Don't Abuse Your Freedom

a) Last week’s passage ended in v7-12 w/ an emotionally charged statement by Paul about the false teachers leading the Galatians astray. But the overall message of v1–12 was this: Don’t lose your gospel freedom. Paul wanted the Galatians to stand firm in the gospel & the freedom of the gospel.

b) The Galatians who began well, had rightly believed they were justified by grace through faith, but they were now seeking to be justified before God by law keeping. So Paul warned them they were in danger of falling away from the gospel & Christ & His grace if they accepted legalism.

c) They were being led astray by false teachers into believing it was Jesus + their own works that made them acceptable to God. Now as we come to today’s passage in v13-15 Paul issues a different warning. Paul now warns the Galatians & us: Don’t abuse your gospel freedom.

d) Paul wasn’t just concerned w/ legalism. He also wanted to make sure the Galatians didn’t fall victim to the opposite reality of abusing their gospel freedom or what’s known as licentiousness. This view teaches that since we are under grace & not the law, it doesn’t matter how we live.

e) Here’s our 3 points for today. 1st we’ll see gospel freedom doesn’t serve the flesh. 2nd, we’ll see gospel freedom lovingly serves others. hen 3rd we’ll see gospel freedom enables to fulfill the law.  

Here’s our 1stpoint in the 1st part of v13: Gospel freedom does not serve the flesh.

a) Paul begins in the 1st part of v13: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.” Back in v1 Paul said: “For freedom Christ has set us free.” And now Paul returns to that thought as he says: “For you were called to freedom brothers.”

b) Christ has set us free from the penalty of sin. On the cross, He bore our sin & paid our debt in full. And when we come to Christ, we are no longer slaves to sins. We aren’t just freed from the penalty of sin, but from the powerof sin. We can now resist & overcome sin w/ the HS’s help.   

c) And 1 day friends, we will be completely & entirely set free from the presenceof sin. That is the freedom Christ has purchased for us in the gospel. But Paul knew that word freedom might be misunderstood or misapplied. Gospel freedom isn’t a freedom to find yourself or be yourself.

d) Paul knew some might think he meant Christians could now live however they wanted. So, he now says: “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.” Look back at v7. “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” See, Christians are called to obedience.

e) We are called to obey God’s law not to be saved or to be accepted by God, but b/c in Christ we are saved & accepted by God. The gospel declares God loves you just as you are, but the gospel also declares God loves you too much to leave you as you are.

f) The obligation that’s gone for the Christian, the gospel freedom we enjoy, is we’ve been set free from trying to obey the law to be saved or accepted by God. It’s an impossible, crushing task for fallen human beings. But we’ve been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

g) But as those saved by grace through faith, we’re called to obey God’s law. United to Christ by faith, we know God made us & saved us. And filled w/ His Spirit, we desire to please Him.

h) Paul’s saying, don’t misuse your new-found freedom “as an opportunity for the flesh.”See, it was our flesh, our sin nature, that sent Jesus to the cross. It was our flesh & sin nature that made us God’s enemies who deserved His wrath. The flesh represents our nature apart from Christ.

i) It’s our selfishness & self-centeredness. It’s the spirit that says who is God or anyone else to tell me how I should live or what’s right & what’s wrong for me. And Paul says we are not to use our gospel freedom to serve our flesh. Christian freedom is a freedom from sin, not a freedom to sin.

j) As 1 Pet. 2:16 tells us: “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” See, the flesh is motivated by the desire to fill the emptiness inside of us w/ something or someone other than God. That’s what we see in the garden of Eden.

k) And we’ve inherited that sin-filled nature. John Stott: “There are many in our society today who proclaim their freedom w/ a loud voice. But in reality they are slaves to their own appetites.” Paul’s saying, don't surrender the freedom you have in the all-satisfying Christ to return to the unsatisfying desires of the flesh. Gospel freedom isn’t a freedom to live as you want.

l) Gospel freedom is a freedom to live as God designed you to be. Far from being a freedom to live as you want or to continue in your sinful desires, those united to Christ by faith are called to “crucify the flesh w/ its passions & desires” as we will see next week.

Here’s our 2nd point in the 2nd part of v13 & v15: Gospel freedom lovingly serves others.

a) Now let’s look at the rest of v13. Paul writes, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve 1 another.”  Now to understand what Paul’s saying here, we have to go back to v6.

b) Paul said, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” See, the evidence that our faith is real is that our faith works. That’s the point of James. If we possess saving faith, there will be evidence of that faith.

c) Paul is saying the same thing here in v6 & at the end of v13. If we are truly saved, truly united to Christ by faith, truly filled with the HS, if truly possess saving faith, that faith will be seen in our lives as we lovingly serve 1 another. The Apostle John says something very similar.

d) 1 John 4:20-21: “If anyone says, ‘I love God’ & hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

e) See Paul & John are quoting Jesus Himself who said in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for 1 another.” Friends, you & I have been set free so we might love & serve. See, our flesh tells us to love & serve self. To take care of #1.

f) But the gospel sets us free to love & serve. Notice the communal nature of this command. 3x times in these 3 verses Paul refers to 1 another. It’s about others. It’s about your neighbor. The Galatians were not saved to be a group of isolated individuals, & neither were we. We have been set free to live in community w/ 1 another. Now we Americans love individuality, autonomy & anonymity.

g) But Christianity is about living in community. Christ saved you & set you free so you could be so committed to Him & to others. The Lord saved us so we could love & serve Him & 1 another & others. The Galatians, & us here at CrossWay, are to use our gospel freedom to lovingly serve.

h) Gospel freedom isn’t about serving self, but others. And when we serve 1 another in love, we embody what it means to take up our cross & deny ourselves & to follow Jesus. We display Christ’s love. We demonstrate we no longer belong to the world & the passions of the flesh.

i) Admittedly serving & loving 1 another isn’t easy. Even as Christians we’re messy & broken. But we must see 1 another as Christ sees us. We must love & serve 1 another as Christ loved & served us. He didn’t wait for us to get lovely or perfect, but laid down His life while we were His enemies.

j) Loving Christ means loving what He loves. Loving Christ means living as He lived & serving how He served. Do you see the great paradox of the gospel? For Paul, to be free was to be a slave. It was to be a bondservant of Christ. Gospel freedom is enslavement to Christ & His rule.

k) Rom. 6:15-16: “Are we to sin b/c we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves you are slaves of the 1 whom you obey, either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness?”

l) Rom. 6:18 calls us slaves of righteousness. Rom. 6:22 says we have been set free from sin & “have become slaves of God.” We have been set free from 1 master to serve another Master. A better Master. We have been set free to love & serve God, which is the reason He created us.

m) We’ve been set to reflect His glory. To love & serve Him & others made in His image. But Paul doesn’t stop there. He shows us the alternative in v15. “But if you bite & devour 1 another, watch out that you are not consumed by 1 another.” We either love & serve OR bite, devour & consume.  

n) If we serve the flesh, it will lead to division & conflict. The flesh doesn’t serve others. It serves self. And if we all serve ourselves, what does it lead to? Biting. Devouring. Consuming. See friends, that’s what’s playing out in our culture today. It’s not primarily an educational issue.

o) It’s not primarily an economic or political issue. It’s a sin issue. If we live for the flesh, if everyone does what is right in their own eyes, it leads to conflict, polarization & destruction. The imagery Paul gives here is vultures on the side of the road biting, devouring & consuming a carcass.

p) It is destructive. And this type of behavior doesn’t reflect the nature & character of our God & Savior, but of that serpent Satan. That type of selfishness is a cancer that destroys churches & ruins testimonies & shatters faith. Since we have been set free, we as a church should look different.

q) We are those who no longer seek to serve or please the flesh, but to lovingly serve 1 another. But is that true? Is that what the world sees as churches divide & sue & malign 1 another. Biting & devouring tears down, but love builds up. Love covers a multitude of sins.

r) Are you serving the church, or is it just the church serving you? Are you serving & loving others in the church? Or are you just looking for others in the church to love & serve you?

s) See, the flesh says I don’t like that church b/c they don’t sing the songs I like or preach the things I want to hear. I don’t like that church b/c they don’t have people that look like me & like what I like. I don’t like that women’s or men’s ministry b/c…But notice the common denominator:

t) I. Me. My. Flesh. Friends, loving & serving others is always costly & sacrificial. Apart from Christ’s work for us, & the indwelling power of the HS in us, we can’t love & serve 1 another. But we are those who have been set free & empowered to loving serve God & 1 another.

That brings us to our 3rd & final point in v14: gospel freedom enables us to fulfill the law

a) Look at v14. “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Paul says it’s by loving 1 another that we actually fulfill the law’s demands. How? B/c he says the whole law is summed up in this command: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

b) When God gave Israel the 10 commandments, they began w/ how they were to relate to Him. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make, bow down or worship an idol. You shall not misuse the name of God. Keep the Sabbath holy. But then the commands deal relating to others

c) Honor you father & mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. So when Jesus was asked the greatest commandment of the Law, He said in Matt. 22:37-39:

d) “You shall love the Lord your God w/ all your heart & w/ all your soul & w/ all your mind. This is the great & 1st commandment. And a 2ndis like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Then He said in v40: “On these 2 commandments depend all the Law & the Prophets.”

e) See, fulfilling those 2 commands to love God & love others fulfills the deepest longing & calling of human beings created in God’s image. If we aren’t rightly relating to God, we won’t rightly relate to others. And if we aren’t rightly relating to others, then we aren’t rightly relating to God.  

f) John Piper says: “When God gave the law, He was after a people who were so satisfied by Him & His grace that their lives would overflow into loving Him & those around them.” What is our relation to the law? Paul says we’ve been set free from the law & are no longer under the law.

g) Paul says we must not submit again to the law’s yoke of slavery. In other words, we no longer look to the law to tell us how we can be accepted & loved by God, but to inform us how we should live as those accepted & loved by God. Tim Keller says: “the gospel frees us from the law, for the law.”

h) Gospel freedom does away w/ our old, selfishly motivated & unloving law-obedience. Gospel freedom motivates us to obey the law out of a love for God & others made in His image. Apart from Christ, God’s Law was the voice of a Judge pronouncing a death sentence over us.

i) The law declared: Matt is a liar, adulterer, murderer, idolater, blasphemer, Sabbath breaker & an enemy. And all I could say or you could say is: “Guilty as charged.”  But united to Christ by faith, the Law no longer pronounces a sentence of condemnation over us. The Law is the sweet whisper of our loving God, Father & Savior saying: “My beloved child, this is how our family lives. This is my nature. And this is what I’m working in you to make you like.”

j) The freedom Jesus died to give us is much more than a freedom from condemnation. It is also a freedom to love & serve. To love & serve God & to love & serve 1 another. There is not a harder command in the Bible than to love your neighbor as yourself.

k) It means caring just as much about what happens to others as much as you care about what happens to you. Can you imagine what the church would be like if we lived that out? If you looked at the other people around this room & felt the same longing for their joy as you do for your own joy.

l) Not only would the law be fulfilled, but this church & every church would be filled w/ unspeakable joy & the glory of God would be unmistakably present in our midst. And oh, how people would come. May God help us to deny ourselves & not use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

m) May God help us not to bite & devour & consume 1 another, but to use our gospel freedom to lovingly serve 1 another & to love our neighbor as ourselves. Let’s pray.