I am preparing a message about true Christian freedom for tomorrow’s service. I am studying many Scriptures and have many thoughts about freedom and liberty.
One of the passages I have been studying is Galatians 5, which is labeled in one of my Bible translations as “Freedom of the Christian.”
The chapter begins with a declaration: “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” [Galatians 5:1 HCSB]
Paul was writing because the Galatians were facing a crisis of theology. A group called Judaizers were insisting that Gentiles first convert to Judaism, get circumcised, and follow the Mosaic law to be eligible to be Christians. Paul wrote to counter this and proclaimed that true liberty is found solely in Christ.
The law had one purpose, to prove to fallen mankind that he could not be saved by keeping the law. It pointed ahead to the salvation that would come from God through the work of Christ Jesus on the cross. That salvation would be given by God’s grace and received (not worked for) by faith. That salvation in Christ alone would set man free from the slavery of the law.
Once the law brings us to Christ Jesus, it has achieved its sole purpose. To go back under the law is to reject Christ’s work and fall from God’s grace.
“You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.” [Galatians 5:4 HCSB]
Why would anyone set free through grace want to go back to trying futilely to be justified by keeping the law? And yet many do. I, for one, cling to the grace of God and my freedom in Christ Jesus.