start today at familylife.com/slash momanger.
So, you're a mom. I am. You're a wife. Yeah. How do you apply your identity in Christ, finding freedom?
Yeah. Walk us into that. What's that look like in your kitchen, in your family room? Are there is that it really impacts? Yeah, I think the first word that comes to mind is grace.
To be married You need a whole lot of grace. What was that groan about? It's hard to get grace. I know, I know. But here's the thing: if you understand the grace that has been given to you, it's so hard to withhold that grace.
Me and my husband have gone through situations where. He has been what I call this is real southern, okay? Flat-footed wrong, okay. Wrong. Do you say that to him?
I do. You are flat-footed wrong, sir. I put the sir on the end. She's got other words she uses. But I've been flat-footed.
We're talking about grace here. I'm gonna get to it. I'm gonna get to it. He has been absolutely wrong, but I've been able to extend grace to him in those things. And that's been informed by the grace that I received from God.
So I think that's the first thing that we see that a book like Galatians, go ahead, stop right there.
So, give us a contrast because I'm sure there have been times where you haven't extended grace to him. Yes. So, tell me the difference of. What it looks like when you don't extend grace in his demeanor and his countenance compared to when you do extend grace. Yeah, he's not receiving anything that I'm saying.
And we know that you knew that. You asked me a rhetoric.
So when you don't give grace, he's like, I'm out. Yeah, I don't even hear. It's like immediate shutdown because you're crushed. He's crushed. That's essentially what when we are graceless, we ultimately crush those that we're engaged.
And think about that, would be the same with us. If we didn't have the grace of God, we would be crushed. It's the law. We can't do it. We can't.
And here's the thing: that's another thing that Paul says in here: if you're going to try to keep the law. This ain't no, I can pick and choose when and how many laws. There's 600 plus laws that were given. If you want to be a keeper of the law, you got to keep all 600 plus of them. That's what I mean.
It's all crushing. It is a crushing, and this is why the purpose of the law was never given so that we could try to meet it and fulfill it and attain our salvation. In that it was given to expose for us to see what we needed to see, to see ourselves and how we really aren't that great, but to also see the hope of Christ, what we have. I mean, how do we dig out? Because most marriages, including ours, have been a law-based, you know, but it's like, hey, you said you'd be home at six.
You're not even close to coming home. This has happened multiple times this month. More with our kids. I don't want to give grace. I want you to get home and help me with the kids.
I mean, I'd walk in the house and she'd throw a kid at me because he, you know, all day, you know, and I'm feeling like I've worked hard. Yeah. So, I mean, and you get stuck. Couples get stuck in that. It's never called law based, but it's, you know, it's do for me as much as I'm doing for you.
And we always see our, our input more than the other. Yeah. That's not grace. That's really law. How do you dig out?
My aim is regardless of what my husband does or. Does not do. I want to be gracious to him. I want to live in light of the work that the spirit is doing in my heart. And Ultimately, whether he does right or not, that ain't got nothing to do with who God is calling me to be.
Who God is, how God is working in my heart. See, sometimes we want to use excuses and we say, well, if he didn't do this, I wouldn't do that. Exactly. And that ain't what the Bible says. In fact, when we look in chapter five, Paul says, and this is what I love to go to this part.
Most of us in here probably can name off really quickly the fruit of the spirit, all nine of them. But I always like to tell people. Back up a little bit. Bump back a little bit because you truly can't understand the beauty and the blessing of the fruit of the spirit until you see what the works of the flesh are. Oh, yeah.
And so here's my point that I'm trying to make. If my husband is not going to Bring out in me.
Something that ain't already there. Let me give you an example. If I'm angry About whatever he's doing, there's a way that I can respond. I can respond with graciousness, with addressing what this is, or I can, as Paul is saying, speak out in fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy. Done that.
You know, so the point that I'm trying to make here is. If it's a work of the flesh, that means the larger problem is I need to be going before the Lord and dealing with it. My husband ain't bringing out, he's not causing this work of the flesh to pop up. I used to say today, you have made me like this. Yeah.
And no, no. You were saying, no, that's not true. That's already there. It's already there. It's already there.
Okay, go back to verse 16. You got to tell us because this is how. It applies to a marriage, parenting, you name it. Walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
So here's the $1,000 question. What's walk by the spirit? What's that look like?
Well, let's jump on down. I love this. Go on. Go on. I mean, here's the thing: I could say a lot of things, but ultimately, the most important thing is what he said.
And so he says. First of all, I'm going to kind of summarize what we see in 17 through 21. First, he tells us, because he's giving us the blueprint. He's saying, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. He's saying, if we don't know what that is, let me show you what the desires of the flesh are.
And he lays that out. He starts saying, hey, is, and we love to read them first couple of ones and then we try to skim over the ones in the middle. Because we'd be like, sexual immorality. Oh, that's not me. Impurity, not me either.
Sensuality. I ain't doing that. I ain't looking. But then he goes, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife. Jealousy, fits of anger.
We like to gloss over those. And you know, you don't know what a fit of anger is. Your husband comes in 20 minutes after he said, and you just going off. That is a fit of anger. That is a work of the flesh.
He's showing us what it looks like. There's no now it's like a light clicks. There's an awareness. Oh, this is simple. This is wrong.
Then he goes on down and he says, But the fruit of the spirit, now, this is what it looks like when. You are walking in step with the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. And we don't look at this from a performance-based mindset.
We look at this as: Am I truly walking in step? It's almost like when you're driving your car and you see that check engine light come on, you don't just keep driving the car. And he's not saying, I want you to do more, try harder. He's saying, if these check engine lights are on, if you see this, Then maybe you need to go back to the feet of Jesus. And I think a lot of what marriage is.
And just Christian life is you don't realize he said fruit. Yeah. And I've preached this before where it's like, okay, I don't know how apple trees, orange trees work, but I know they don't go, I need an orange. You know what I mean? And I call that the grunt Christian living.
You just grunt it out. How does a tree produce fruit? They are connected to the fruit. And that's why I think Paul, under amazing inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, No, this is fruit. This is not something you and I can create.
Exactly. If it's not working in your marriage, it isn't because you're spouse, it's you, me. Are not connected and walking by the spirit because when you walk by the spirit, it's a natural byproduct, it will happen. But I love, and I love this dashboard, the light going on, because I'm just thinking of. Being a young mom and having kids, and you're just constantly frustrated or angry, or you're struggling in your marriage.
When I look at all the tension and the anger and the strife that's in my heart. I love that, Portia. Like, you can think, okay, what's going on? Right. What's going on with me?
Yep. And I need to go to Jesus. What would you say? Let's like, let's say, like, that dashboard, that light's going off. What would your prayer sound like?
Jesus, help me. Lord, help me to respond in a way that brings you glory. Help me to respond in a way that reflects the love and the grace that you have for me. And so that's the same prayer that I pray when I'm with my husband, when I'm with my daughter. Because listen, an eight-year-old can work your last night.
No. They are getting aware of it. They're all autonomy, and they are like, because it's not so much about them as it is about what Jesus is doing in my own life. I mean, what a great. You know, sort of final word.
Yeah. And again, you know, when you said that, I thought, oh. I know a verse in Galatians that sort of captures that. It's a very famous one. Galatians 2:20.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith. and the Son of God who loved me and gave himself For me. I would also say this. Her eight-week Bible study is called Finding Freedom.
And you can get it at familylifetoday.com. Just click on the link in the show notes. I hope a lot of people get it because this is literally transformational, not just as a Person single, but married, and a legacy changing. And I really hope, and I know that this is your prayer too, Portia, this will create a hunger for God's word. It's rich and deep, and it changes our lives.
Absolutely. I mean, we're driving down the road. I'm not kidding. She's doing her one-year Bible. We're driving.
I have heard this a thousand times. I just love God's word. Can I read it to you? Yeah, I mean, it really is. Change me.
Yep, likewise. Yeah. Before we're done today, let me just say this. At Family Life, we really believe strong families can change the world. And when you become a Family Life partner, you help make that happen.
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