If you’ll turn with me in your Bibles, our scripture reading this morning comes again from Galatians chapter 5, verses 1 through 15. Paul writes, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. For 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 neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let’s pray. Lord, you have given us your word, your law, and your scripture, and your Spirit all work together to guide us, to teach us. We ask now that you open our ears to hear, and our hearts to understand and receive what you have for us. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
For freedom, in freedom, Christ has set us free. Paul makes this declaration as the most clear, unambiguous reason for the gospel. Freedom is why Christ has saved us from our sins. Freedom is why Christ has rescued us from this evil age. Christ has set us free—past tense, completed, done, finished, finally, and absolutely. Yet why then do we so often feel as if we are not free? We still feel guilt and shame. We still sin against one another in the Lord. We still suffer from anxiety and worry. And we still die in mortal death.
So what is freedom? What does it mean to be free in Christ? Do we feel unfree because freedom, true freedom, is not what we assume it to be? The word which Paul uses here for freedom is an interesting word in the scriptures, and it is used elsewhere in the New Testament in a similar manner by Peter, James, and John, describing this same concept. It’s a word that is adopted into the faith’s usage and redeemed from the realm of Greek philosophy, holding that same original understanding. And this word is “el eutheria.”
Yet before we delve into what Paul means by the word freedom, let’s examine what we think freedom means today. If I asked you, ‘What is freedom?’ I expect that each one of us would respond with a different yet still similar answer. Freedom today has become synonymous with America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Our U.S. Constitution affirms our God-given rights of freedom: the freedom of the press, the freedom to peaceably assemble, the freedom of religion, the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, the freedom to bear arms, to carry weapons in our own personal and public defense, and other freedoms and rights that are not enumerated or within the text.
However, the Constitution assumes that a person already knows what freedom is. Old Webster’s Dictionary defines freedom as a state or exception from the power or control of another, exception from slavery, servitude, or confinement. And that freedom is personal, civil, political, and religious. The modern understanding of freedom is closely related to the word liberty, which Webster’s also defines as freedom from restraint, body, mind, and will. Yet liberty is not considered to be absolute. Natural liberty is constrained by the laws of nature; a person cannot fly or simply float into the air because of the restraint of gravity. Civil liberty is constrained by the safety of or in the best interest of society; a person is not allowed to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded movie theater, and speed limits are established on the highway for obvious safety reasons. While that which is opposed to one’s liberty, being unnecessary restraint, is considered to be tyranny and oppression.
So our modern understanding of liberty and freedom and their reasonable constraints retains the original meaning found in the Greek philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, where neither were assumed to be absolute. And so it is also with our Christian freedom. The freedom which Paul declares throughout this epistle is freedom from slavery to the obligations and judgments of the law of the Jewish Torah, of the stoichia of the world. Ironically, we could really say that Paul has been preaching, in a sense, freedom from religion and all the works of religion as the means of salvation, preaching a freedom found only by faith in Jesus Christ.
We therefore are free in Christ because Jesus is the one who has satisfied our obligation to the law and suffered the just penalty due for our law-breaking. However, in this freedom, we are not free to experience and practice lawlessness, licentiousness, antinomianism, or anarchy because God’s eternal holy law still remains valid, relevant, and is and will be enforced.
So no, we have not been freed from the law of God; instead, we have been made free under the law. As James says, Christians live under the law of liberty, echoing those ancient Greeks and explaining Christian freedom. Now in this epistle, Paul has already argued the threefold uses of the law for the Christian: as jailer or restrainer of sin, guardian of our lives, and teacher in holiness and righteousness. So how could a believer ever consider themselves to be free from the law? Truly, freedom from the law is better described as anarchy, where every person becomes a law unto themselves.
But true freedom cannot exist where one’s so-called freedom ends at the point at which another person’s freedom begins. Our freedom cannot be inflicted upon or infringe upon another person’s freedom. So there’s always limits to freedom, and it is within those limits that the Christian is to live under the law of God, no longer subject to sin and the penalty of death, but free now to live in a manner which honors Christ and our heavenly Father.
El eutheria, freedom, was always held in contrast to slavery, doulas. In the same, there have always been two kinds of people to the Greeks: the free and the slave. This is the same comparison which Paul uses here: freedom in Christ versus the yoke of slavery to the stoichia of the world, to the religious laws of the Jews, and particularly the example of circumcision. He rightly contrasts faith in Christ versus works of any religion as the means for a person’s justification before God.
So we have both liberty and limits. The Grecian states, upon whose social, historical, and political model our American Republic was based, were once considered to be the most free people of the ancient world. But their application was always, even then, freedom under the law. They intentionally and willingly limited their personal liberty and freedom for the good of all the people. It was the first real social contract.
Thus it is also for God’s people. We are restrained by God’s perfect law for our good, for our growth in holiness and sanctification, and for God’s glory. If the Lord God is who Scripture teaches that he is—good, holy, perfect, just, desiring that which is best for his children—and if he has truly provided us with these instructions for how he wishes us to live beneficial lives, then should we not want to be obedient to our loving Father as sons instead of slaves?
Not if you are still a natural man, not if you are still a son of disobedience or a child of wrath. But if you’re in Christ, then you possess a newfound freedom—the freedom of choice. The ability to choose to live in a new and better way is open to you if you are in Christ. Now you have the option to obey God’s commandments; now you are inclined to be faithful to him and his covenant. Now you have the choice to no longer continue dwelling in your sinfulness, hopelessness, and misery. You are now free to choose to live the way of life, whereas before, you were confined and restricted only to the way of death.
We are all like the man Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, who was once perfectly consigned and pleased to dwell in the City of Destruction because he did not know any other option. He did not know about the Celestial City; he was ignorant, oblivious, and unaware of any other choice until the day he encountered the gospel. Convicted thereby of his sin, he quickly realized that he did have a choice to stay or to go—but also that it was hardly a choice at all.
Although he did not yet know how or where to go, then he met the man Evangelist, whom Christian asked, ‘Where must I fly?’ And he was directed towards the light of the Celestial City beyond that yonder wicked gate. See, Christian had lost all desire to remain in the City of Destruction; he was now free to choose to obediently follow Christ and leave his old life of sin behind. He was still tempted by the stoichia of the world, and whenever he did stray from that path to the Celestial City, he was able to freely repent and be restored to the proper path.
See, he now possessed a freedom that was previously denied to him. Like Christian, before our regeneration by the Holy Spirit—when we were still enslaved, when we were still in bondage to our sin—we were not free. We lacked the ability to choose between righteousness and wickedness; only able to choose the evil instead of the good. Yes, we had a kind of free will; we had the freedom to pick our own poison of sin, but we could not not sin or not dwell in our sinfulness.
Jesus told his disciples, ‘So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’ Jesus, God’s Son, he is the one who has truly set us free. We are given in Christ the freedom to not be conformed to the ways of this world, but to instead be transformed, to more and more reflect the image of our elder brother, who is the image of the invisible God. And we do this by loving and living more and more like him.
This freedom for which we have been saved is not typified in stringent rule-keeping or by following the traditions of men, nor is it typified by careless rule-breaking either. The freedom we now possess enables us to express and live out our faith working through love, doing good for the love of God and for his glory instead of our own glory.
We now have the freedom to join and cooperate with the Holy Spirit as he works to sanctify us and every aspect of our lives. We now have the freedom to be turning away from our sins and putting them to death in our flesh. We now have the freedom to believe the most wonderful good news of Jesus Christ—that our human brokenness in sin can one day, can be, is being, and will be fixed and repaired so that one day, by our faith, we will be fully and finally restored to good fellowship with God and our fellow men.
We are not slaves; we are free now and forevermore—free from the tyranny of religion, of law and its many forms, from the stoichia of the world, and from our sinfulness. So stand firm, therefore, in freedom.
But next, Paul tells us what we must not do with our freedom: do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. You know, this is really classic Paul. Do not use your el eutheria, your freedom, to indulge your sarks, your sinful, Adamic nature. Because you are now united in Christ Jesus, you are now new creations, and you are no longer the old man. In other words, what he says is to not use your freedom in Christ to return to the false security of slavery to the law.
Ben Franklin said similarly that those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. So don’t turn away from the gospel. Adam and Eve, alone in prehistory, were granted true free will—the freedom to choose to not sin. They were not forced to eat the forbidden fruit; they chose to eat it. They chose to disobey God and sin, thus trapping all of us into our bondage.
However, that particular curse is now reversed in Jesus, the second and last Adam. For in him, we now may and will desire to choose the good instead of the evil—to sin or not to sin; that is the question we Christians are privileged to face in our freedom. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can choose to not sin. But when we choose wrongly, the Spirit will also convict us in our hearts, assist us to repentance, and then comfort us with the assurance of forgiveness in Jesus.
Ultimately, our Christian freedom is spiritual freedom and not temporal liberty. John Calvin writes of verse 13, “Liberty is not granted to the flesh, which ought rather to be held captive under the yoke, but is a spiritual benefit which none but pious minds are capable of enjoying.” A Christian saved by the Lord’s sovereign grace alone—granted by the gift of faith in Jesus Christ alone—will and must choose to avoid sin. Although we are new creations, we are still sinners redeemed by God’s mercy, and the evidence of our regeneration continues to be found in how we choose to live. Just as our faith is made manifest and proven by our works of Christ-like agape of love, so too our salvation is proven or disproven by our choices: obedience versus disobedience, chastity, purity, holiness versus licentiousness and all manner of wickedness.
This life of holiness—this is the life of freedom to which Christ calls his people. This is the blessed evangel which Paul, Jesus, the apostles, and every biblically faithful preacher will declare—that regardless of what you have ever done, whatever your particular sins are, great or small, if God’s Spirit moves within you, then it is never too late to have your chains of slavery and bondage broken and to receive this freedom in Christ.
If and when the Holy Spirit regenerates a person, transplanting a heart of flesh for their old heart of stone, then when they repent, all of their sins are forever washed away. And for those of us who know people outside of our Christian faith, or who know and love people who have apparently walked away from the faith, we must never lose hope for them. Because if God can and has saved somebody like you and like me, then he can and will for anybody and everybody he chooses and calls.
The Lord, through Adam, gave everyone the freedom to walk away from him—to choose sin. However, in Christ, he has graciously given to some the freedom to choose otherwise—to return to his presence and be gathered up into his loving arms. All those who have this freedom will hear and will answer his call, for they are those whom he has chosen and whom he has predestined. They will truthfully respond when God’s time is right.
Sin is always out there, waiting to tempt our fleshly natures. But do not give up; stand firm. You have freedom. No one is ever as far away from God as they believe themselves to be. He is omnipresent, after all, everywhere in and beyond creation. And all those whom he calls will come to him.
So never, never give up on your lost friends or family. Continue to pray for and hope for their faith and conversion. Never give up on those who hate you or who hate God and Jesus in the world. Instead, continue to pray for the miracle that one day he will change their heart and bring them to himself. Remember, the Lord saved the Pharisee Paul, he forgave the adulterous murderer King David, and Jesus, God’s Son, begged for the pardon of those who crucified him while he hung on that cross dying.
There is no one beyond the reach of God’s love and freedom. For freedom, Christ has set us free.
So Christian, use your freedom well. Choose the good over the evil. Love your neighbor and those who consider you to be their enemy. Do not submit to human laws or traditions that restrict your freedom and which cannot save you. And do not use your freedom to gratify your flesh. You have the freedom and the power to choose, and you must make that choice today and every day.
Even though the Lord’s sovereign choice was you, do not have a once-and-done choice. This is not about signing a conversion card or a spiritual birth certificate saying, ‘I gave my life to Christ on some day,’ somewhere. It isn’t always an every-moment choice that we must intentionally make. And when we fail to make the right choices, we trust in the promise of grace through Jesus Christ that he is sure to forgive us when we repent.
For you are called to freedom, brothers. Use your freedom well for God’s glory. Use your freedom for your own life and soul. Use your freedom well for all others in love, in agape. And pray that one day they will join us in this freedom.
Then, when we are all gathered together in the New Jerusalem, we will be living in the only true land of the free. Amen.