A Message Which Transforms Churches
A MESSAGE WHICH SETS FREE Trinity
Galatians chapter 5 28.4.19
If I had a favourite Bible verse, it would have to be 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 the faith of the Son of God.”
- Will I be punished for my sins – for any of my sins? No, I have been already judged for them all – Christ’s death for my sin was my death for sin - “I have been crucified with Christ”.
- Is God more disposed towards me now because of the good that I do? No. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
- What is the big deal now for me? My increase in godliness and growth in faith? No, it is Jesus’ faith and faithfulness … the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.”
All of which leaves me where? A humiliated groveler? Just one more Christian in a mob of anonymous millions? A second-rate slave, consigned to a second rate life, down in the cells where slaves live?
If there is one word in this letter that describes where I am as a Christian, it is the word ‘free’. As a son of God, a child of God, I am now in a place of the most wonderful freedom.
Freedom is a hot topic in 2019. We want freedom from laws that prevent our being “true to who we really are”. We want freedom from taxes, freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom to just enjoy life, free from obligation and responsibility.
God speaks to us in this letter about a freedom that is real freedom. But he is warning us here that like other good freedoms, it can be very easily destroyed, traded-away, squandered and cheapened.
Let’s see what this freedom is, by looking at two threats against it, as set out by Tim Keller in his little book on Galatians. He says that we can LOSE it and we can ABUSE it.
- WE CAN LOSE OUR FREEDOM
God says in 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
The first readers of those words are Christians. They have a salvation which they cannot lose. But they have a freedom which they can lose. Whereas they should be able to stand up straight, they are in danger of living like oxen who bear a heavy yoke that restricts them and weighs them down.
What spoils the enjoyment of real freedom? Two things:
Firstly, rules and regulations.
Sure, they belong to Jesus. But others are telling them that Jesus has value for them only if they then keep the rules. They are focussing on the rule that says they must be circumcised. It’s not a big deal – why doesn’t Paul just let it go through to the keeper?
It isn’t a big deal – not if the circumcision is for health or social reasons. Do it, or don’t do it? It doesn’t matter. But it IS a big deal, if something bigger than that gets tied up with it.
People are saying “If you REALLY want to be forgiven for your sins, and to belong to the family of God, then you have to obey the circumcision rule. If you don’t, you’re out.”
You know what happens when you add anything to Jesus. It becomes the big deal, the deciding factor – what makes the difference between life and death. It’s not Jesus who does this, but the observance of the add-on.
The enemies of the gospel say “Jesus is of no value to you unless you add this rule.” But the opposite is true. Add any rule-keeping to Jesus, and then he is of no value for you. “If you accept circumcision (as an essential add-on, remember), Christ will be of no advantage to you.” (v2) Add anything to Jesus, and you subtract from him.
I doubt anyone here is fussed about the circumcision rule for belonging to Jesus. But how about rules we might make?
- How about holding to this or that secondary doctrine?
- How about baptism – and baptism this way and not that way?
- How about the way your kids turn out?
- How about not drinking alcohol or having a tattoo?
- How about having this or that pattern of Bible reading?
- How about not committing suicide?
If you add even one rule to Jesus’s work, then you are in bondage to all the other rules. “I testify to every man who accepts circumcision (or any other of our rules) that he is obligated to keep the whole law.” (v3)
This is a recipe for slavery. And it is also a serious warning that large-scale destruction of God’s truth so often begins with just the camel’s nose inside the tent.
This is not freedom. Rules and regulations, whether Jewish, Christian or any other kind, are killers. Get into that mindset and you lose your freedom.
Secondly, you lose your freedom by being enslaved to others.
Verse 7 “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” “Who cut in on you?” is the word with a double meaning here. Who got them off track and away from Jesus? Men with clout and position, who talk big and argue loud.
They have been so forceful, these Christians in Galatia have been intimidated away from God’s revealed message.
They used to enjoy the freedom that comes from knowing that Jesus’ life and death are enough for them forever. But now they worry more about what these other guys think and say, and whether they have their approval or not.
They used to stand up straight before God. But now they drag their feet and their shoulders are bowed down.
But Paul is not intimidated by them. Anything but. He says that he wishes “those who unsettle you would cut themselves up” (5:12). How can he so confidently stand against such a big block of intimidators? How could he say, as he did back in 1:8, “If even an angel from heaven should preach other than what we have told you, let him be accursed.”?
If God didn’t say it, it doesn’t matter who does – it doesn’t count. If God has not revealed it, it doesn’t matter whether the Pope says it, this Church says it, or your best friends say it. It’s not on.
Do you think there is freedom in looking over your shoulder to check what the others are saying? Do you think there is freedom in conforming to the majority? Anything but!
Do you believe the words of Jesus that “the truth shall set you free”? It will. It will. There is something wonderfully liberating in not caring too much what others say or think – and in building your life upon what the Living God thinks and says.
What if you are in a minority? What if your friends don’t like it? What if an ignorant person wants to brand you an Islamaphobe, or a homophobe, or treat you as a fool for standing where Jesus stands?
There is no freedom where there rules are added to Jesus, or where human opinions compete with his. We can lose our freedom so easily. Let’s resolve to fight for it.
- WE CAN ABUSE OUR FREEDOM
In another church after I had unsuccessfully appealed for help with some tasks, a lady told me that there was no way people were going to offer. “Why not?” I asked. “Because you keep telling people that being right with God is all down to Jesus, and not in any way to us. Why will people do it what’s right if there is nothing in it for them?”
It was so blatant, I was shocked. But I was also delighted. I knew that she had at least understood what I had been preaching.
Some people put it around the other way. “If I am really safe and saved in Jesus, then won’t that mean I can do whatever I like, and it won’t matter?
Religion with its rules loses freedom … thinking you have been set free to do whatever you like abuses it. Because you have been set free for a purpose. And that purpose is not about you.
“You were called to freedom brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’.” (13,14)
The gospel of Jesus-alone doesn’t leave you with your private religion – my prayers, my pilgrimages, my religious observance in religious holy places. Or with you doing whatever pleases you.
It flows out into relationships of love. We have been set free not to live for ourselves, but to use our freedom to serve others.
That means some things are not on. The things that come from what Paul calls “the desires of the flesh” (v16) with all the ugly anti-relational actions that flow from that in verses 19,20:
- sexual immorality, impurity and sensuality (using you to satisfy me, without any limits as to what is good or right)
- idolatry and sorcery (living with a god who is fake)
- enmity, strife, jealousy (destructive attitudes to other people)
- with all the relationship-breaking results that come from those … fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy
- drunkenness, orgies (dropping any sense of responsibility to others and being run by addictions)
While some things are definitely not on, other things are. Like all the beautiful qualities listed in verses 22 and 23 which are mostly about the way I care for you and relate to you. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
In Jesus, I am free, fully free. Free to do whatever makes me feel good? No. In Jesus, free to do whatever does you good. If I loved you from a character-base like that, you’d be blessed in a way that rules and regulations could never produce.
- What if you misread my motive for what I say or do? That doesn’t matter, because in Jesus I am safe.
- What if I lose because I serve you? That doesn’t matter, because in Jesus I already have everything that matters.
- What if taking Jesus’ stance means I am branded as an Islamaphobe, or a homophobe, or something else? That’s doesn’t matter because God has branded me his precious son and given me full inheritance rights for the new heaven and the new earth.
- What if I muck it up today, can I make a fresh start tomorrow? Of course, because I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, not mine.
This is so beautiful. But that doesn’t mean that I am saying it is easy. Ungodly desires and passions raise their heads a thousand times a day. They are my default setting. And they are yours.
And I can think of a hundred reasons why I shouldn’t love you or serve you with kindness and gentleness and faithfulness. And a million why I shouldn’t be more self-controlled.
My nature hates and resists any inroad of the Holy Spirit. It keeps excusing my sin rather than fight against it.
- “You can’t help the way you are. Be authentic.”
- “You’ve worked hard – you deserve me-time, and the opportunity to indulge your fantasies.”
- “You’re better than them – don’t lower yourself for them – they wouldn’t appreciate it anyway.”
- “Why try so hard? It’s all forgiven anyway.”
Brothers and sisters, it’s a fight. We have been set free, not to put our feet up and abuse our freedom. But to use it to become more and more like Jesus, in loving service to others.
It’s a hard fight. But it’s a fight that’s worth it. Because the freedom that comes with Jesus is so wonderful. It is too precious to abuse, isn’t it?
It’s a no-brainer. When you turned to Jesus, you turned against ugliness of sin and rebellion. “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (v24) You began by drawing a line in the sand. And that’s exactly what Jesus calls on you to do today. Does that speak to something in your life, where you have failed to draw the line, or you keep shifting it? Too much is at stake not to “keep in step with the Spirit” (v25).
Don’t lose your Christ-bought freedom, will you? By being run by rules. Or by what other people say or do.
Don’t abuse your freedom, by using it to run your own agenda, will you. The freedom is so precious, it’s worth the fight.