Set Free To Live Free

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1)

This is a lovely declaration of the believer’s freedom. Believers are free because “Christ has set us free”. Paul says this is an accomplished fact and not something for which we have to fight and struggle. We do not have to march and declare “we shall overcome, someday”. This liberation is not a result of our efforts. We already have it. However, now that we are free it is our goal and our responsibility to live in that freedom.

Bondage and release were major themes in Galatians. Paul wrote: "The Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin" (3:22). "We were held prisoners by the law, locked up" (3:23). "We were in slavery under the basic principles of the world" (4:3). Our freedom and release are parallel themes: Jesus Christ "gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age" (1:4). "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law" (3:13). "God sent his Son . . . to redeem those under law" (4:4-5). "Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman" (4:31). We have obtained deliverance from the judgment of the law of God. Therefore, we no longer live under its disciplinary regulations.

Our text was prompted by the fact that Jewish teachers were insisting that the persons could not be in a right relationship with God without observing Jewish rituals such as circumcision. Here Paul painstakingly reminded them that they must strive to remain in the freedom that Jesus gave them and not allow themselves to again be in bondage to rituals and practices that are not requisite and necessary for peace with God.

One of the most difficult things for us to accept is that our only role in our salvation is to accept it and in faith hold firmly to God. Now as then, many are proclaiming a gospel which says: “Salvation is - faith in Jesus plus other things”. There are those who would have us believe and accept that baptism by immersion; or baptism in Jesus’ name only; or speaking in tongues; or keeping the Sabbath is required and necessary for salvation. To accept this is to allow ourselves to become enslaved to a yoke of slavery. It’s deadly!

This freedom does not mean we are free to do whatever we want. According to John Stott this freedom is: "freedom from my silly little self in order to live responsibly in love for God and others.” Paul literally says that it’s for freedom that Christ has freed us. Charles Wesley captures this beautifully when he wrote:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay

Fast bound in sin and nature's night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.

My chains fell off, my heart was free;

I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

Thought: We must neither try to replace the gospel nor add to it.
Prayer Focus: Faith to “live responsibly in love for God and others.”