Principles of Christian Freedom

The big theme of Galatians is Freedom.

And that theme brings with it some questions.

Please open your Bibles to .

Read .

Some might call them two extremes, but really I call them attacks.

This is strange interlude within Paul’s writing.

They are

It’s been a rough letter.

He hasn’t had a whole lot of nice words to say to the Galatians.

Paul has called the Galatians foolish.

He has said they were bewitched.

And last week, he reached the climax of his anger when he said, “I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!”

The big theme of Galatians is Freedom.

It’s freedom from the law.

Legalism is one.

It’s freedom from condemnation.

We have seen legalism throughout Galatians.

The

They’ve been hoodwinked by a false teaching that says they must obey the law.

We want to do whatever we want, however we want.

The Galatians have been hoodwinked into thinking that they must obey the Law in order to be in Christ.

It’s freedom in Christ.

And everything that comes with it.

And that theme brings with it some questions.

Church membership wasn’t seen by conversion, but by circumcision.

As we’ve worked our way through this letter, we’ve seen Paul remind the Galatians of their freedom.

He’s adamantly said that the Galatians are free.

They don’t have to adopt the Law, and they are to fight against legalism.

We are free in Christ.

But what does Christian freedom look like?

Church membership wasn’t seen in conversion, but by circumcision.

What does Christian freedom mean?

What makes legalism so terrible is that it takes our focus off of Christ, in fact it neuters Christ, and says that we are responsible for our salvation.

Legalism ultimately removes the death of Christ of any real power for the removal of sins and our righteousness.

Once you become a Christian you’ll have questions about your life.

There is repentance and you wonder what do with this freedom?

What can you do and what can’t you do.

The young Christian wonders what his new faith will look like in his life.

How will he change?

Some have heard Paul’s words and jump to an extreme freedom.

They hear there is freedom and they think that it is complete freedom.

Freedom to do whatever you want.

Freedom to live however you want.

Freedom to love whoever you want, however you want, whenever you want.

That’s really the language of our culture.

We live in a country that is free, and a culture that is free.

And we love our freedom.

Legalism says that what makes me pleasing in God’s sight is not Christ, but my works.

We want to do whatever we want, however we want, whenever we want.

The second attack upon Christian faith is antinomianism, which is a fancy word for meaning, “No law.”

And no one can tell me what to do.

This is could be called hyper grace.

Let’s look at how the Bible describes Christian freedom.

Please open your Bibles to .

It essentially says, that if Jesus died for my sins, and if I can’t lose my salvation, then I can do whatever I want.

Read .

Legalism and antinomianism are sometimes thought of as two extremes of grace -

One removes grace.

In this text we see 3 principles of Christian freedom.

The other radicalizes grace.

But in reality they are both on the same trajectory.

They aren’t extremes of good theology, they are two examples of a theology that is moving away from the cross.

Legalism takes our focus off of Christ, in fact it neuters Christ, and says that we are responsible for our salvation.

Legalism removes the death of Christ of any real power for the removal of sins and our righteousness.

Legalism says that what makes me pleasing in God’s sight is not Christ, but my works.

On the flip side, there is antinomianism, hyper grace, it takes away from Christ because it reduces sin to nothing.

Says God has no standard.

God doesn’t care about right and wrong.

In the end Jesus calls it lawlessness.

They are both dangerous.

The big theme of Galatians is freedom.

Paul has been talking about freedom from the law.

But now he is going to describe what our freedom looks like.

So we have 3 principles of Christian freedom.

The first principle is Christian Freedom is not permission to sin.

Paul says, “For you were called to freedom brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh ...”

The Gospel is glorious.

Jesus paid for sin.

He hears that Jesus has died

When he was on the cross, my sins, your sins, the sins of all believers were transferred onto Jesus.

He was condemned in my place.

He died for all my past sins, all my current sins and all my future sins.

They are gone.

gives us a confidence, saying that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

No condemnation.

No more punishment for sins, because they were already dealt with by Christ.

I may sin and I am free.

God is no longer angry at me.

I don’t need to offer Him a sacrifice.

I don’t need Jesus to come back and die for me, because His one death was enough for all of my sins.

There was a man named Bob.

Bob was up to his eyeballs in debt.

He applied for every credit card he was offered.

He had it all.

Lowes.

Kohls

Old Navy.

He had lots of fun and maxed out those cards at their stores.

The credit card debt was killing him.

Each month he’d get paid, and all the money would seem to vanish into thin air.

Bob was trapped.

He was now working only to pay for stuff he’d already bought.

He felt like a slave.

He was going to church, but couldn’t even give, because his money was tapped, it was all going to creditors.

Under the guise of Christian liberty, they think that they can get drunk, enjoy the world, feed on smutty books, and movies, and live a life of self-indulgence.

Bob was one of those lucky individuals who had a rich uncle.

His rich uncle died, and left him enough to pay off those credit cards, which he did.

And now with a clean slate, what did Gob do?

He went to Lowes and bought that new blower he’d been wanting, then to Old Navy and bought some new threads.

He was given freedom and he went right back into what he was freed from.

Some people learn of grace, and they act just like Bob.

They think, “well, if Jesus died for my sins, I’m only in grace.”

They hear of grace and they think the Christian does not need to repent or stop sinning at all.

Under the guise of Christian freedom, they think that they can get drunk, enjoy the world, feed on smutty books, and movies, and live a life of self-indulgence.

What’s funny is we don’t think this way anywhere else.

We don’t have this mentality when it comes to any of our other freedoms.

We live in a free country.

Yet we don’t think that this freedom means I can go to the car lot across from us and break into it and take any car I want.

That’s not what we mean by freedom.

Freedom does not mean do whatever you want.

And freedom in Christ does not mean do whatever you want.

says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. ...”

Those who think that freedom means they can do whatever they want will quickly find that they have gone right back into slavery.

In Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”

That means while you proudly think you are free, you have really become enslaved.

Prior to a Christian’s conversion he did one thing really well … sin.

He was a slave to it.

He couldn’t not sin.

Prior to conversion sin was a cruel slave master.

He demanded you sin.

And his payment was your soul.

Christ went to the cross and paid the slave master’s wage.

He paid for your life with His own life.

The chains that bound you to sin were free.

Many times people talk about free will.

When they say free will they mean that the will, the place in your soul that makes its decisions, that the will is free and uninfluenced by anything else.

It can do bad if it wants to.

It can do good if it wants to.

But for the unconverted there is no free will.

It’s a will that is bound to sin.

It is a will that is a slave of sin.

The work of the Spirit in converting the sinner’s heart, is that the will is freed.

Freed to no longer be a slave of sin.

The Christian is the person who now doesn’t have to sin.

You used to be a slave of the prince of the power of the air, and now you are a child of God.

You have been freed to walk in what is good, no longer as a person who has to sin.

This also means that we need to rethink our relationship with sin.

You have not been converted so that you can sin.

Becoming a Christian does not mean you can use the Cross as a get out of jail free card.

Sin is slavery, so don’t go back to it.

says, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”

When you sin, yes, be comforted in the Cross.

They are still a slave to sin.

Jesus calls them workers of lawlessness.

But never forget the cost of your sin.

In fact, our freedom isn’t necessarily even for us.

When talking about Christian freedom the question comes up, “Can I do this?”

Think of the list:

“Can I drink?”

“Can I

“Can I have debt?”

“Can I buy lotto tickets?”

We need to rethink this, because our freedom isn’t necessarily for us.

Paul says, “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh ...”

Bob was up to his eyeballs in debt.

He applied for every credit card he was offered.

He had it all.

Lowes.

Kohls

Old Navy.

He had lots of fun and maxed out those cards at the stores.

The credit card debt was killing him.

Each month he’d get paid, and all the money would seem to vanish into thin air.

Bob was trapped.

He was now working only to pay for stuff he’d already bought.

He felt like a slave.

He was going to church, but couldn’t even give, because his money was tapped, it was all going to creditors.

Bob was one of those lucky individuals who had a rich uncle.

His rich uncle died, and left him enough to pay off those credit cards, which he did.

And now with a clean slate, what did Greg do?

He went to Lowes and bought that new blower he’d been wanting, then to Old Navy and bought some new threads.

He was given freedom and he went right back into what he was freed from.

The freedom that we have is not so that we can better serve ourselves.

The flesh is your desire for sin.

Don’t use your freedom to feed your sin habit.

Often times we ask, “Can I do this or that?”

The freedom you have isn’t about you.

So often people wonder if they are allowed to do certain things.

Our freedom isn’t an opportunity for the flesh.

Its not so you can do things for you.

Its not about whether you can get high, sleep around, or wasted your time accumulating money.

In the context of this passage, the freedom that Paul is talking to the Galatians about is their relationship to each other.

The end of verse 13 - serve one another.

Verse 14 - Love your neighbor, that’s someone else.

Verse 15 - We see “one another” mentioned twice.

There’s an emphasis on using our freedom for others, and in relationship to others.

In fact we can go a step further on this.

That’s really how we should be using our freedom.

Paul says to not let your freedom become an opportunity for the flesh.

This is about

The opportunity is the foundation for sin.

It’s the starting point for sin.

It’s the beachhead or the base of operations for sin.

If our tendency is to use our freedom to become isolated and sin, then Paul says don’t even go to the starting line.

Don’t give sin any foothold into your life.

Don’t use your freedom as a launching point for sin.

Because once you give sin an opportunity, I promise you it will take it.

I’ve heard it said that freedom isn’t free.

For example within the United States we have certain freedoms that need to be guarded.

And the same goes for your Christian freedom.

Sin desires to take you captive, and so we remain on guard.

Here are 6 ways that sin creeps into our lives that becomes an opportunity for the flesh, especially in our relationship to others.

1. We provide an opportunity for the flesh when we foster an unforgiving spirit or harbor a grudge toward others.

Like a weed it will only grow.

2. We provide opportunity for the flesh when we fail to overlook minor offenses in others lives.

Our culture is easily offended.

It likes to point out sin and magnify it.

Everyone is a victim, and everyone wants an apology.

But we are called to forgive.

says, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

3. We provide opportunity for the flesh when we doubt the trustworthiness of each other.

says that love believes all things.

An opportunity to sin arises when we doubt everything that happens in each other’s lives.

4. We provide opportunity for the flesh when we indulge in speaking negatively about each other.

This quickly turns into gossip.

5. We provide opportunity for the flesh when we engage in negative conversations with one another.

It’s not necessarily gossip, but it’s complaining.

says, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,”

6. We provide opportunity for the flesh when we fail to deal with personal offenses.

If someone has wronged you and you let it sit, it’s going to grow quickly into a grudge.

It will turn into resentment.

Like those leftovers that you forgot about in the fridge from 3 weeks ago, it will stink to high heaven.

So either forgive or confront, but don’t let the offense stew.

We must be on guard against allowing sin to creep back into our lives and make us slaves.

Freedom does not mean sin all you want.

Instead, we use our freedom to obey our King and give Him glory.

The second principle of Christian Freedom is loving by serving.

Look again at the end of verse 13 on into verse 14, “… but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This point actually has two points.

The first is that we are to love.

And who are we to love?

It’s not love yourself.

It’s love others.

You already love yourself.

In fact if anything we love ourselves too much.

Even the person who commits suicide … loves himself.

Really the problem is he loves himself too much.

Jesus said we are to die to ourselves.

Paul doesn’t say “Use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.”

He doesn’t say, “Live for yourself.”

He doesn’t say, “Treat yo’ self.”

He doesn’t say, “You need to love yourself first.”

Or “Above all else, be true to thine own self.”

He says, “Don’t use it as an opportunity for the flesh.”

Who’s flesh?

Your flesh.

He says “Through love serve … yourself?”

No, serve one another.

This is a command to love.

When do you need a command to love?

It’s easy to love when things are good.

I don’t think that any of you were in an arranged marriage.

You never had a sit down talk with your parents where they told you you had to marry a person you’ve never met before, because you were sold for a dozen cows, so make it work.

You met your spouse and were enraptured with her beauty.

Your husband took you on glorious dates that stilled your beating heart.

When you first started dating and when you were first married, it was easy to love.

But when do you need the command to love?

When things are hard.

When two people get married you’ve got the vows.

“I take you to be my wife, to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health ...”

Have you ever thought how unromantic that is?

There are days you will be worse, poor and sick.

There will be days when marriage will not be fun.

And you are swearing, “I will remain married to you. I will love you when you are the worst, and the situation is dire.”

But I will remain married to you.

Paul says the whole law is fulfilled in one word, or in one statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

That comes from .

Listen to where it comes from:

“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

The context of that verse is where there is animosity, a grudge, a schism, friction, a desire for vengeance, a fight … you love the other person as yourself.

Our culture says I’m free, and I can pick my own friends.

If someone gets you mad, you unfriend them.

You can delete a contact as easily as taking out the trash.

If someone offends you, you get rid of them.

Christian freedom is you love, and you love even those who you are angry with.

Not only do you love, but you act.

It’s funny how Christians love and don’t act.

You get angry at someone, and you say, “Bless her heart, I love her, but if I’m around her, I’m gonna kill her.”

So you avoid the person.

You avoid them in love.

Many times the Christian says he or she loves, but then they ignore the other person.

According to Paul that isn’t love.

Love isn’t a decision to say you love someone but then do nothing about it.

The world around us has reduced love to a feeling, that comes and goes.

You can fall into love.

You can fall out of love.

The Scripture defines love as something that we do.

We are commanded to love.

Husbands love.

Mothers love.

Christians love.

It is what we do.

And that love is demonstrated.

Jesus loved us.

says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, -”

God didn’t sit in heaven and say, “I really love those people. Oh what’s on TV? And distract Himself.

He did something about that love, it was worked out - “In this the love of God was made manifest among us,” - it was demonstrated and made known - “ that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

That talks about love, but there’s a lot of action words there.

Love was made manifest.

Loved us and sent His Son

God didn’t say, “I love them, but I can’t stand them. So I’ll avoid them.”

He loved us and He sent the Son to suffer and die for us.

The context of “Love your neighbor as yourself” is when there is tension in the relationship, you love.

And how do you love, by doing something, by serving.

You take on the role of a servant, and you serve.

And in doing so you play out the Gospel.

Isn’t that what Jesus did for us?

There was a need for vengeance, and He took on the role of a servant.

He died for us.

The church isn’t a perfect place.

Sometimes it’s not very hard to love one another.

Other times it’s a lot harder.

Love covers a multitude of sins and we therefore love one another, even when there are sins.

In , notice how in verse 13 that love is demonstrated.

Paul doesn’t say love and ignore.

He says but through love serve one another.

Our love is demonstrated by serving one another.

Now isn’t that revolutionary.

Loving and serving those that we got beef with.

We serve one another by praying for one another.

It’s hard to be angry at someone when you are regularly praying for them.

If there’s someone you’ve got a grudge against, consider praying for them everyday.

And I don’t mean, “God help Mary Joe not be so stupid.”

I mean pray for her to be matured, blessed and sanctified.

We serve one another when we bear with one another.

We carry one another’s burdens.

We serve one another by encouraging one another.

says to not let any corrupt talk come out, but only what is good for building up one another.

We serve one another when we count others as more significant or better than ourselves.

says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

We serve one another when we use our gifts to build up one another.

The last principle of Christian Freedom is it does not harm the church.

I wonder if Paul was eating a big juicy steak as he wrote this verse.

Because there’s language of food throughout the verse.

“But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

Bite

Devour

Consume

How do you eat a steak?

You don’t take the steak and shove it all into your mouth.

It’s one bite at a time.

You take the knife, cut off a piece, eat it.

Do that 15-20 more times, and now you’ve got an empty plate, the steak has been consumed.

I saw a video this past week of a dead gecko.

A camera was put on it, it recorded ants eating it.

Little ants.

And in about 12 hours, it went from a full size gecko, to a bare skeleton.

And those ants carried off the individual bones, vertebrae, and even skull.

Ants can’t eat a gecko in one bite.

It takes lots of little bites.

And how do you damage the church?

With lots of little bites.

If the government suddenly decided churches were illegal, we could change our location.

We would secretly meet at the LaPortes house on Sunday mornings at 9am, invite your friends.

But the church would continue.

You know what could do the most damage to us?

Little bites.

Little small wounds from among each other.

Just like eating a steak, you do that enough times, and eventually, you’ve done real damage to the church.

We can damage each other.

We can hurt each other.

Jesus called us sheep, and we think of sheep as prey.

But I have a pastor friend who when talking about the church sometimes warns me, “Remember the sheep bite.”

We can bite, and you know what? It hurts.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “If I must be bitten at all, let me rather be bitten by a dog than by a sheep. That is to say, the wounds inflicted by the godly are far more painful to bear, and last much longer, than those caused by wicked men.”

The world around us can attack us … and it’s just a flesh wound.

It stings, but we carry on.

But when we attack each other … it’s mortal.

It hurts.

describes the pain of a friend’s bite.

Reading from the old King James Version it says, “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, My guide, and mine acquaintance.”

I can take the bite from the world, I expect it.

It hurts so much more when its someone you love.

I’ve been on the receiving end.

But I’ve also been on the biting end.

Those are my biggest mistakes in life.

Some of them have never been repaired.

When Spurgeon says the bite of a sheep last longer, he wasn’t kidding.

Because some of those that I bit, still have a wound or a scar.

So Paul uses very strong language in verse 15.

“Do not consume one another.”

But it happens so easily.

How do we consume one another?

It doesn’t start with a big bite.

It’s piece by piece, bite by bite.

A little word here.

A small piece of gossip there.

I’ve been bitten before.

And I’m sad to say I’ve bit before.

Because some of those that I bit, still have a scar.

Southwest we have a tremendous strength, we are a family.

When I talk about you, you’d be surprised how many people envy what we have.

We have a cool history.

We have served together.

We love one another.

This love, this closeness also makes us extremely vulnerable.

Not to a physical attack.

But from an internal one.

He said, she said.

Overhearing this or that.

Together we must be committed to building up the church.

No biting.

It’s like the toddler room in here.

No biting.

Only building

Only building.

And if there is a bite, then seek restoration.

Don’t let it become a beachhead for sin.

In says, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser ...”

The Galatians wanted a law.

They wanted to be bound to something that they could do for themselves.

And Paul says, “You want a law? Here’s your law:

Don’t go back to sin.

And Paul says, “Love and serve. There’s your law.”

In your freedom, love and serve.

Love one another.

Serve one another.

Preserve one another.

Love and serve.

We’ve got this wonderful freedom in Christ.

Let’s be ambassadors to the world, of the freedom of the Kingdom of God.

Pray