I’m Free

SERMON FRAMEWORK

Subject: What changed for us when Christ came?

Complement: Before Christ, we were held captive under the law — but now that faith has come, we are sons and daughters of God, clothed with Christ, and every old label that used to define us has been swallowed up in Him.

Dominant Thought: Christ didn’t just open the door — He changed everything about who you are.

Aim: That the congregation would stop living beneath their identity in Christ and walk in the full freedom and dignity that belongs to everyone who has been clothed with Him.

Propositional Statement: Because the law held us captive until faith came, and faith in Christ has now come — we are no longer prisoners but sons and daughters of God, and every old label that once defined us no longer has the last word.

Big Idea: You’ve been freed, adopted, and dressed — it’s time to live like it.

Sermon Thesis: The law held you until Christ arrived. Christ arrived. You are no longer held.

Galatians 3:23–29 ESV

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Introduction

There is a word I want you to hold on to this morning. One word. It shows up twice in this passage, and both times it carries the full weight of everything Paul has been building toward since chapter one.

The word is “now.”

Verse 25: “But now that faith has come.”

That “now” is not a clock word. It’s not just telling you what time it is. It’s a dividing line. Everything before it sits on one side. Everything after it sits on the other. Paul has spent three chapters explaining the “before” — the law, the curse, the imprisonment, the custodian. Now he’s turning the corner. He’s done with the diagnosis. He’s ready to tell us who we are.

And who we are, according to this text, is not what the law said. Not what our past said. Not what the people who wrote you off said.

Transition: This morning, Paul speaks to everyone who's put their faith in Jesus Christ — and he doesn't say it once. He says it three times. Three veracities already true about you, whether you've been living in them or not. Here is the first. . .

Your Sentence Is Up (vv. 23–24)

Galatians 3:23–24 ESV

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

Illustration: In 2018, a man named Valentino Dixon walked out of Attica Correctional Facility after serving twenty-seven years for a murder he did not commit. Twenty-seven years. He had exhausted every appeal. He had tried to work within the system. And for most of those years, the system said: you stay. But the man who actually committed the murder confessed and the doors were opened for Valentino. Not because he earned it. Not because he served enough time. Because the truth changed his legal standing.

Paul opens this section with an honest description of what life under the law looked like. Verse 23: “We were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.”

The word translated “held captive” is the same Greek word from last week — synkleio. Shut in on all sides. And then verse 24 gives the law a specific title: “guardian.”

In the original language that’s paidagogos — literally, a child-escort. In the ancient world, this was a household slave whose job was to walk children to school, keep them in line, and deliver them to the teacher. Not a liberator. A supervisor.

Paul is showing, the law was never the destination. It was the escort to the destination.

And here is what Paul wants you and me to understand: that season is over. The guardian’s job ended when Christ came. If you have put your faith in Jesus, you are not still in custody. You are not still being escorted. Your sentence is up.

Application: But here is the honest pastoral word. Some of us are walking around like we’re still locked up. Not because God hasn’t released us — but because we keep going back to the cell.

You wake up Monday morning carrying guilt from Sunday’s failures. You replay the worst version of yourself on a loop. You have decided, somewhere deep down, that your past disqualifies you from living freely in front of God. And so you perform. You try harder. You apologize to God every morning like the release papers never came.

Let me be clear about something. The freedom Christ purchased is not permission to keep sinning and expect it not to matter. The sentence is up — but that means you are now accountable to live as a free person, not as someone still serving time. Freedom in Christ always moves toward repentance, not away from it. You turn from what held you. You don’t go back to the cell and decorate it.

Paul says: the guardian has been dismissed. Walk out. Walk in repentance. Walk in freedom. Your sentence is up.

TRANSITION: The sentence ended. But Paul doesn’t stop at release. He tells you what you became the moment the door opened — and it is far more than you may have expected.

You’ve Been Claimed (v. 26)

Galatians 3:26 ESV

26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

Now watch how fast Paul moves. One verse after telling you the guardian’s job is done, he tells you what you are instead.

Verse 26: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

Not students. Not probationers. Not people still trying to prove themselves. Sons. And in the biblical use of that language, sons and daughters — heirs, those with full standing in the family, those with access to everything the Father has.

This is the hinge of the entire passage. The movement is not just from captivity to freedom. It’s from captivity to family. You didn’t just get released — you got adopted. God didn’t open the door and wave you on your way. He claimed you.

And notice the phrase: “in Christ Jesus.”Your standing before God is not based on your track record. It’s based on whose you are. You are in Christ. And because you are in Christ, what is true of Him is now legally, spiritually, eternally true of you.

Illustration: My grandmother used to say something I didn’t fully understand until I was grown. She’d say, “You are covered.” Not just loved. Covered. There’s a difference. Loved means somebody has warm feelings about you. Covered means somebody put their name on you. Somebody said: what comes for them comes through me first. That’s what it means to be in Christ. You are not just loved by God — you are covered. His name is on you.

Application: I want to speak to the person who grew up without somebody claiming them.

Maybe a father who was absent.

Maybe a family that made you feel like a burden.

Maybe you have spent your whole life trying to earn a place in rooms that never fully opened the door for you.

Hear this: God has claimed you. Not because you performed well enough. Not because you have it together. Through faith in Jesus Christ, you have been brought into the family of God with full standing. You are not a guest. You are not on probation. You are not tolerated.

You have been claimed!

TRANSITION: You have been freed and you have been claimed. But Paul adds one more layer — and this one changes how you walk into every room for the rest of your life.

They Can’t Call You That Anymore (vv. 27–28)

Galatians 3:27–28 ESV

27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Paul ends this passage with one of the most radical statements in the entire New Testament. But before he gets there, he gives you the foundation for it in verse 27.

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

The phrase “put on” is a clothing word. To be baptized into Christ is to be dressed in Him. Every person who has come to faith and followed the Lord in baptism has, in a real spiritual sense, put on a new outfit. And that outfit is Christ Himself.

Now Paul tells you what that means for every label you used to wear.

Verse 28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In Paul’s world, those three pairs represented the deepest divisions in society. Ethnicity. Social class. Gender. The lines that determined your worth, your access, your ceiling. Paul looks at every one of them and says: in Christ, those labels do not define you anymore.

He is not saying the differences don’t exist. He’s saying they don’t have the last word.

Your background doesn’t have the last word. Your zip code doesn’t have the last word. Your bank account doesn’t have the last word.

What somebody called you when you were growing up doesn’t have the last word.

You are clothed in Christ. And Christ is what people see first.

Application: Some of you are still letting a label somebody put on you years ago run your life today.

They called you a failure — and you believed it.

They said you’d never amount to anything — and you built your expectations around that.

The neighborhood told you what was possible for somebody like you — and somewhere along the way you stopped arguing with it.

But Paul says you have been clothed with Christ. The label that sticks is not the one your past put on you. It’s the one God put on you at the moment of your faith. And God’s label reads: mine. Heir. Chosen. Free.

On a Tuesday morning, this means you do not have to show up to work carrying yesterday’s shame.

You do not have to walk into a room wondering if you belong there. You do not have to shrink in spaces where people have historically made you feel small. You are clothed in Christ. Walk like it.

And for this church — verse 28 is also a word about how we treat each other.

Nobody in this room gets to be more important because of their history, their status, or their background. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. We are all one in Christ Jesus.

Conclusion

Your sentence is up. You’ve been claimed. And every label that used to stick doesn’t stick anymore.

That is the “now” Paul is talking about. But there had to be a “before” that made the “now” possible.

Before the “now,” there was a Friday.

The Son of God — the One who had every right to every label of honor — took on every label we deserved instead.

Guilty. Condemned. Cursed. He wore it.

He wore it on a cross, outside the city, between two criminals, until He breathed His last.

They put Him in a borrowed tomb.

Sealed it.

Walked away.

But early on the first day of the week, He walked out. And when He walked out, He was still wearing something. Not our shame. Not our guilt. Not our labels.

He was wearing glory.

And because He walked out, everyone who is in Him — everyone who has put on Christ — walks in that same freedom. The custody ended. The adoption is final. The wardrobe has been changed.

I’m free. Say it like you mean it. I’m free.

Soli Deo Gloria