Freedom in Christ

Introduction

Today is the weekend before the fourth of July and we celebrate the freedom that we have in America, but that freedom did not come cheap. It cost the lives of many men who fought to secure our rights. America won the war for Independence largely because of the great generals that led her armies. Men like George Washington, but their were other men who fought well too. One general who has gone down in infamy, Benedict Arnold was actually an excellent general. Arnold was successful in taking Fort Ticonderoga, pushing the British back on lake Champlain and winning the battle of Saratoga. Washington thought of him as his fighting general.

Unfortunately, Arnold was passed up for promotion, falsely accused by his rivals and ignored by those who could have helped him including George Washington. Arnold decided to get revenge by turning coat and working for the British. he planned at one point to deliver West Point into the hands of the British. Arnold was nearly discovered before he fled to the British who accepted him but never truly trusted him after that. Benedict Arnold is an example of someone who traded in the fight for freedom, for slavery.

When we talk about freedom, we must understand what that means. Google defines it as the absence of necessity, coercion or constraint in choice of action or thought.

In the letter to the Galatians which was most likely written after Paul’s first missionary journey when he went into Southern Galatia to preach the gospel, Paul deals with the topic of keeping the law as a believer in Christ. You see the Jewish Christians would have most likely still kept the Jewish law because it was part of their ethnic identity as Jews, but some preachers were coming into the Gentile churches attacking Paul and commanding that the Gentile Christians keep the law. This letter was also most likely written before Acts 15. Paul’s letter teaches that the gospel of our salvation is not by works, by faith we have been all made members of the family of God and it is this same gospel that transforms our lives by walking in the Spirit, not the law. Paul is concerned that they not put themselves into slavery to the law.

The Jews had been trying to earn their salvation by keeping the law perfectly. The problem is that none of us can ever keep the entire law. James 2:10 “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” We all become guilty by that standard, but Jesus Christ as God was able to keep the law completely and paid our penalty so that now we are justified which means declared righteous or right with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

Gal 2:16 “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

But the False teachers were coming in and telling these Galatian Christians, that they needed to live the rest of their lives back under the burden and slavery of the law. Paul tells us that we are saved by faith in a relationship with Jesus Christ and we are changed to be more like Christ the same way.

Gal 3: 2-3 “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”

Many Christians in our circles have fallen prey to the temptation to go back into slavery much like Benedict Arnold. They have traded their liberty for bondage. They think that living by a certain set of rules will make them more acceptable to God and will make them more holy than everyone else. We call this legalism. In Chapter 5, Paul calls the believers not to sell themselves back into bondage but to live in the Freedom they have in Christ.

Stand fast in Liberty

The first command that Paul gives them is to Stand Fast in Liberty. Standing fast is merely and older way of saying stand firm or hold your ground. There is a temptation for Christians to be sucked into one of two extremes: legalism or license. License teaches that it doesn’t matter how you live as long as you are saved. License is not the answer as Paul teaches later on in Galatians 5:16 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” But neither is legalism the answer. Christian legalism is defined by John VanGelderen as a belief that recognizes that salvation is by faith in Christ and not works, but teaches that people who have come to Christ must now adhere to a certain set of standards in order to be sanctified or holy. Just like the false teachers of Galatia, they acknowledge that salvation is by faith in Christ, but they teach that sanctification or becoming more holy is a matter of keeping a set of rules or law. Paul’s contention is that this is not how we become Holy.

The pull in many of our new evangelical brother’s churches is toward license. I can act, dress and live how ever I please because I am no longer going to hell, but the pull in many if not most fundamental churches is toward legalism. As long as I am doing x,y,z standards I am right with God. So If I wear the right clothes, listen to the right music, read my bible so many times a week; then I am automatically more Holy than those who do not do these things. Have you ever met someone who wears all the right clothes but treats their wife like trash? They are proof that keeping the rules does not make you more holy.

Paul’s challenge is to stand firmly, hold your ground, don’t give in to the temptation towards legalism or license. In vs 2-6, Paul gives us a list of reason’s why legalism cannot make us holy.

You are depriving yourself of the ministry of the Holy Spirit that Christ made available vs 2

The false teachers had been making some inroads into the Galatian church for some time now. According to Galatians 4:10 “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.” , they had already started keeping the feast days and Jewish celebrations. The implication of vs 2, is that they had not yet given in to the teachers commands to be circumcised. Paul challenges them that if they do, they are sacrificing the spirit-filled life. In Gal 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Paul taught that our life is supposed to be lived by allowing Christ to live through us and later in Galatians 5: 16 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” We are to walk in the Spirit.

You have two choices for how you are going to live the Christian life: legalism or walking in the Spirit. If you choose to live your life merely by a list of rules, you are sacrificing the Spirit-filled life because you are replacing Him with that same list of rules. Legalism is a short cut to walking with God. Legalism is a substitute for truly walking in the Spirit. This is why it is so wrong. Are the rules themselves necessarily wrong? No, the law itself wasn’t wrong. Paul even affirms that it is good and holy and has a purpose in Romans 7:7 “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” The rules had a purpose to show us where we do not measure up, but only God can change us. Turning over a new leaf or living by the rules in my own strength are merely spiritual sounding ways to live in the flesh in self-dependence.

You must put yourself under the burden of the whole law. vs 3

I have family members who have gone through periods of their lives where they adopted the Jewish law into their lives. The Hebrew roots movement teaches that you need to celebrate the Jewish holidays, eat only Kosher foods, and wear Jewish clothing, but one thing I have noticed among all the groups that do this, is that they never keep the law completely. They cherry pick the rules they want to keep and the one’s they want to ignore. They ignore rules like not mixing your cloths in your clothes. They ignore the rules on beards. They ignore ceremonial washings and many other rules in the law. There are a total of 613 laws in the Torah and I know they are not keeping them all.

Paul argues here that if you are going to keep one of the laws, then you are putting yourself back under the entire system of the law. You are under obligation to keep the entire thing. None of us could ever do that. In fact, that is the purpose of the law to teach us that we can’t keep it. Galatians 3:21-22 “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” Galatians 3:25 “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”

You distance yourself relationally from Christ Vs 4-5

The word justified in this verse is not being used in its normal theological sense of salvation. We know this because Paul is clearly not dealing with salvation in these verses but on how we live the Christian life. So understanding the meaning here, we must take the context into account. Justified merely means to be counted righteous. Paul is saying that if your righteousness, sanctification, holiness is by the law then Christ is meaningless to you. He ends by saying ye are fallen from grace. Again this verse is not about salvation so falling from grace does not mean you have lost your salvation. Grace carries different meanings depending on its context. They are all related but grace is divine favor, it is a free gift, it is also divine enablement.

When a person replaces Christ’s presence in their life with a set of rules, the put a distance between themselves and God. You cannot walk with God and have a relationship with Him if you replacing Him with legalism. Not only do you deprive yourself of the power of the Spirit, but you deprive yourself of a true relationship with God.

There is a difference between making cookies with grandma verses making cookies by yourself following grandma’s recipe. The relationship is grown with grandma by spending time with her and making the cookies together. The recipe is no substitute for the relationship.

The rules cannot transform you. Vs 6

Verse 6 in my opinion is one of the strongest reasons to reject Legalism: the rules cannot change you. The word availeth literally means has the power. Circumcision does not have the power to do anything. Turning over a new leaf or keeping a rule cannot change who you truly are on the inside. I can put a suit on a monkey, but the monkey is not a man he is a monkey. Legalism merely dresses up the outside, but leaves the inside untouched. Spiritual transformation does not happen by faking it until you make it. Legalistic Christians tend to be some of the most judgmental and hypocritical Christians you will ever meet because they have only dressed up the outside, but have not dealt with the sins of the heart.

Contrast this with the last phrase but faith which worketh by love. The word worketh is the word energeo from which we get energy. The power to see true change and transformation is faith or dependence on God as it works by love. The truest motive for holiness in the life of a believer is not a set of rules, but love for Jesus Christ. Love and dependence on the Spirit will truly change who we are and that change will start on the inside and work its way to the outside.

Legalism reduces holiness to a set of rules.

I wanted to throw in one last point while we are on the topic that does not come from Galatians but comes from Paul’s teaching on legalism in Titus 1:16 “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” Just like in Galatia, false teachers were coming into Crete and teaching that they needed to Jewish commandments of men and asceticism. Both of which are merely legalism. Verse 16 states that these men who command Jewish laws and abstain from things they don’t need to may look more Holy, but they are really abominable, disobedient and deny Christ.

From this I draw the truth that legalism is wrong because it reduces holiness to a small set of rules but ignores the true holiness of the heart that only Jesus can produce in the life of the believer. By focusing on these few rules, I feel good about myself, but I have forgotten the sins of my heart. I don’t strive to be changed into the image of Christ. I don’t deal with wrong attitudes or wrong thoughts or wrong feelings about things. I can be hateful, bitter, judgmental, cruel, angry, selfish as long as I wear the right clothes, listen to the right music and do the right things. Holiness is more than just keeping a set of rules.

Don’t be Entangled

The second command is not to be entangled by these false teachers. Entangled is the picture of being trapped in a net. These false teachers who teach legalism are trapping you. It is often hard to get out of legalism because if I don’t keep these rules everyone is going to think I am a heathen. Peer pressure is strong in these movements. Pauls attitude toward churches that teach legalism is just as antagonistic as those churches who are denying the truth because legalism is a denial of the truth. Sometimes we will separate from a church that has compromised on doctrine as we should, but we will maintain fellowship with the legalistic church. This should not be so. It is a trap.

who did trip you up in your running vs 7 the word hinder here means to prevent your progress. Legalism keeps you from growing spiritually and obeying the truth. Those who teach legalism are standing in the way of you full obedience to Christ by discouraging your walk in the Spirit.

This teaching is not of God- Often it sounds more spiritual, but this is not of God. Vs 8

This teaching spreads corruption in the church vs 9 one legalist in the church contaminates the rest of the church because legalists tend to be very evangelistic in getting people to think like they do. I am convinced it is often a power play.

Those who teach it will be judged- vs 11 God will judge the legalistic false teacher. It is interesting that God says they will bear their judgment. God is going to place a burden on their back. Jesus when speaking of the legalistic pharisees said Matt 23:4 “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”

I wish they were cut off- vs 12 Paul uses the word cut off as a pun referring back to circumcision. Paul wishes that God would remove them. A person who was cut off from the people was separated from them. We must separate from the legalist.

Conclusion:

Now often when legalism is preached against people run to the other extreme. Previously I talked about guardrails and some might be quick to label such teaching as legalism; however, liberty does not mean we do not have any rules in our lives. Just look at the next section about using your liberty as an excuse to sin and then the discussion on walking in the flesh. Legalism is all about motives. Legalism tells you that you become more spiritual by keeping these sets of rules. Look at him, he is more righteous than she is because he never wears shorts out in public. Legalism is about gaining merit with God by keeping rules rather than living according to the leading of the spirit in our lives.

Jesus calls us to a life of liberty from the law and sin. We experience that liberty in three ways which are really just saying the same thing:

by faith- faith means trust or dependence. Our strength to live a holy life does not come from the flesh. It is not our power that changes us. We must find our strength and dependence in Jesus Christ.

by love- Jesus taught that love is the fulfilling of the law. If I love my brother, I will treat him right. If I love God, I want to do what glorifies Him.

by walking in the Spirit- by living in a constant relationship with Jesus Christ, He empowers me through the indwelling Spirit to be everything He wants me to be.

This doesn’t lead to a life of sin; rather it leads to a life of victory. Christ is calling us to live in freedom today.