Exercise Your Freedom

7.1.24 [Galatians 5] River of Life (Video Devotional)

How are you celebrating your freedom this week?

Maybe you like to celebrate freedom by lighting stuff on fire—grills and sparklers and stuff that does more than just sparkle. Or maybe you like to let someone else handle that. You’ll enjoy a burger and a hotdog in your favorite camp chair and listen to Lee Greenwoods's Proud to be an American and watch the local fireworks show. Celebrating our national freedom comes naturally, especially this time of year.

But God has given his people a greater freedom. And God wants us to exercise and enjoy this freedom every day of our lives.

But the freedom that God has won for us and gifted to us isn’t exactly like our national freedom. The freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the United States are distinctly individual. Being free, for most people, means being to do as I please. It means that no one gets to tell me what to think, how to talk, or how to act. That individual spirit is why we see such diverse expressions of freedom in our country.

But real freedom, the kind that God has won for us and gifted to us, is about more than being free from something, it’s about being free for something. Paul writes in Galatians 5: It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love.

What God says to us here doesn’t just sound strange at first. It is strange, even in practice. It feels unnatural. It’s natural to use my freedom to do whatever I want, whatever I feel like in the moment, whatever I think will make me happy. But you have seen plenty of instances where someone else using their freedom in these ways that has made life miserable for the people around them. Including you.

But freedom in Christ doesn’t do that. Freedom in Christ is humble service of others prompted by love. Humble service prompted by love brightens people’s lives. Humble service prompted by love makes the communities we live in better places. Humble service prompted by love even makes us feel better and live more fulfilling, meaningful lives.

But this kind of freedom isn’t what we see out there in the real world. That’s because this concept of freedom doesn’t come naturally to any of us. It cannot be prompted by us. It has to come from God.

Christ set us free by using his freedom to humbly serve us. As true God, Jesus had everything anyone could need or want in heaven.

But he wanted us to share in his freedom. So he humbly served us. He rolled up his sleeves and did the righteous things that none of us were willing to do. He used his freedom to accomplish the good things we could not do. He humbled himself and served people who were ignored by most—like lepers and the blind beggars—and he served those who were ignorant of what God’s idea of freedom looked like—like his disciples and the spiritual leaders of his day. He loved those who were unloved and unhappy—like the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well— and those who were well-liked and loved making themselves look good—like the rich young ruler who thought he was one deed away from inheriting eternal life. Jesus used his freedom—his thoughts, his words, and his deeds—to serve people like these and so many more.

Jesus wanted us all to be freed from our slavery to self-indulgence and worry, vanity and guilt, pride and shame—from all our sins. So he gave his life as a ransom for our sins. He died a shameful death so that we might have his glory. He rose to life so that we might be certain this life is not all there is. Jesus did all this—and so much more—so that we might be free.

And you are free. Free from sin. Free from guilt. Free from shame. Free from the slavery of serving yourself. You are freed from all those things. But you are also free for something powerful, something meaningful, something glorious with eternal ramifications.

You are free to serve one another. You are prompted by the love you have seen in Jesus. You are moved by his humility, his kindness, his patience, and his faithfulness. This is the freedom Christ has won for you. This is the freedom that Christ has gifted you. You are free to be humble, knowing that God thinks the world of you. You are free to be kind, knowing that God’s kindness is the cause of your salvation. You are free to be patient because you know that God’s patience with you has brought you to repentance and renewed living. You are free to be faithful because God has always been faithful to you.

Think about how transformative that kind of freedom can be. Won’t the people around you appreciate it? Won’t you feel more content? It’s almost as if, God knows a little something about freedom. It’s his gift to you, won by his Son, worked in you by his Spirit. Enjoy it. You are free. So celebrate your freedom this week. But live it out every day of your life. In Christ you are free. Forever.