Christ Wants You to Be Free

Galatians 5:13–14 ESV

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.”

In the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, VA, there’s a special display for a rickety, home-made aluminum kayak. This tiny, makeshift boat seems oddly out of place in the midst of displays for impressive Navy vessels and artifacts from significant battles on the sea. But a bronze plaque tells museum visitors the story behind this kayak’s heroic makers.

In 1966, an auto mechanic named Laureano and his wife, Consuelo, decided that they could no longer live under the oppression of Cuba’s totalitarian regime. After spending months collecting scrap metal, they pieced together a boat just barely big enough for two small people.

Then Laureano jury-rigged a small lawn mower engine on the back of the kayak. After months of planning and on a moonless night, they set out into the treacherous straits of Florida with only their swimsuits on. They had enough food and water for two days. After 70 hours, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued the couple just south of the Florida Keys.

Was it worth the risk?

Laureano said, “When one has grown up in liberty, you realize how important it is to have freedom. We live in the enormous prison which is Cuba, where one’s life is not worth one crumb. Where one goes out into the street and does not know whether or not one will return because the political police can arrest you without any warning and put you in prison. Before this could happen to us, we thought that going into the ocean and risking death or being eaten by sharks, is a million times better than to stay suffering under political oppression.”

Source: Tim Smith, https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/84207/freedom-by-tim-smith

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In January 1941, when the flames of war were consuming Europe and the Far East, President Roosevelt addressed Congress. In that address, he said some things about freedom that has echoed down through the years.

The address, now known as the "Four Freedoms" address, contained these words:

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world."

Source: Jim Kane, https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/75500/four-freedoms-by-jim-kane

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We Christians believe that the yearning to be free is not just political in nature, but spiritual. In fact, freedom is the key theme of this letter to the Galatians. 

Galatians 5:1 is the key verse. It says,

Galatians 5:1 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Christ wants you to be free!

Big Question: What does the Bible say about freedom?

1. We have been called by Christ to freedom.

Galatians 5:13 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. …

As we have studied the book of Galatians we have continually noted Paul’s emphasis on the fact that living by the Law cannot gain a person salvation. Rather, Paul has told us that looking to the Law for salvation actually enslaves us.

In this letter we have seen Paul’s distress, outrage, and frustration that the Judaizers were able to deceive the Galatian Christians so easily.

Why was Paul so frustrated? We must remember that the unbeliever – the sinner – is also a slave. The unbeliever is a slave to sin. These Galatians had been slaves to sin not very long before.

Later in this chapter, Paul lists a number of the works of the flesh, sins to which many of these people probably had been enslaved to not long before this time.

Once, their lives were filled with despair and debauchery. Then suddenly the light of the Gospel shone in upon them and freed them from their sinful ways of living. 

The freedom the Galatian Christians had experienced in Christ was wonderful. They no longer were enslaved to the desires of self. They no longer had to live in the filth of sin.

But now the Galatians were willingly submitting themselves to another kind of slavery!

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Instead of being enslaved to license they were now allowing themselves to be enslaved to legalism. 

Someone might say that being enslaved to legalism was better than being enslaved to sin. After all, legalism may not have resulted in the debauched lifestyle of license. Yet here is the problem… legalism still led to despair and lack of salvation.

Someone has explained slavery to sin this way:

On Memorial Day my family and I went white-water rafting on the Kaweah River.  When we started out it seemed like we were in control of the raft.  

But then we came to the first rapids.  Big waves threatened to engulf us. The water swirled around us and pushed and pulled at us.  No matter how hard we paddled or even in what direction, we had no choice but to go through the rapids and down the river.  You see, it was the river – not us – that was in control.

In the same way, in fallen man it is sin and evil, not man himself, that is in control.  No matter how hard we try, sin and evil plunges us straight ahead into the abyss of ruin and destruction.

Christ’s desire for us as his followers is that we experience freedom – freedom from sin, freedom from the law. Christ has called you to freedom!

As we consider Christ’s desire that you be free,

2. We are charged before Christ with the responsibilities of freedom. 

Galatians 5:13 ESV

…Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, …

With freedom comes responsibility.  In fact, freedom and responsibility are the two sides of the same coin.  With the greater degree of freedom you gain, the more responsibility you have to use that freedom properly.  But with the less responsibility you show, the less freedom you are entrusted with.

This truth is quite basic, isn’t it?  Take the small baby, for instance.  She has virtually no responsibilities in the home, but she also experiences very little freedom - the four walls of the crib define her world.

Now, look as this girl as a middle-schooler.  She has many more freedoms.  She can visit her friends across the street virtually any time she wants.  She goes to school.  She is involved in various activities.

But her responsibilities have also greatly increased.  She must make her bed every morning.  She must study diligently and make good grades.  She must practice the piano for thirty minutes every day.  She must wash the dishes in her rotation with the other children.

What happens if this young lady is irresponsible? Her freedoms are taken away.  She may not be allowed to go to a party with friends.  She may be grounded.

We who have put our trust in Christ as Lord and Savior have been freed from attempting to gain salvation by obeying the Law.  However, that does not mean the moral law is no longer effective. Our freedom in Christ does not mean that we can live in violation of God’s Word and still be a Christian.

You see, the Galatians had attempted to be holy by observing all kinds of Jewish laws and traditions. They thought the ceremonial laws of cleanliness would make them holy.

Rather, Paul says, we are made holy only by the blood of Jesus Christ.  But as holy people, we must continue to live holy.  We must now live differently than how we used to live.  We are responsible to maintain holiness in our lives.

Tony Evans, once said something like this: "Freedom is NOT doing whatever I want to do.  Freedom is having the power to do what I am supposed to do." In other words, freedom is not absent of responsibility. 

Someone else has explained it this way:

“The freedom to fly is related to the string.  The very thing that holds the kite to earth is what keeps it in the sky.  Cut the string, and what will happen to the kite?  It will fall.  But the string, which seems to bind it, allows it to fly.”

Yet another person has explained the responsibility of freedom by saying,

I have on my table a violin string . . . it is free.  I twist one end of it and it responds.  It is free.  But it is not free to do what a violin string is supposed to do - to produce music.  So I take it, fix it in my violin and tighten it until it is taut.  

Only then is it free to be a violin string. By the same token we are free when our lives are uncommitted, but not to be what we were intended to be.  Real freedom is not freedom from, but freedom for.

Christ wants you to be free.

3. We are commanded by God to use the opportunities of freedom. 

Galatians 5:13 ESV

… but through love serve one another.

Christians are to serve one another in love.  Now, some have taken their freedom in Christ and have insisted on their own rights. Some refuse to serve others.  

Yes, they want to go to church and be fed spiritually.  They want to be cared for, but they don’t feel like they should obligated to do anything themselves.

They don’t like giving to the church or any special cause.  They don’t show up for workdays at the church.  They can’t be counted on to help in projects designed to serve and help others outside the church.

Now, yes, a Christian might not be obligated to give every time an offering is taken.  A Christian cannot be involved in every act of love and service.

But the point is that a person who has experienced the liberating love of God should want to help others.  Something is wrong with them if they consistently refuse to care for people in need.  God’s love can’t be held in just for ourselves.

When we truly experience God’s love and God’s freedom, we are changed. Instead of remaining focused on the needs and desires of self, we are filled with God’s love for others. 

We realize that our freedom in Christ is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. Instead, we want everyone we know – and even those we don’t know – to experience the same freedom we have.

Tom Skinner was an angry black youth in New York City. Through violence and hatred he became the leader of the largest gang in the city, the Harlem Lords.  

Tom's conversion to Jesus Christ was so real he left the gang the next day and began preaching the gospel.  He had an immediate victory over his past life.

Several weeks after he was saved, Tom was playing in a high school football game.  During the game he blocked a member of the other team while his own halfback scored a touchdown.  

As Tom got off the ground and headed back to his huddle, the boy he had blocked slammed him in the stomach and threw him to the ground. The white player kicked him and made racist remarks.

Under normal circumstances Tom would have pulverized the boy.  But instead he got up, looked him in the eye and said, “You know, because of Jesus Christ I love you anyway.”

How could Tom react this way to mistreatment and racist remarks? Had becoming a Christian made Tom a sissy? No, the grace of Christ freed Tom from fleshly, carnal emotions. 

Before Tom was a Christian, he was ruled by emotions and hatred for others. Now, Tom was free to love everyone.

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The Galatians had once been enslaved to their fleshly passions. Now, they were in danger of being enslaved to legalism. But Paul shares Good News with us in this scripture: Christ wants you to be free.

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Freedom is a scary concept for many people. Freedom is threatening to repressive governments. Some government leaders they can maintain order if people are free to choose whatever they want. They believe their society will become immoral and anarchic if people experienced real freedom.

While we might not expect freedom to be trusted by socialist, atheistic governments, it might surprise us how many religious people of various stripes also are afraid of freedom.

You see, many religious people are also afraid that if people are really allowed to be free that they will not choose to live morally or to abide by the traditions of the church.

Can we truly be free and live for God?

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Yes!

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But how?

The secret is in our scripture. When we understand that we called by Christ to freedom – that we are free because we are Christ’s – we realize that we can only be free as we abide in Christ.

Further, when we receive our charge before Christ with the responsibilities of freedom, we begin to understand that freedom is not license to sin, but a lease to live. 

Also, when we hear Christ’s command to use the opportunities of freedom, we begin to understand that freedom is not about pleasing self. Rather, it is about living in the joy we receive from knowing Christ.

Juneteenth is the holiday that celebrates what happened in Texas on June 19, 1865. Although the Emancipation Proclamation occurred two years prior, slaveowners had kept the news from their slaves. For two years, these slaves continued living as slaves, despite legally being free.

On June 19, Major General Gordon Granger arrived with 2,000 troops and a message: slaves were free (https://www.npr.org/2015/06/19/415809476/juneteenth–marks–day–slaves–in–texas–were–told–they–were–free).

Like these slaveowners, Satan wants believers to think they are still enslaved. He wants them to doubt their new status of freedom and live according to their own efforts to navigate life, choose between good and evil, and gain assurance of eternal life.

Christ wants us to understand we have freedom … in him. Since we have been set free, we can now live free. Since we have been made righteous, we can now live righteously through God’s power.

Adapted, https://illustrationideas.bible/doubting-freedom/

May God help us to understand that Christ truly wants us to be free. Let us then live in our freedom, not to please self but to please Christ. 

May we also be used by God to share our spiritual liberty with others – so that they are neither enslaved by sin or by works righteousness. Rather, may we all live free in Jesus.