A Real Boy
In 1883 an Italian writer named Carlo Collodi
wrote a children’s story about a wooden puppet
who dreamed of being a real boy. The puppet,
known as Pinocchio, had a propensity for being
carried away by bad company, a knack for getting
into mischief, and a nose that gave away his
tendency toward exaggerated lies. Today,
Pinocchio has become a cultural icon as one of
the most rehashed and reinvented characters in
children’s literature.
The Adventures of Pinocchio has been translated
in over 260 languages making it the most
adapted non-religious book in the world, and one
of the best-selling books of all time. This
canonical piece of children's literature has
inspired countless new editions, stage plays,
merchandising and movies, with the most well-
known being Walt Disney's 1940 animated
version.
Pinocchio was the second feature film produced
by the Disney company and, although it was
initially a box office disaster, is now considered
one of its finest. In 1994 it was added to the
United States National Film Registry—a collection
of films deemed culturally, historically or
aesthetically significant.1
The story begins with a humble woodcarver
named Geppetto putting the finishing touches on
a pine wood marionette, which he lovingly names
Pinocchio. Before going to bed, Geppetto sees
the Wishing Star and, to the annoyance of his
sleepy kitten Figaro, prays these words: “Star
light, star bright, first star I see tonight—I wish I
may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight. I
wish that my little Pinocchio could be a real
boy…”
Prove Yourself
Geppetto’s wish is granted and the little wooden
boy is brought to life, though he is not yet
human. After being awakened by the Blue Fairy,
Pinocchio is told if he can prove himself brave,
truthful and unselfish, then he will become a real
boy! Aided by his conscience, Jiminy Cricket, he
sets out on a fantastical adventure.
Beginning with his ill-fated first day of school,
Pinocchio quickly finds himself seduced by a
smooth-talking fox named Honest John and his
mute, bumbling sidekick: a cat named Gideon.
The naive puppet is then sold to the greedy
puppeteer Stromboli, marooned on Pleasure
Island and finally swallowed alive by Monstro the
whale!
Pinocchio gains wisdom through all his
misadventures, however, and ultimately becomes
human as a reward for "proving himself.” In the
end, Pinocchio finally earns his life by losing it
while trying to save the woodcarver, Geppetto.
The two then live happily ever after as father and
son.
The moral of Pinocchio is like so many others—
work hard, do good, earn your reward. Or, as the
Blue Fairy said, prove yourself. Heed your
conscience and, if your heart is in your dreams,
then all you wish is sure to come true! Pinocchio
is a heartwarming tale (if you don't mind the idea
of a creepy talking insect following you around
and giving you advice), but the story’s theme of
justification by good deeds is the wisdom of the
world, not of God.
The Still, Small Voice
God's law is written on every believer’s heart1—
His Spirit convicts us and shows us the difference
between right and wrong. The trouble, according
to the cricket, is that we don't listen to that still,
small voice. But if it's really that simple, if all we
have to do is listen, then why do we continually
fail at doing the good we desire to do?2
The truth is it's not that simple. As the apostle
Paul so duly noted, we have the desire to do
good, but we cannot carry it out.3 We know what
we ought to do, but often do just the opposite.
Like Pinocchio, Scripture says we are sold as
slaves to sin,4 lost to the island of carnal
pleasures,5 and ultimately swallowed up by death
itself!6
Sin and conscience become our tormentors as we
are weighed down with guilt, shame and regret.
At the end of it all, we find that the life we desire
requires more than just wishing upon a star, it
requires more than simply letting our conscience
be our guide. Real life, true life, requires a
sacrifice.7
Alive to God
On his first missionary journey, Paul founded a
number of churches in the region of Galatia and
Phrygia,1 and preached to them the gospel of
Jesus Christ. After his departure from the
Galatian churches, a group known as the
Judaizers moved in and proceeded to “pervert
the gospel of Christ,”2 claiming that these new
believers needed to observe Jewish feasts,
holidays, and rituals such as circumcision.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians is ardently focused
on declaring the truth of salvation by grace alone
and its result; namely, a new life lived by faith in
Christ.3 He is astonished that these believers have
so quickly deserted the gospel of grace, even
though Paul clearly portrayed Jesus Christ as
crucified for their sins. He says they have been
“thrown into confusion” and “bewitched” into
trying to attain justification by human effort.4
Paul immediately rebukes the Galatians for their
foolishness, asserting justification through faith in
Jesus Christ and affirming that “by observing the
law no one will be justified.”5 Because of this, the
apostle Paul says we are now dead to the law and
alive to God in Christ.6 This is good news! The
best news, in fact. And yet we often struggle to
accept it.
No Strings on Me
Quieting conscience with the cross of Christ
doesn't come easily. Oftentimes, conscience
seems more like a noisy cricket in our ears than a
comforting voice assuring us of salvation. The
problem is, rather than looking to Christ's
sacrifice for justification, our troubled heart loses
its focus on grace and returns to the law.
At one point in the story of Pinocchio, the
animated marionette dances and sings a song for
a crowd of adoring fans where he proudly croons
the chorus, “I've got no strings to hold me down,
to make me fret or make me frown. I had strings,
but now I'm free, there are no strings on me!” At
the end of the performance, the crowd heartily
demonstrates its approval with a shower of gold
coins, shouts and applause.
We, too, can fall prey to the allure of pride and
the praise of men in our spiritual walk. We take
God’s law and, rather than using it as a guide for
our holiness, we turn it into the means of
achieving it. We cast off our need for Christ like
the puppet without his strings, do a little song
and dance, and revel in the approval our good
works have earned us.
But no matter how much we look and act the
part, our deeds no more make us holy than the
wooden puppet’s dance made him a real boy. We
balk at God’s grace when we think sin to be a
small matter easily dismissed by good works. We
can cut the strings, so to speak, and live
honorable, moral lives, but sin is a nature
problem. We can no more remedy it by keeping
the law than we can bring wood to life by making
it dance.
Faith Alone
Martin Luther once said, "When the conscience is
disturbed, do not seek advice or reason from the
Law, but rest your conscience in the grace of God
and in His Word, and proceed as if you had never
heard of the Law.”1 Christians must learn the art
of presenting ourselves to God as one approved
in Christ Jesus. And the first step in doing so is
knowing how to rightly divide the word of truth.2
We must learn to differentiate between the Law
and the Gospel. Each have their place in the
believer's life: There are times when we must be
told what needs to be done, and there are times
when we need to simply sit at the foot of the
cross and trust in what has already been done!
When we fall short of what God has for us, we
must not ask of the word what do I do? but rather
who do I need? The Law has no right to tell us
how to be justified—that is the Gospel's job!
Conversely, the Gospel does not tell us what we
must do, but what Jesus Christ has done for us! In
observing the law for the sake of conscience—
that is, to feel justified—we despise the grace of
God and lose hold of the one thing without which
it is impossible to please Him: faith.3
Paul corrects our legalistic impulses: “Let me ask
you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works
of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so
foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now
being perfected by the flesh?”4 Yes, genuine faith
produces genuine fruit.5 But spiritual fruit is not
the grounds of our acceptance with God, nor is it
a salve for the sin-disturbed conscience.
Grace Alone
The peace our consciences so desperately crave
is only apprehended through faith in Christ. No
amount of good works or intentions will ever
suffice to remove our guilt. Therefore, we must
guide our consciences by faith into their rest1—
the blessed grace of Christ!
It is from this foundation, and this only, that we
may then begin to do the good works of faith.
Should we labor apart from the understanding of
our complete and total justification in Jesus
Christ, we will find ourselves trying to please God
with a handful of filthy rags.2 The peal of God’s
grace must ring in our ears without fail, for our
flesh is frail and often loses its grip on this most
precious and sole article of our justification.
But when we sit at Christ's feet, hearing and with the grace of God, boasting only in the cross
receiving the gospel of grace in faith, then the of Jesus Christ as we await, by faith, the
Holy Spirit comes in power and works in us what righteousness for which we hope.10
is pleasing in God's sight!3 The Bible tells us God
ordained in advance every good work we would
ever do.4 The apostle Paul confirms this when he
says God called him by grace and set him apart
from his mother’s womb.5 The point is God does
not call us on account of our good deeds or our
moral lives. He calls us by grace alone!—a
supreme comfort to our disquieted souls.

Christ Alone
Pinocchio did get one thing right, however. If we
want to live—truly live—we have to die. In losing
his life, the puppet found it, and so do we.1 This
also Christ accomplished for us, leaving us His
example: “I have been crucified with Christ. 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 in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself
for me.”2
Christ lived the life we could never live and died
the death we could never die in order that we, by
faith, could be freed from the burdens of sin and
the law.3 In this way, the Gospel deprives men of
all glory and gives it solely to God. It is Christ
alone, apprehended by faith, that constitutes
Christian righteousness. And once we have been
set free from self-centered, self-righteous
pursuits, Christ empowers us to live cross-
centered lives,4 serving Him and others in love.5
Like the little wooden boy, we have been born
into a certain nature which we are powerless to
change.6 Sin quickly seduces us with promises of
fame and luxury, but in the end leaves us slaves
to our folly. The unregenerate, like puppets, put
on a good show, but apart from God remain
dead in their trespasses.7
Yet, by the gift of God’s grace, we are awoken
unto faith.8 We become a new creation!9 We
share in our Father’s happiness and enjoy our
adoption as sons and daughters into His heavenly
home! Therefore, let us sever the ties of legalism
A Real Boy
1. "Pinocchio." Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia, 25 Jun. 2019. Web. 8 Jul.
2019.
The Still, Small Voice
1. Romans 2:15: They show that the work of the
law is written on their hearts, while their
conscience also bears witness…
2. Romans 7:19: For I do not do the good I
want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep
on doing.
3. Romans 7:18: For I know that nothing good
dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have
the desire to do what is right, but not the
ability to carry it out.
4. Romans 7:14: …but I am of the flesh, sold
under sin.
5. Romans 1:24, 26, 28: Therefore God gave
them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,
to the dishonoring of their bodies among
themselves…God gave them up to
dishonorable passions…God gave them up to
a debased mind to do what ought not to be
done.
6. Romans 7:9: I was once alive apart from the
law, but when the commandment came, sin
came alive and I died.
7. Romans 6:6–7: We know that our old self was
crucified with Him in order that the body of
sin might be brought to nothing, so that we
would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one
who has died has been set free from sin.
Alive to God
1. Acts 16:6: And they went through the region
of Phrygia and Galatia, having been
forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the
word in Asia.
2. Galatians 1:7: …there are some who trouble
you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
3. Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with
Christ. 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 in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me.
4. Galatians 1:6, 3:1: I am astonished that you
are so quickly deserting him who called you in
the grace of Christ and are turning to a
different gospel…O foolish Galatians! Who
has bewitched you? It was before your eyes
that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as
crucified.
5. Galatians 2:16: yet we know that a person is
not justified by works of the law but through
faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed
in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith
in Christ and not by works of the law, because
by works of the law no one will be justified.
6. Galatians 2:19–20: For through the law I died
to the law, so that I might live to God. I have
been crucified with Christ. 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 in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me.
Faith Alone
1. Luther, Martin. “Galatians." Blue Letter Bible.
27 Jun, 2005. Web. 8 Jul, 2019.
2. 2 Timothy 2:15: Do your best to present
yourself to God as one approved, a
worker who has no need to be ashamed,
rightly handling the word of truth.
3. Hebrews 11:6: And without faith it is
impossible to please him, for whoever would
draw near to God must believe that he exists
and that he rewards those who seek him.
4. Galatians 3:2–3
5. Galatians 5:22–23: But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
 goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-
control; against such things there is no law;
James 2:17: So also faith by itself, if it does
not have works, is dead.
Grace Alone
1. Hebrews 4:9–11: So then, there remains a
Sabbath rest for the people of God, for
whoever has entered God's rest has
also rested from his works as God did from
his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest,
so that no one may fall by the same sort of
disobedience.
2. Isaiah 64:6: We have all become like one who
is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are
like a polluted garment.
3. Hebrews 13:20–21: Now may the God of
peace who brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep,
by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip
you with everything good that you may do his
will, working in us that which is pleasing in his
sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen.
4. Ephesians 2:10: For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them.
5. Galatians 1:15: But when he who had set me
apart before I was born, and who called me
by his grace…
Christ Alone
1. Matthew 16:25: For whoever would save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for
my sake will find it.
2. Galatians 2:20
3. Galatians 5:1: For freedom Christ has set us
free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit
again to a yoke of slavery.
4. Luke 9:23: And he said to all, “If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
5. Galatians 5:13: For you were called to
freedom, brothers. Only do not use your
freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but
through love serve one another.
6. Psalm 51:5: Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me.
7. Ephesians 2:4–5: But God, being rich in
mercy, because of the great love with which
he loved us, even when we were dead in our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ
—by grace you have been saved…
8. Ephesians 2:8–9: For by grace you have been
saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of
works, so that no one may boast. 
9. Galatians 6:15: For neither circumcision
counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a
new creation; 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The
old has passed away; behold, the new has
come.
10. Galatians 5:1, 5:5, 6:14: For freedom Christ
has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do
not submit again to a yoke of slavery…For
through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves
eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness…
far be it from me to boast except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the
world has been crucified to me, and I to the
world.