One of the events in history that has really enamored me throughout my life and ministry is the American revolution, everything that took place from 1775-1783. The events of those years, the colonists hiding their weapons, the British searching for their storehouses, the standoff at Lexington and Concord. The desperate nature of their situation always fascinated me, the colonials fighting one of the largest militaries in the world, and the single largest navy in the world.
The battle at bunker hill, which they lost, the amazing siege of Boston where General Washington had no artillery, so General Knox went and stole a bunch of cannons from a British fort, and brought them to Washington.
The defeat at New York, the chaos, the lost battles, all of it was so desperate, looked so bleak, and yet, the great turning point was when Washington crossed the Delaware river on Christmas day to score a key victory.
So much of it was clearly acts of God in human history. Washington himself believed that, he kept speaking of divine providence. All those events eventually led to victory over the British, and a new nation was born.
Freedom and liberty came about through those events for untold millions. And it took God’s favor. It’s always inspired me, that desperate battle for liberty. That victory bought for us a freedom from tyranny that endures to this day.
But today we speak of another kind of freedom, a freedom that Christ bought for us with his own blood.
We often see in scripture an idea called freedom, or liberty in Christ. And today we’re going to talk about what that means to have freedom in Christ. We’re going to look at what the exercise of that freedom looks like, we’re going to look at the limits of that freedom, and how that freedom leads us into a mindset called living in the Spirit.
We find ourselves today in the letter to the Galatians, the fifth chapter. Paul writes this letter to the church of Galatia, it was originally sent from Paul in Ad. 48, so about 2000 years ago.
The issue was, the church was originally made up of two main groups, Jews who had converted to Christianity. And gentiles (non-Jews) who had converted to Christianity from pagan religions. And, one of the problems that cropped up in the church in Galatia, among other churches at that time, was that some of the Jewish Christians began to insist that believers should have to follow certain ceremonial laws from the Old Testament.
The one in particular, that was being taught by false teachers in Galatia, was that gentile Christians had to be circumcised.
Paul is writing the letter to the Galatian church to deal with this heresy, of requiring gentile Christians to be circumcised according to the law of Moses.
Our scripture today in Galatians 5:1 begins like this, “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.”
It is for liberty, for the concept of liberty, that Christ set us free. The Greek word here, eleutheria (el-yoo-ther-ee’-ah), implies the concept of a slave being released. But it is more than freedom from sin, but also liberty to make free choices, because in fact Christ loves and desires liberty as an end in itself.
I’ve found that to be true about who God is, he loves liberty. He doesn’t force us to do anything and doesn’t want to control our actions. He gives freedom. Now he does desire that we would freely choose the right. But he doesn’t force us. Of course, there are consequences to our actions.
It is Satan and his demonic forces that prefer tyranny and control. If you notice, in the book of Revelation, Satan’s end game, his final plan, is the mark of the beast, which once the person takes it, it forces them to be under the control of the anti-Christ. Satan’s end game is total control, to turn people into cattle.
God’s end game is liberty, but also consequence. If we use our liberty to live in blatant sin, there will be consequences. But, if we use our liberty for love, there will be reward.
Once we are free, we are reminded to stand firm, the Greek word can mean, to remain stationary. Do not let yourself be slowly taken it by yokes of slavery. A yoke is a harness that an animal would wear when it’s being directed.
There are two yokes that we need to avoid. The first is the yoke of slavery to old testament ceremonial laws and regulations. The second, is the yoke of slavery to sin.
Paul is writing to a church, where false teachers are trying to put them back under the yoke of the law of Moses, when Paul knows that Christ has set the people free from sin, yes, but also from adherence to the old testament law.
It continues, verses 2-4, “2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”
Paul uses the strongest language to call out these false teachings. Imagine if we started saying that we have to obey the old testament law, no mixed fabrics, no pork, no shell fish. Those are old testament ceremonial laws. They do not apply to us today. Same thing with circumcision.
Interestingly enough, circumcision is still done, medically, because it actually is more healthy, but, no Christian would say a new believer must be circumcised.
But Paul says, those who are attempting to be justified through the law, they’ve fallen away. They are alienated from Christ. The Greek word here ekpiptō implies losing something, dropping away, being driven off from one’s course.
That’s how serious it is, that we don’t try to live according to the old testament law of Moses in order to be justified before God. We know our justification comes through Jesus Christ, and what he did on the cross. Jesus fulfilled the law completely. We must trust that Jesus’s victory for us is sufficient.
Paul continues, verses 5-6: “5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Here Paul gives us a hint of our true lifestyle as a believer. He says, “through the Spirit…” We as believers do not live by the Old testament law. We don’t live by rules and regulations. We live by the leading of the Holy Spirit.
That relationship with the Spirit is lived through faith, trust. Faith then naturally expresses itself through acts of love. If it doesn’t, something has gone wrong.
Next, verses 7-9: “7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
The Christian life is comparable to running a race. Pursuing a goal. And it’s a beautiful thing to watch a Christian who really sees their life that way. They are pursuing Christ. They are chasing after Him.
But it is amazing how much damage false teachers can do. They come around with crafty arguments, very clever statements, to try to draw you away from wholehearted devotion to Christ.
There are so many dangerous false teachings out there today. The teaching that claims any sort of call to holiness is legalism. I’ve heard that garbage for years from lukewarm Christians. It is very common unfortunately for this very book of the Bible, Galatians, to be used by some to make the argument that any attempts toward holiness before the Lord are like vain attempts at adhering to the law of Moses. Yet scripture says repeatedly, live the most holy life in response to what Christ has done for you.
As Paul says, a little yeast leavens the whole batch. False teachings have a way of disturbing our entire walk with Christ. One simple lie can mess up our entire concept of Christ and lead us astray.
Next, verses 10-12: “10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!”
Notice here that Paul says if we were to go back to the law, it would mean the offense of the cross would be abolished. But Paul is confident that the cross is not abolished, he is confident that true believers will in fact take no other view, but the truth. Paul reminds them that judgment awaits the false teachers, he even goes as far as to say, that he wishes these false teachers would go all the way and emasculate themselves.
Yes, that’s in the Bible. Paul so wishes to protect the believers in Galatia, that he views the false teachers as a vicious and dangerous threat.
Next, verse 13: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
Here we’re getting closer to the heart of what it means to have freedom in Christ. The freedom Christ gives is like the freedom a slave would receive when being set free. We were once all slaves to sin. We did not have the power in our flesh to not sin. But when we allowed Christ to reign in our hearts, we received the Holy Spirit, and by the Spirit of Christ, we are able to be free.
That freedom means we can be free from sins in our lives. We’re free from having to strictly adhere to the old testament law of Moses. Jesus has fulfilled it all for us.
So does that mean we can essentially do whatever we want? Absolutely not. We’re instantly told, do not use your freedom as an excuse to indulge the flesh. Rather, we have a freedom yes, but the goal should be, to exercise that freedom to serve one another humbly in love.
It’s kind of like how the United States was setup. It was setup as John Adams wrote, for a moral and religious people. We have a lot of freedoms in our society. And the reason for that is, because each citizen should be a law unto themselves. From within they guard themselves from taking actions that would harm the society. That is American freedom. We govern ourselves. Unfortunately, as people in our society lose touch with that fact, and run wild, our society increasingly has to create new laws to prevent destructive behavior.
Next, verses 14-15: “14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
Through the Spirit, who lives within us, we are able to fulfill not the old testament law of Moses, but the law of Christ, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. Yet we also get a warning, but if you begin to quarrel and backbite each other, you will destroy each other.
We are no longer under the law of Moses. But one could say that we are under a new law, a new yoke, but this yoke is easy and light, as Jesus said. We are under the royal law, the law of love, which puts us under the two great commands of Jesus, to love God, and love our neighbors. By the Spirit, we are able to fulfill this yoke.
Next, verses 16-18: “16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
So we’ve discovered that freedom in Christ, is about personal freedom in your life from regulations and more so, freedom from slavery to sin in the flesh. It’s about full reliance on Christ and what he did on the cross.
It’s about accessing God through faith. This faith expresses itself in love.
We are now in a new pattern of thinking. We no longer look nervously at the endless commands of the Torah, we look to the Spirit within, with the help of the New Testament, and to the command “to love” from Jesus.
We want to see it all in the context of walking by the Spirit vs. walking by the flesh. The Spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh, the flesh what is contrary to the Spirit. They are in conflict. This is the battle within us. So we are in fact not to do whatever we want, that would be a misuse of our freedom in Christ.
But if you are truly led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
I’ve heard it so often described in Christian theology as faith vs. Works, faith vs. Works, or that’s a work, you’re working for your own salvation, blah blah blah. But that is not the key divide in the Christian life. It’s something we should be aware of, that we live by faith, and that faith expresses itself in works. But no, the main divide as we live the Christian life is learning to live by the Spirit’s leading, and to crucify the works of the flesh.
And we as Wesleyans do not believe that one must always keep on sinning endlessly. We believe, that through the Spirit, we can do just what it says, crucify the sins of the flesh. And live free. Does that mean that we’re suddenly perfect? Of course not. But, we believe, we can fundamentally live from a place of freedom, not slavery.
What are the works of the flesh?
They are as follows: 19-21: “19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Notice, the end of verse 21, Paul is talking to believers here, I don’t know why that’s hard for some people to figure out, but it says, if you live like this, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.
When you practice these sins of the flesh, you are in fact putting your salvation on the line. It says it right there. If you live like this, make a practice of willful sinning, you won’t inherit eternal life.
So be wise and repent quickly, if these sort of practices are occurring in your life. God will help us.
Next, we get a picture of the Spirit life: “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
The Spirit is always developing these characteristics within the heart of a believer. And we can trust that God will bring them to completion. We also know that our cooperation is necessary with the Spirit, for these characteristics to develop.
Lastly, verses 25-26: “25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
The battle between the flesh and the Spirit rages intensely in the life of a new believer. And over the years, as those battles are won, the battles die down a bit. But, God is often addressing something new in our lives, depending on what stage we’re in, in our spiritual journey.
So, we want to keep in step with the Spirit. That word “in step” in the Greek pictures “proceeding in a row as the marching of a soldier” in an orderly fashion. The Spirit is our leader. He guides us, and shows us things he wants us to focus in on. So, as you pray, and study the word, and listen for the Spirit, the Spirit will guide you on a journey, from one area of your life to the next, teaching you, training you, convicting you, guiding you, and you’ll be brought to different things in your life. The Spirit will encourage you, crucify this issue, set it aside, repent of it, build up this area, heal in this area, and it’ll be a beautiful journey as you engage on it.
We get one last warning, to not become conceited, provoking or envying each other. That’s always a danger as we grow in Christ, and we see the Spirit doing all these things, we start to think well I’m good now, I don’t have anything else to work on, but, that can be pride, and we want to stay humble, and open to the voice of the Spirit in our lives.
In conclusion, Christ came to give us freedom. That freedom is beautiful. It’s an open space for us to live free from slaveries of the mind or heart. But it’s a freedom that calls us to purity. It’s a freedom that calls us away from rules and regulations of the law. It’s a faith relationship with Jesus Christ, expressing itself in love. And that faith relationship leads us toward the Holy Spirit and the leading of the Spirit in our lives.
We obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, in accordance with Jesus’ commands to love God and love our neighbors. We utilize life in the Spirit, to put to death the misdeeds of our flesh. And so we learn to walk in step with the Spirit, following His lead, remaining humble, as we journey toward heaven together.
