Sermon Tone Analysis

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Introduction:

We think of a lot about freedom especially this time of year.

This 4th of July marks 241 years since the “Declaration of Independence” document was signed and accepted by the 13 colonies.

What we often overlook is that not even one year after the declaration of independence was drafted the “War for Independence” the “Revolutionary War” began.

After eight years, at least fifteen large battles, and somewhere between 6-7,000 men, women, both black, white, and native American fought and gave their lives, and the American colonies could begin their lives in total independence from Great Britain.

This Tuesday social media outlets will be filled with the slogan “Freedom isn’t Free”, Americans will pull out their favorite patriotic t-shirts and flags will proudly wave on thousands of homes.

And all for good reason, we live in a free country!

America is a free country, not simply because Thomas Jefferson wrote a document.

And America isn’t a free country only because of the Revolutionary War.

America is a free country today because of thousands through the years who have done their part to preserve that freedom.

There is something deep inside of the American people that knows that we all play a part in that preservation.

So we stay aware of bills and laws that are going through the house and the senate.

We vote, even if the candidate that best fits out political preferences isn’t on the ballot.

Many of us do not know what life is like outside of political freedom only the stories we’ve been told and therefore we are going to do everything in our power that is not a contradiction to God’s word to preserve those freedoms.

The Apostle is not writing the Galatian Christians about their political freedoms.

The Galatians primarily only knew the Roman Empire and (not to sound too simplistic) but as long as they complied with the Roman regime, they were okay.

Even still Paul is not necessarily concerned with traveling through unchartered waters to find a land where they could enjoy political and religious freedom.

The Apostle is mainly concerned with the fact that the freedom that they had in Christ was in jeopardy.

And what I mean by saying their freedom was in jeopardy is that they were literally in danger of (I’ll use Paul’s words) being severed from Christ and of falling away from grace.

This kind of talking makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

It’s strange that we would accept the slogan, “Freedom isn’t free” as a plausible slogan to motivate us for living our temporal lives here on earth, but we bristle and prune up when we begin to consider that all freedom (including our spiritual freedom) comes at a price and there must be a perseverance and preservation in order for that freedom to flourish.

The question then is,

What must we do in order to preserve the freedoms we have in Christ?

The Apostle doesn’t cut to the chase when answering this question for us.

Because it’s an anxious thing for us to think about.

Immediately we want to do one of two things when we’re given an ultimatum and our culture knows this, we either “fight or flight.”

We either see the aggressor and it emboldens us to match that aggression or we see the aggressor and go, “I’m out of here.

All I have to do is run faster than this guy.”

But what if we’re thinking about this all wrong?

What if Jesus wants an entirely different response from us?

What if what Christ wants from us is not our charging hell with a squirt gun?

What if what Christ wants for us is what a good soldier who goes off to war wants for the children of that country?

What does he or she want?

They want them to be free.

They want them to feel secure.

They want them to enjoy being alive, and laughing, and flourishing.

See Christ was hurled to the earth in the form of a vulnerable baby, lived a life as a social outcast—being looked at as an illegitimate child, at times homeless, almost always misunderstood, accused falsely, charged illegally, beaten brutally, and crucified inconceivably, all so that he could rise again and bring unfathomable freedom to people who were enemies of God, separated from God, in bondage to sin and condemned by the law.

That’s why Jesus came, to set slaves free.

These Galatians heard that good news many times, but they were afraid that they weren’t doing enough to prove to God that he made a good choice in saving them.

And Paul has fought hard to remind them, “Your past is not what saves you, your present, your future is not what saves you, it’s only by His mercy that He saved us.”

So what is our part in preserving the freedom we have in Christ?

STAND FIRM

Someone should underline, circle, draw arrows, highlight, do whatever you need to do to get this drilled deep in your head and heart, Jesus wants you to stand firm in the freedom that He bought you with His blood.

Interestingly enough, to stand firm is a military term.

It mixes the ideas of not only being awake, and being strong but also partnering together to fortify that strength.

For instance:

Philipians 1:27

Galatian Christians, stand firm together, remind each other of what is true.

Lift each other up when one is getting weak, join arms if you have to, but stand firm in your freedom.

And, do NOT submit (AGAIN) to a yoke of slavery.

Paul is mixing metaphors here, but you can see the picture of an ox that has had a yoke around it’s neck day after day that has finally been set free from that yoke.

And his point is that the idolatry and paganism that they were up to their eyeballs in is bondage in that they were enslaved to it.

They were addicted to the lifestyle of self-love, self-preservation, and self-salvation and by considering getting circumcised they were submitting to a yoke.

Yes it was an outwardly better looking yoke, it was a yoke nonetheless.

How could Paul say that becoming a cultural Jew was bondage?

That was required for all Jews for thousands of years before that.

Why would this all of the sudden be such a big deal?

This is an “If-Then” proposition.

IF you accept circumcision, THEN you are simultaneously rejecting Christ.

And if Christ is “no advantage” to you than by course of the argument Paul has already offered there is no deliverance for you (1:4) for Christ is our deliverer, you are cursed (3:13) for Christ became a curse for us, and you are no true child of Abraham (3:6-4:7) for the true children of Abraham are the ones who belong to Christ.

It is no different than hitting the rewind button back to when you first received the gospel.

You are living the life that you lived pre-Christ only now you’re vulgarity and debauchery stays on the inside.

Now, why would Paul say Christ is “no advantage to you?”

He said that because Paul knew that circumcision was the starting point to becoming a Jew.

God commanded the Jews to circumcise their sons on the eighth day.

Paul had nothing against the Jews being culturally who they were.

Paul was a Jew himself and Paul (from the best we can tell) kept on observing the Jewish rites even after his conversion.

Paul’s point is most understood when you figure out what he means by using the phrase “if you accept circumcision.”

What does he mean “every man who accepts circumcision?”

Paul’s point is most understood when you figure out what he means by accept.

What does he mean “every man who accepts circumcision?”

We need to look into the next verse to find the answer:

Ahhh… do you see it?

What does he mean by “accept circumcision?”

The middle proposition tells us that Paul knew what accepting circumcision meant for the Judaizers, it meant being “justified by the law.”

And we’ve discussed this theological word in previous weeks, but the basic idea of being “justified” is being declared right before God.

So by accepting circumcision they would therefore be claiming that it is the law of Moses that they are really leaning on to declare them right before God.

And if you are relying on the law to justify you then by process of elimination you are NOT relying on Christ.

So he says, if you are relying on the law to declare you right with God, you are SEVERED from Christ, you have fallen away from grace!

Now, one thing that gets very often misunderstood is that the Jews did not believe they had to follow all of the Mosaic Laws perfectly in order to obtain right standing with God.

They knew there were provisions when (NOT IF, BUT WHEN) they failed to follow all of the 613 Jewish laws.

So they weren’t actually relying on their own ability to perfectly follow a system.

The problem was, they were following a system that was not designed to do what they were asking it to do.

They were asking the law to speak on their behalf.

They were trusting in the fact that they had the right formula, the right recipe.

Everyone else had the wrong recipe, but they were the enlightened ones, the ones who knew that Jehovah-God has spoken to Moses to give them the laws to live by.

The point Paul is making that is still very much applicable to us today is that relying on anything in addition to Christ, whether it’s our “work hard and keep your nose clean” mentality, or our “humanitarian efforts” and “social awareness” and “above board morality” or whether it’s our justification of doing more good than bad, or “in the end it will all work out” it really doesn’t matter what we’re relying on IF it’s anything in addition to or besides Jesus, it puts us in a place where we’re cut off from Christ and fallen from grace.

Now this brings up a question about what theologians call, “Eternal Security.”

The cliche that the church has most readily accepted is, “Once saved, always saved.”

So the question is,

How do we know if we’re eternally secure?

If they (as I said in the beginning) were in danger of losing their freedom in Christ, is that different than being in jeopardy of losing their salvation?

I want to put this on the very bottom shelf because we have children in here today and I want you to understand this as much as I want the person who made a profession of faith 25 years ago:

Saying a prayer or even agreeing that certain things about God are true is not what is meant by Biblical faith.

Living in a so-called “Christian nation” attending a “Christian school” and growing up in a “Christian home” is not what faith means.

Being baptized, following the ten commandments, taking communion and knowing all of the answers to Bible trivia is not faith.

Our eternal security doesn’t ride on our spiritual activity.

The way some religions see their standing with God is the way that an employee who has been written up two times sees their employer.

They know they have the job as long as they don’t mess up.