Free to Live in the Spirit!

Freedom and License

When people hear the word “freedom” it conjures up many thoughts in their mind. As Americans, freedom is a huge buzzword that I think many people have no clue to what it really means…

…we think of freedom in terms of freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom to vote, freedom from tyrants, etc...

Here is the reality of our clamoring for freedom...I want to be left alone by others…I don’t want anyone else telling me what to think, how I should live my life…I want to be free from any and all arbitrary authority in my work, family, and even political life…we crave the freedom of being left alone!

This is true because we are naturally selfish people. We want to do whatever we want, when we want, how we want, and with whomever we please.

Now lets throw God into the picture…if God exists (and we know He does), then believing in Him is extremely inconvenient…because God is the ultimate authority that means His opinion of what we do, when we do it, how we do it, and with whom we do it, matters most.

As each day passes by, it becomes more and more evident from our American culture that for many, a belief in God stands in the way of personal freedom…it is no longer freedom OF religion, it is freedom FROM religion.

Consider these words from Free Inquiry, a leading magazine for secular humanists: “Some ideas can enslave you; some can set you free.… If you crave freedom from baseless dogma … if you want to think for yourself instead of submitting to tradition, authority, or blind faith.… Put aside religion, despair, guilt, and sin … and find new meaning and joy in life.”

In other words, you have to be free from God before you can be free at all. Freedom from religion is not freedom at all, of course; it is another form of bondage.

We always need to ask what is meant by “freedom.” Whether freedom is worth having or not depends on what kind of freedom we are talking about.

With that in mind, please turn in your Bible to Galatians 5.

This morning we are embarking on the last leg of our journey through Galatians…this last leg covers both chapters 5 & 6…and the theme through both these chapters is the same…Learning How to Walk in the Spirit.

The customary method of Paul’s writing is to provide solid doctrinal truth with practical application of that truth…so now we are going to see the practical side of the doctrine of justification by faith…from this point forward to the end of Galatians, Paul is going to emphasize that right doctrine should result in right living.

Throughout the last two chapters, Paul emphasizes the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer…without Him, we could not live a life of faith…without Him, the righteousness of Christ would not be visible in our life.

Main Point: You Are Free to Live in the Spirit, So Do It!

Paul had just explained to them they were not born of the slave woman, Hagar, but were instead born of Sarah, the free woman by the promise of God.

What they needed to do now was to live free in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit!

How then do we walk in the Spirit and live that righteous life God desires?

Chose to Stand Firm in Your Freedom (1)

Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

This is the key verse to Galatians…it is a transition from the previous section to what follows…

When the Bible speaks of freedom it always means freedom in Christ.

Stand firm in the freedom you’ve recieved.

Remember what the Bible states about our condition before salvation…we were slaves to sin…imprisoned by it...so Jesus comes in as our great liberator…he pays OUR penalty and throws open the cell doors…

and for Paul it doesn’t make sense for them to want to go back into that cell and shut the door, so he...

...exhorts us to stand firm in your freedom.

This is a command…it is a present, active, imperative…meaning it is not something we do just one time and we’re good…it is an ongoing command…KEEP standing firm...

What has Jesus freed us from?

Freedom from the guilt of sin

Jesus was cursed for our sin.

He died to atone for our guilt.

He offered his life as the just payment for our sins.

He faced God’s wrath so we would not have to!

Freedom from the fear of needing to keep the law for our salvation.

The law is not a smorgasbord of options…if you are going to seek justification and sanctification in your ability to keep the law, then you have to keep it all…100%.

James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”

Gal 3 10 “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.””

God’s standard of righteousness is perfection…if you were able to keep the law perfectly your whole life and then the day you die you violate the law, you would forfeit your salvation.

Jesus is the only perfect one who fulfilled the law perfectly because we could not…Jesus freed us from the fear of having to fulfill the law in its entirety.

Freedom from death

Because Jesus rose again, he conquered death and those who are in Him are victorious over death as well.

Death for the believer is not the end, it is the beginning…we are raised to a new and eternal life with Him in heaven.

Because Jesus has set me free, now I am free to be who God wants me to be and to do what God wants me to do.

There is nothing I have to do to win God’s acceptance.

Now that God has accepted me through Jesus Christ, I am free in him. And this freedom is the key to gospel holiness.

Reject the slavery of works-righteousness

What Paul meant by “a yoke of slavery” was the Old Testament law, which was considered a means of justification.

Remember the context of Galatians…Explain

First century Judaism did not believe in grace alone! It was grace plus keeping the law!

We are dealing with a very important question…what makes someone right with God?

Getting circumcised was a way of saying that sinners have to do something to get right with God.

Circumcision was distinctive to Jewish culture and became a source of pride as such…meaning the only ones who could be right with God are Jews…if you wanted to be right with God you had to become distinctively Jewish…which meant following the law!

So if circumcision, or any other external adherence to the law, became mandatory for all Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, then salvation would be based on a work rather than on God’s free grace.

Some people base their standing before God on the work they do in the church, or on the quality or frequency of their personal devotions.

Others depend on the decision they made for Christ when they walked down the aisle or raised their hand at an evangelistic rally, as if they were saved by that gesture.

Still others seek to justify themselves by the fact that they are baptized and confirmed members of a Christian church.

If we try to be justified before God by anything we do, no matter how small it is, we are not free.

This is why justification must come by faith alone.

What Jesus did on the cross and through the empty tomb justifies sinners all by itself.

Therefore, if I am a Christian, my standing before God depends entirely on what Christ has done, not on anything that I have done. Otherwise, I am enslaved by my own works.

So we must stand firm in the freedom that only comes from Jesus Christ by digging in and rejecting anything that places our salvation on us…

Secondly...

You Must Know the Dangers of Legalism and Avoid Them (v. 2-6)

Paul was worried they were going to slip back into bondage so he provided insight into the dangers of legalism.

So what are those dangers?

You Lose the Benefit of Christ

Gal 5 2 “Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.”

This is similar to what he says in Gal 2:21 ““I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.””

Trying to get right with God by any means other than Jesus Christ alone is worthless!

If we are trying to get right with God by our works then we no longer have anything to gain from Him.

If we say our salvation depends upon us doing something to earn it, then we don’t need Jesus. Why would we need Jesus if we were capable of doing it ourselves?

You can’t have it both ways…either justification comes by works or by faith…by observance to the law or by grace.

The Judaizers said Jesus wasn’t enough…you needed more…A Christ supplemented is a Christ supplanted!

You Become a Debtor to the Law

Gal 5 3 “And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.”

I mentioned this earlier…let me add this…if we try to justify ourselves by adherence to the law, we are doomed!

There is no way we can keep the law perfectly and therefore we are indebted to it…forever!

You Are Cut Off From Grace

Gal 5 4 “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”

As I said earlier, circumcision was an outward sign given to God’s covenant people…it was a way of saying the Jew was separated from the world.

Paul is communicating to them that under the new covenant of grace in Jesus Christ alone, to revert back to the old covenant would separate them from Christ.

He is not talking about losing your salvation…that you will be “unjustified”…

He is talking about those who choose to accept adherence to actions one must perform for salvation to occur have left the grace system of salvation for the Mosiac Law system.

This same error occurs today when a believer leaves a church that emphasizes salvation by grace alone through faith alone and joins with one who teaches salvation depends on repentance, confession, faith, baptism, and church membership.

You cannot live in the sphere of grace and the sphere of law at the same time…grace and law do not mix…

The only thing that matters is faith working itself out in love!

Gal 5:5-6 “For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”

Not the flesh working through self-effort…Our work is a product of our faith, not a substitute.

We don’t work for righteousness but out of righteousness through the motivating power of love for God and others.

Remember when it comes to our salvation it is realized in three factors of time expressed in the 3 p’s.

We have been saved from the penalty of sin (past)

We are saved from the power of sin (present)

We will be saved from the presence of sin (future)

The future aspect of our salvation is what Paul is talking about here…completed righteousness is expected…not a wishful hope, but an expectant hope.

As a result, those who eagerly wait for their final righteousness are those who truly love and we do not need to be compelled by the law to act…

we act righteously because we want to out of love for our Savior…

Transition

Stand firm in your freedom

Know the dangers and avoid them

Third...

You Must Be Careful Who you Listen to (v 7-12)

Galatians 5:7-12 “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

Now Paul exposes the character of those who adhere to and espouse such false teaching…you need to know what these people are like so you can mark them and avoid them

They hinder the truth.

Gal 5:7 “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?”

When Paul was with them, they had no trouble living by faith.

By asking the question “who hindered you?” Paul is not looking for the identity of the false teachers.

He is trying to ascertain why the believers here were so quickly and easily misled.

How could you allow them to take you captive so easily?

Because they were so easily captivated by false teachers, their growth was hindered.

Literally…who cut in on you...

In the Greek games, runners were to stay in their lanes…but some runners would cut in on their competitors to get them off course.

That is what happened here…the Judaizers cut in on them and forced them to change direction and go on a spiritual detour.

We need to be keenly aware of those who teach a false gospel.

We cannot allow them to cut in on our journey with Christ and change our course.

That means you have to know the course…how are you going to know if they are false if you don’t know the truth?

They are not of God.

Gal 5:8 “This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.”

Any teaching that negates the work of God alone for salvation is false…God’s calling of you is from His grace, not your worth.

Legalism is NEVER from God…our salvation and our sanctification are always acts of grace by God alone.

They contaminate the church.

Gal 5:9 “A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.”

just like a little leaven can impact the entire dough, so a small amount of falsehood can corrupt the thinking and living of a large group of people.

A spirit of legalism does not simply overpower a church…like leaven, it is introduced secretly and then it grows…before long the entire assembly is poisoned.

It is not wrong to have standards in a church, but we can never think those standards make us spiritual, or that keeping standards is an evidence of spirituality.

Every believer has the responsibility to keep the church free from false teaching!

They will be judged.

Gal 5:10 “I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.”

Paul is confident they will come around and God’s work in them will continue.

Note his confidence is in the Lord, not the Galatians…he is confident God will bring them through this.

The genuine believers will persevere.

He is equally confident the false teachers would experience God’s judgment upon them.

They stood against God and His truth and would carry the full weight of their own judgment.

God knows who they are and He will deal with them in His time and in His way.

They persecute true teachers.

Gal 5:11 “But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.”

False religion will always be the most aggressive and dominant persecutor of the church.

Because Timothy was half Jewish, Paul had him circumcised to minimize the criticism from Jews to whom they would minister.

Paul never advocated circumcision as necessary for salvation…but he did when he was a Pharisee.

If he still preached this, he would be like the Judaizers.

If that were the case, then the stumbling block of the cross would be abolished.

The cross was a stumbling block to the Jews partly because they could not accept the idea of a suffering and crucified Messiah.

It also robbed them of their most distinctive outward signs of Jewishness.

The cross is still offensive today!

It obliterates every futile attempt of man to reach God on his own.

Works righteousness disappears under the cross.

They should be cut off.

Gal 5:12 “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

This is one of the harshest statements Paul makes in all of his letters.

He is so upset by what these false teachers were doing he wished the whole lot of them would go be like the pagan worshippers of Cybele and end up as eunuchs in his palace!

In Paul’s day, in the northern parts of Galatia, pagan worship of Cybele involved physical mutilation.

They held a festival every year where those who wished to serve in that temple made themselves eunuchs.

Paul’s point here is that adding any human effort or act to God’s provision of grace through Christ is to exchange the gospel of grace for paganism, so why not just go all into paganism!

Transition

Stand firm in your freedom

Know the dangers of false teaching and avoid them

Be careful who you listen to

You Must Live A Life of Love (13-15).

Jesus gives us the freedom to love others truly.

God’s abundant provision of grace is not a license for you to live any way you want to live...

In fact God says use your freedom to...

Serve One Another (v. 13-14)

Galatians 5:13–14 “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.””

The point of your freedom is not that you would use it to love you, but to love God and your neighbor.

Do you use the freedom that you have in Christ for yourself or for God and his glory?

For example, if we looked at the freedom you have in your calendar, how are you using that freedom? Are you using your time to serve you or serve God and others?

Or, if we look at the freedom that you have in your finances, do you use your freedom to serve yourself or others?

How about your freedom in your talents? Do you just use the gifts that God has given you to enrich your own life? Or do you ask, “God has given me this great ability, how can I use it to serve him and others first” Then, after I have done that, I’ll use my gifts to earn a living.

How about your freedom of speech?

Now most people would be immediately drawn to their right to speak out against the government.

But what about your right to speak up for Christ?

Do you use that freedom to share the good news at work? When is the last time you used your freedom and told someone that they were a sinner and that they needed to repent and trust Christ for the forgiveness of their sin?

One week? One month? 6 months? A year? Longer?

My point is, how are you using your freedom? You were set free from sin. You were set free from darkness, and how are you using that freedom.

Refuse to Bite and Devour one Another (v. 15)

Gal 5:15 “But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”

The church of Galatia was divided by legalism…they were devouring each other…they had become me-monsters…that is a danger for us as well...

We can abuse our freedom in Christ and make our liberty all about us and what we want…feeding the “me monster”… We will want to love ourselves.

The more we love ourselves , then we will eventually consume one another.

So Paul warns us.

Be careful, if you are going to use your freedom to bite and devour one another be careful…you might just end up consuming one another.

Of course, the way that we prevent that from happening is by being focused on loving one another…by serving one another, by protecting and proclaiming the gospel.

And when you live this way, when you use the freedom that you have in Christ the way he wants you to…you will know unparalleled joy, unhindered security, and bottomless satisfaction.

In the book The Trapp Family Singers, the Trapp family falls into disfavor with the Nazis who are rising to power just before World War II. Therefore, they must escape from their lovely home in Austria to Switzerland. As Hitler’s troops closed in on Austria, the von Trapp family escaped to a church, then to a roof, and finally to the country, where they climbed the mountains to freedom. They eventually made it to America, where they settled in Stowe, Vermont and became nationally famous for their lovely musical performances. They never lost their gratitude for the freedom they enjoyed in America. Even though they left behind a fortune in land, estates, and gold, they willingly traded it for freedom.Like the von Trapp family, Jesus has given us escape from the bondage and tyranny of sin. Yes, we may have had to give up some things that the world considers valuable; but to enjoy spiritual freedom now and eternal reward in heaven, the exchange was well worth it.

Lesson for Life — Exercise Your Freedom to Say “No” to Sin and “Yes” to God!

Jesus has set you free…you don’t have to remain in bondage to your sin because Jesus paid the price for you.

We are released from the prison of sin…don’t go back!

Jesus emancipated you from sin so you could freely live a life of righteousness out of love for Him.