True Freedom

In my preparation to share with you from Paul’s letter to the church of Galatia I was reminded that the major themes of this great book are Authority, Grace, and Freedom. In last week’s letter I asked, “Who Is In Charge?” which deals with the Authority aspect as Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Our series title is “Grace to Grow in Troubled Times” as we study this great book. Today I want to deal with the third major theme of this book: Freedom.

In Galatians 5:13 – 18 God inspired Paul to write,

“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

Paul is warning against both legalism and license. The answer to these two extremes of Christian freedom is “…through love serve one another.” In this way we, like Christ our example, will fulfill the Law that God has given us. Paul then describes two aspects of our lives, the “flesh” and the “Spirit.” We will serve one or the other, for there is no in between. WE ARE EITHER IN SLAVERY TO SIN OR IN SLAVERY TO GOD AND OTHERS!

Slavery to sin is to walk in the flesh while slavery to God and others is to walk in His Spirit. One might exclaim, “Well, it is still slavery!” That may seem a legitimate response, yet this is not a contradiction but a paradox. When we study God’s creation of this world (Gen. 1 – 3) we find that we were made for an intimate relationship with God and with others – an intimacy that was destroyed because of sin. To be called back to that is God acting in salvation in our lives. We are now living kingdom lives even though the kingdom, in its fullness, is not yet here. The Spirit of God has been given to us that we might live the character of the disciple of Jesus Christ. This life is neither legalism nor license, but it is true FREEDOM! To die to self that Christ might live through us is to walk in true freedom. This is the freedom that Christ created humanity to live in and calls us back to as His disciples. May we follow Christ’s instruction of Luke 9:23, “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” This is the daily and moment-by-moment of living out the kingdom life. This is true freedom.