Galatians 5:1-6
“Gospel Freedom”
SI: Paul’s letters follow the same format—
First half is doctrine, and the second half
is application.
First half of Galatians is
about doctrine of justification by faith—
which Paul explains
and defends against the legalism
of the circumcision
group troubling the Galatians.
Second half is
application.
What does it look like to live as a person
who is justified by faith in Christ?
The key word that Paul uses
throughout this section is freedom.
Justified people are free people.
You are to live as a free person.
Paul will be explaining what
that means.
INTRO: My preaching professor in seminary
had very strong
opinions about sermon illustrations—what should, should not use.
One thing he frowned on were
what he called “old chestnuts.”
Which are classic sermon illustrations that
are passed on generation to generation.
These are collected in books with titles
like: 1001 Sermon Illustrations.
My professor thought these
were artificial and overly dramatic.
He had read thousands, had remarkable
memory, would nail students who used.
So you have not heard many of
the old chestnuts from me.
I do own two sermon illustration books.
But I only use them when I’m desperate.
I didn’t buy them, given to me, and feel
guilty using them.
This morning, as we look at
Paul’s teaching on freedom in Christ,
going to do
something that would have earned me a stern look from Dr. Chapell.
Open with an old chestnut—but
it gets worse—
this is an old
chestnut I’ve used before, artificial and dramatic—but I like it.
Here’s the story:
There was a woman whose
husband was a very harsh, demanding, unloving man.
Every day when he left for work he would
give her a list of household duties
that he expected
her to complete by the time he got home.
She resented him, she hated
his lists, thought he was a taskmaster—
but she feared his
disapproval more—so she checked things off the list.
Well, he died. And she remarried. Second husband the exact opposite.
He was kind, complimentary, and loving. Had many happy years.
One day, she was going though
some papers—came across on of those old lists.
As she read the list she was amazed to
discover that she was doing
everything on the
list for her second husband, wanted to do more.
Paul begins the application
portion of the letter with these words:
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us
free.”
What has Christ set you free
from?
He has set you free from lawkeeping
as the way of earning God’s approval,
and avoiding his
disapproval. That’s the first
husband.
We are all born with the belief
that if we do the right things, God owes us.
We earn His approval by checking things off
list.
When we were under the law
and trying to save ourselves—
we obeyed God
because it was something we had to do.
We obeyed out of fear of
rejection and punishment.
We obeyed to get things from God.
Jesus Christ came to set you
free from this way of life.
Jesus provided a way for you to be acceptable
to God apart from the law.
By faith in Christ His life
becomes the life you should have lived,
His death becomes the death you should have
died.
So when God looks at you, He
judges you as He judges Jesus himself—
“This is my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased.”
Still a
sinner. Still sin and fail. But justified sinner. Beloved failure.
Question is: Then what is the incentive for moral living?
Answer is:
For freedom Christ has set us free.
Being free from earning your
salvation by obedience—
gives you the
freedom to obey God because you want to—because you love Him.
Gospel is the second
husband.
Before it was: I better do this, or he’s going to hate me.
Now:
I want to do this because he loves me and I love him.
Christian
life, living the assurance of your acceptance by God through Christ.
Grand theme of this second
half of letter.
What is the first thing Paul
says about freedom in Christ?
“Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves
be burdened again by a yolk of slavery.”
Very first lesson he presses
home about freedom in Christ is that it can be lost.
You can be burdened again. It happened to the Galatians.
They exchanged their freedom in Christ for new
slavery to religious practices.
Paul’s first
application: Remember that freedom in
Christ can be lost.
In passage Paul says two ways
you keep this freedom:
1.
Heed the warning
2.
Affirm the truth
MP#1
You must heed the warning.
Legalism will cause you to
lose the freedom you have in Christ.
vs. 1 Do not be
burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
The most important word in
Paul’s warning is the word “again.”
Do not be burdened again by the yoke
of slavery.
The Galatians had been pagans
who were under the bondage of literal idolatry.
Now they were professing Christians who had
put pagan idolatry behind them.
But they were in danger of coming under yoke
of slavery again.
Does that mean that they were
in danger of going back to old pagan idols?
Is that what the problem was in the Galatian churches?
Was it Christians going back to worship
gods, goddesses of
No, that was not the
problem.
Problem was that these Gentile Christians
being told that to be real Christians
had to be
circumcised. Faith in
Christ not enough. Had to be circumcised.
The believed this.
Paul says,
if you add this requirement to your faith in Christ—
then your life will
be just like it was when you were a pagan—
under slavery to
your idols.
How do idols enslave you?
Idol is any created thing
that you trust to give you what God alone can give.
Idols enslave your emotions and your outlook
on life.
If a man’s idol is his
career—trusting his career for his security and control.
What happens if circumstances threaten his
career?
Does he say: There is more to life than my career. Uncontrollably anxious.
What happens if a person threatens his
career? Uncontrollably resentful, angry
What happens if he fails in his career? Uncontrollably self-condemning.
And what if he succeeds in
meeting all his career goals—
then he is
completely happy, secure, content—then emptiness, boredom.
What if a woman’s idol is her
children’s happiness—trusting for worth.
What happens if her children are miserable? She feels cursed.
Could go on and on with
example after example—idolatry is slavery.
Great thing about becoming a
Christian—freed from idolatry.
Your security, worth, acceptance is in Jesus
Christ.
He is never disappointing, source of eternal
blessing.
Paul says: You start to add legalistic requirements to
Christian life—
you will start to
live and feel as if you were under curse of pre-Christian idol.
Your relationship with God
will be characterized
by anxiety,
resentment, and self-condemnation.
There will be a dryness, emptiness even to your apparent successes.
May be very moral, avoid all outward
sins—but joy will be gone.
Reason is that you can never
be sure that you have done enough.
Instead of looking at
Christ—love of God in Christ—your own record.
Of course you aren’t doing
enough. Can never do
enough.
Let’s go back to the opening
story—the old chestnut.
Suppose it ended differently.
Woman found the old list instead of filling
her with amazement
at how her second
husbands love has changed her life—
She it filled her with fear that
she wasn’t doing enough for him.
Started to imagine that he
was looking at her like first husband did.
Old walls of resentment started growing in
her heart.
He must not love me either. I’m not doing things right.
That’s very easy to imagine, isn’t it.
When life is used to
slavery, hard to adjust to freedom.
In verses 2-4 Paul gives an
extremely strong warning.
If you let yourselves be circumcised. . . .
Christ will be of no value to you.
Obligated to obey the
whole law.
Fall away from grace.
Is Paul saying that real
Christian can lose salvation if become legalistic?
Sounds like that. Stern warning. You trust these things instead of Christ,
fall.
But says in vs. 10 he has
confidence they will listen to him.
The function of warnings in
Scripture is to bring real Christians to senses
and back to Christ
and the Gospel. Exactly what happened to
Galatians.
Those who persisted in this
belief, the circumcision party—
never really
trusted Christ at all.
He was simply part of their program of self
salvation.
Now, let’s apply this to your
life.
I doubt there is anyone here who would say
that you have to obey God’s law
to get yourself
saved. Hope everyone would say—by faith
in Christ alone.
But, do you think you have to
obey God to keep yourself saved?
Let me ask two more personal question:
Is relationship with God characterized by
anxiety, resentment, self-condemnation?
Do you have sense of dryness or boredom in
your spiritual life?
These are symptoms of life
under yoke of slavery.
Could it be that you have started to think
that it is your record that keeps right.
And your failure is burdening you.
And your successes are empty.
It feels like Christ is of no
value to you.
Obviously Paul recognized
this as a problem for the Galatians—
we have their
letter in Bible, because continues to be a problem.
There is a way out of this legalistic
slavery.
The way out, and the way to
avoid it altogether are the same—
MP#2
You must affirm the truth.
The way you regain and
maintain a lively sense of your freedom in Christ
is to affirm the
truth of the Gospel every day.
Paul uses a military
image: He says, “Stand firm.”
Keep alert, be strong, resist
attack—that’s what is implied in this phrase.
A nation’s freedom is
preserved by standing firm.
When we were in
were teenage
Israeli girls in khaki skirt and sandals, M-16s slung over shoulders.
Obvious
that as a nation, aware that preserving freedom meant standing firm daily.
Same for
you as a Christian.
Every day you must bring home to mind and
heart certain Gospel truths.
If you
don’t. If you cruise along for weeks and months and
years without—
then you will lose
your freedom and fall into bondage of slavery.
It’s inevitable—start to substitute lawkeeping for Gospel and lose freedom.
Two truths in particular that
Paul highlights in verse 5 and 6.
These are the M-16 and ammunition sling over
shoulder.
vs. 5 “But by faith we eagerly await through
the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.”
What is the righteousness for which we hope?
We use the word hope to mean
something want but not sure going to happen.
Can you fix the flat tire? I hope so.
Hope in the Bible means a
powerful assurance and certainty of something.
So as a Christian, what are
you to eagerly await with confidence?
Righteousness.
To be righteous is to be
judged and found accepted.
Righteous is your present status before God
by faith in Christ.
But it is also the future verdict that you
will receive on the Judgment Day.
On the great day, when all
the books are opened, all mankind stands before throne:
Words you will hear are:
“This is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased.”
“Since you are a son, God has made you an
heir.”
As the confidence of
righteousness for which we hope sinks into heart—
you will live as a
free person—delivered from legalism in all of its forms.
Are you troubled by
self-condemnation?
Do your sins and failures way you down in a
legalist way?
Are you paralyzed by the negative judgments
of other people?
Are you continually trying
with God and others, and self to check off list—
hoping to do enough
to gain a favorable judgment?
Ask the Holy Spirit—his
work—to bring home to heart unseen spiritual realities.
Meditate on the work of Christ. Persistent.
Daily take up verses that speak of
righteousness.
“No condemnation” “Peace with God.”
This will keep you from yoke of slavery.
Second truth is in verse 6
“For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.”
This is a truly amazing
statement:
Circumcision is shorthand for life of religious
rituals and moral behavior.
Uncircumcision is
shorthand for a life of paganism and immorality.
Paul is saying that in Christ
neither your moral successes
nor your moral failures have any value
in affecting your
standing with God.
It is through the work of
Christ alone that you are right with God.
Listen to this interesting
statement by Martin Luther:
“Human beings by nature, when they get near
either danger or death itself will of necessity view their own worthiness. We defend ourselves before all threats by
recounting our good deeds and moral efforts.
But then the remembrance of sins and flaws inevitably comes to mind, and
this tears us apart, and we think: ‘How
many errors and sins and wrongs I have done.’
But the real evil is that we trust for our own power to be righteous and
will not lift up our eyes to see that Christ has done for us.”
Legalistic heart is always
defending self with successes, falling apart over failures.
When you experience a success—legalistic
heart says—God loves me more.
And when you experience a failure—legalistic
hearts says—God loves less.
But Paul says that in the
Gospel you have a totally different view—
Neither your successes nor your failures count in your standing with
God.
When you have a moral success
you say:
This does not increase God’s love for me—in
fact,
it is only because
of His love that this happened.
When you have a moral failure
you say:
“If I had not failed in this way, that would
not make me any more loved
and accepted by God
than I am at them moment.
In fact, it was because of
his love for me, not his lack of love—
that He has allowed
this to happen.
When this sinks in it leads
to tremendous peace and balance in Christian life.
It eliminates huge ups and down.
When you experience
successes—aren’t puffed up—
when you experience
failures—won’t be cast down.
Because know standing with
Christ not affected by either.
Your pride and insecurity are removed.
Which are the two big barriers to loving people.
Reason Paul summarizes the
effect this will have by saying:
“The only thing that counts is faith
expressing itself though love.”
The Gospel—assurance
righteous in God’s sight—
that your standing
does not rest on performance—
gives you a heart that
is not focused on self, free to love other people.
“Gospel faith produces a
certainty that we are holy and beautiful.
The more conscious we are of this certainty, the less we will be subject
to ups and downs and the more we will find our hearts melted with love for
others.”