Gospel Freedom; Gospel Fruit

As we continue our study of Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, let’s remember what we’ve learned thus far: Paul reminds them that there is no other gospel than the one that he preached to them: Jesus Christ, came to seek and to save the lost. He did this by offering his perfect, sinless life as an atoning sacrifice for our sin, taking upon himself the full weight of God’s righteous and just punishment for sin, our sin. All we need to do to receive forgiveness is to simply trust—to believe that our sins are forgiven.

Paul warns the Galatians against the false teachers who had slipped among them. These so call super apostles, were making much of themselves, and at the same time, making less of Paul, questioning his authority to teach, because, unlike them, he wasn’t from Jerusalem, from among the 12 (neither were they, but they claimed to be so). In contrast, Paul claimed to have his authority, his calling from Christ himself. And, all the things that they considered of great importance, Paul no longer considered important. Nothing is more important than simply knowing Jesus.

His confidence in Christ is such that Paul told them he was indeed approved by the disciples, because they recognised his calling from Jesus himself. Indeed, even Peter came under Paul’s authority when Paul showed him the truth, that his living didn’t match up with his teaching.

Paul used that as an illustration, not only because it would have been very well known to everyone, but because it addressed the very thing that these super apostles were doing. Unlike Paul, Peter struggled with his Jewish heritage. Even though he knew in his heart, in his mind that he was nothing outside of Christ, he still felt compelled to observe the Jewish traditions, and so he sinned by forgetting the gospel and living according to it.

No one is justified by works. Everyone is justified—made right with the judge, God the Father—by faith, and faith itself is a gift from God.

What the super apostles were trying to do was syncretise Judaism and Christianity, taking a bit of this, and a bit of that, and mixing them together to make something new and improved. Paul throughout this letter has gone through great lengths to show how ridiculous it is. He does this by first contrasting the law and the promise, then by contrasting someone who receives an inheritance either by birth or by an adoption, verses someone who is outside the family, and cannot claim anything—no matter how hard they try to prove themselves worthy.

Chapter 4 ended with this sentence: “So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.”

Chapter 5 begins with, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” In Christ, we are set free. We are set free from sin. We are set free from justification through the law, we are set free from the tyranny of the devil, we are set free from guilt and shame, we are set free from ourselves—and that’s the focus of this chapter.

Recently, I started listening to a very good book called “How People Grow: What the Bible Reveals about Personal Growth” by Henry Cloud and and John Townsend. At the beginning of the book, they accurately describe the human condition: instead of following God’s way, Adam and Eve desired to be: the creator, the judge, the ruler, the saviour, etc. Ever since then, we’ve desired to place ourselves in God’s place.

What the super apostles were claiming was, “You can do something to save yourself. You must do something to earn your freedom: you need to be circumcised, you need t honour these other Jewish laws and practices.”

But that is a message that is completely contrary to the message of Jesus, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” Observing laws and customs in order to make oneself free does not lead to freedom. If you take on one part of the law in order to save yourself, you must then keep all of it. The very reason Jesus came to save us is because we could not keep even one part of it! So, if we go down that route, the only result will be failure.

The only thing that brings freedom from sin is faith working through love: God’s love in first coming to us, saving us, setting us free, giving us the gift of faith, as it says in Ephesians, it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this is not of yourselves, lest anyone would boast in themselves (Eph. 2:8-9).

Those who are preaching circumcision, or any other thing in addition to Jesus, they are in grave danger. Paul rightly points out, if I’m supposedly preaching what they are claiming to preach, why are they persecuting me, why are they impuning my character? No, these false teachers are doing nothing more than causing you strife. I wish those who are unsettling you, those who are calling you to question your salvation would just finish the job—don’t just cut off the tip, take off the whole thing!

Jesus calls us to freedom, real freedom. Freedom from trying to be the judge, the creator, the ruler, the saviour. Freedom to receive from our loving Father, real, full, amazing life. Freedom from loving oneself first, freedom to love others as ourselves. But the opposite of freedom in Christ is biting and devouring one another, consuming one another. That’s what the Galatian church was in danger of becoming. That’s a danger in any congregation, even Maranatha’s, it might already be here.

Paul concludes this chapter with a contrast: life according to the flesh, or sinful desires, and life according to the Spirit.

Our default condition, born as we all are into sin—guilty as we all are of inherited sin, as well as the sins we all have committed, and continue to commit—our default condition is sin which is when we make much of ourselves. Our default condition is self-centredness. Look at Paul’s list of the works of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkeness, orgies and things like these. All of this list is a result of putting oneself first. All of these things reflect putting one’s desires ahead of all others. It is epitomised in narcissism. We are living in what is quite possibly the most narcissistic, self centred time in all of history.

Social media isn’t the problem. Our sinful natures are the problem. Social media reveals our hearts. It shows our true characters. Some people are amazing and selflessly focussed on Christ. Some are not.

James tackles this self-focus when he writes, “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. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?”

The false teachers were hiding a self-focus behind a facade of faithfulness. And the Galatians were starting to buy into it.

Let us be very aware of our sinful nature’s compelling pull to put oneself first. Let us be very aware of the desire to serve ourselves and not God, and how easily we can convince ourselves that we are in fact, serving God.

If anyone knew what it was to serve God through human effort and invention, it was the apostle Paul. He had the pedigree, he had the training, he had every claim to absolutely destroy these so-called super apostles. But he knew that in Christ, only Christ matters. He considered all that stuff, all his past life in Judaism, all his pedigree and training and everything as absolute rubbish compared to the awesomeness of Christ.

If we live by the flesh, we will gratify the desires of the flesh. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve ourselves and God at the same time. It is impossible.

So, where then is the hope? Our hope is in Jesus Christ who has really truly set us free. All striving cease. Be still and know that He is God: that passage isn’t talking about quiet time. It is saying, stop trying to save yourself. Receive Christ. Receive His salvation. Be free in Christ. Live by the Spirit.

Do you see the contrast between living by the flesh and living by the Spirit? The fruit of the flesh is selfishness leading to death. The fruit of the Spirit is selflessness leading to life. Everything about the fruit of the Spirit is other-focussed, it is not at all self-focussed.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control—all this fruit is focussed on God first, then others second, and the self third—because that’s God’s way. When we love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, when we love others without the expectation of ever being loved in return, that’s when we receive true love.

Now, one final thing. Do not take this list of fruit and determine to produce it in yourself by yourself. If you do, you’re living by the law again. Rather, receive the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit will be manifest in you.

Be disciplined, be self-controlled, as you are led by the Spirit. I wish I could spend all day talking about this. I could probably preach all day, even into the night, but I will stop there. I encourage everyone to spend some time in this chapter in the week to come. Tune into this week’s podcast, where Josh and I will spend some time together talking about this chapter. Also check out my midweek video, which is looking at each fruit in turn last week was on love, this week is on joy.

For freedom, Christ has set us all free—free to love one another as God loves us. Freedom to live by the Holy Spirit’s perfect presence in us. So then, let us live in Christ, and in His Spirit, Amen.

Father in Heaven, thank you for sending your Son to set us free from our bondage to slavery in sin, bondage to an unfulfilling self-centred, selfish life. Holy Spirit, fall afresh on us. Breathe on us, make us alive in Christ, so that we may love as you love, and do as you do. Holy Spirit, fall afresh on us, melt our hardness of heart, mold us into loving other-focussed hearts, fill us, use us. Move among us all, make us one in heart and mind, make us one in love: humble, caring, selfless and sharing. Make us more and more like Jesus. Amen.