What Is True Freedom?

Read

Galatians 2:6–10 (ESV)

6 And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Opening Prayer

Recap

False teachers were trying to add to the gospel.

They were saying in order to truly become a Christian...

You had to become a Jew, culturally.

In order to be truly acceptable to God you had to keep the Ceremonial Laws, also known as the Clean Laws.

Christ wasn’t enough to make you presentable to God.

These false teachers were claiming to be brothers...

And claiming to speak by the authority of the Apostles in Jerusalem.

So, Paul travels to Jerusalem to find out what is going on.

And, in this meeting you have Paul, Peter, James, & John.

And, so, with these four men meeting together and nothing was added to the free gospel of grace.

By GRACE alone…Through FAITH alone…In CHRIST alone…According to SCRIPTURE alone…For the GLORY OF GOD alone.

In this meeting you have the authors of over 20 of the 27 NT books.

What a meeting.

The gospel is preserved and freedom in Christ is preserved.

Don’t go back to slavery.

Don’t fall back into thinking that you can clean yourself up and make your self presentable to God.

You cannot.

It is a yoke you cannot bear.

Don’t come up with your own Ceremonial Laws and lay that yoke on your self or other people.

It dishonors the Ceremonial Laws...

And it dishonors the person & work of Christ.

We have Freedom in Christ.

In Christ, we are made fully acceptable to God.

Then, we read

Galatians 2:10 (ESV)

10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Wait, I Thought We Were Free?

I want us to see something that is easily overlooked...

But, incredibly important.

Especially within the culture we are living.

Our young people are being swept away by the current, cultural understanding of freedom.

Galatians 2:4–5 (ESV)

4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

You see that our freedom is preserved in the gospel.

We have freedom in JC.

We have been set free, liberated in JC.

Paul is fighting for this truth...

Freedom comes from truth.

But, wait...

Galatians 2:10 (ESV)

10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

So, we’re to regard what the Bible says about our treatment of the poor?

So, there’s something we should do?

I thought we were free in Christ?

Doesn’t freedom release us from any instruction?

Doesn’t freedom release us from any & all obligations?

Doesn’t freedom allow us to define for ourself what truth is?

Because today, the claim is, and it is not new...

The claim is that claiming truth is a “Power Play.”

It’s as old as mankind.

Did God really say?

He just saying that to keep control over you.

What God doesn’t want is for you to disobey because then you’ll be like Him and be the judge of truth.

That is what our current culture is selling hard to our young people.

And, many are believing it wholeheartedly.

One of the things they say, “Any time you try to claim that you have the truth...

You are making a power play to restrict someone else’s freedom...

For your own power/gain over them.”

Now, we cannot just dismiss that statement...

Because there’s some truth to that statement.

I mean, we can see it today in politics.

One side says they have the truth.

The other side says they have the truth.

This is the truth, they say, and this is how we must respond to the truth.

And, then the response to their truth leads to higher taxes and their bank accounts getting bigger.

So, just in the present day we see one example in a myriad of examples of how “truth claims” are used to oppress the people under the control of those “truth claims”...

And, at the same time, those “truth claims” are used to enhance the lives of the people in power making those “truth claims”.

So, “truth claims” can be and are used as power plays.

But, Paul says Freedom comes from Truth.

But, our culture says if you have to comply with truth...

If you have to obey truth…that’s a lack of freedom.

If you lay a truth claim on me, you’re trying to control me.

That is not freedom, they say.

It’s only freedom if I agree with that truth claim and want to go along with it.

Therefore, truth can only be and must only be defined by me, the individual.

Otherwise it is a “Freedom Killer.”

Why is this important?

Why does it matter what the culture thinks about “Truth Claims”?

Of course, because we want to speak truth into their lives...

And, this helps us do so, I believe.

But, listen to this…Jesus said the same thing about the Pharisees.

Jesus accused the Pharisees of using truth to gain power.

They didn’t keep the truth, they used the truth to gain power.

How many times does the gospels tell us that the Pharisees wanted to do something, but they feared what the people would think?

Control the crowd with truth claims for power over them.

The Pharisees did this very thing.

But Jesus did not claim what our culture claims and that is this...

All truth claims, all the time, are always power plays. All truth claims destroy freedom.

That is a false statement.

Do people use truth claims to gain power? Yes.

Does that mean there’s no such thing as truth? No.

If you say, “All truth claims are power plays.”

Guess what. That statement is a power play.

If you say, “There is no such thing as absolute truth.”

Really? Are you saying that absolutely?!

What this boils down to is that you just can’t know anything.

Any explanation becomes a truth claim, which equals a power play and is not to be trusted.

Truth claims can lead to oppression.

But, it depends upon the truth, right?

Not only is Paul fighting for our freedom here...

He’s claiming freedom comes from truth.

Jesus said in John 8:32... the truth shall set you free.

Being disconnected from truth is tragic & leads to death.

I remember a story of a retired Navy pilot.

And, he was flying over the Atlantic Ocean. It was night time. The seas were calm. The skies were clear.

And he said you couldn’t tell up from down. The skies were reflecting off the water. You couldn’t tell which was the ocean or the sky.

His instruments that informed him of the truth weren’t jiving with how he felt about the situation.

And, so he decided to go with intuition. His connection with truth was severed.

And he got upside down and thought he was lifting up into the sky and in reality he was flying right down into the water and crashed.

He survived. But came tragically close to death.

Listen, being disconnected from truth...

And denying that truth exists, is tragically dangerous and leads to death.

But, our culture is pushing a definition of Freedom that has no limits, no parameters, no limitations.

It’s a definition that absolutely goes against common sense, logic and what we experience daily in our lives.

Freedom has restrictions.

How Does Freedom Have Restrictions?

Using the Navy pilot story, the truth limits you to where you can fly.

If you fly outside of the parameters you crash into the ocean.

If you’re a fish the truth gives you restrictions on your freedom.

Your freedom is in the water. That is where you can swim, breath, and flourish.

Out of the water is where death is.

If a 5’2” kid decides he wants to be an Offensive Lineman in the NFL...

It doesn’t matter what he does, how hard he trains, he will not make it.

He has limitations on his genetics that will not allow him to be an offensive lineman.

The “truth” is that he has limitations that he cannot surpass that will keep him from that goal.

So, what is helpful to that young man is to help him realize his limitations and pursue a different goal...

That he can truly thrive at pursuing and doing.

It’s not freeing for a fish to live out of the water...

It’s death.

It’s not freeing for a 5’2” young man to pursue being an offensive lineman in the NFL...

It’s misery and disappointment.

It’s not freeing to live in denial of truth and disconnected from it...

It’s dangerous and leads to death.

Saying Freedom is the absence of restrictions is wrong.

It is an over-simplification.

So, there are restrictions within true freedom...

And, those restrictions are for your own good.

Truth Really Does Set One Free.

Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Only truth will set you free.

Freedom comes from submitting to the truth, not escaping it.

Paul says in Galatians 2:4 that we are “Free in Christ.”

The Apostles in Jerusalem added nothing to the gospel.

But, verse 10, Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

IOW, yes preach the gospel of free grace Paul.

May God pour out His grace upon the Gentiles for the conversion of their souls.

By faith alone…In Christ alone.

But, don’t forget to teach them that Christians live by God’s ethical norms.

Remember what the Bible says about the poor.

They need to care for the poor.

Our culture says this...

Romans 6:1 (ESV)

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Right.

Doesn’t freedom & liberty free us to do what we want, no matter what the want is?

True Freedom says this...

Romans 6:2 (ESV)

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

IOW, “Truth” & “Salvation” are like putting the fish back in the water.

Why would the fish want to be back out of the water?

He wouldn’t.

Not if he understands the truth about his design.

Not if he understands the limitations of his being.

Not if he wants to live and live well.

How Does Truth Set You Free?

Let’s think about the greatest freedom.

The freedom everyone is looking for.

The freedom of love.

Everyone is looking for the freedom to be fully known...

And still fully loved.

For love to work you need two people to commit to one another.

To surrender freedoms for one another.

To surrender their independence.

Because if only one person does that it’s horrific.

The one person that is committed is taken advantage of.

They are dehumanized, in a way.

It can be absolutely devastating.

Here’s the thing...

In the world’s pursuit to suppress the truth of God...

It seeks to label God as the person in the relationship that is doing the dehumanizing.

And, so they see it as God as this Cosmic Kill-joy who is just barking out commands...

And doing all the gaining from the relationship.

But, not giving to the relationship.

So, the human, they would say is doing all the sacrificing.

All the adjusting.

But, oh, how they’re wrong.

Because here’s what Christianity says...

And, it is the only religion that says this...

God, who is absolute truth...

Became a person...

And went to the Cross.

On the Cross, Jesus said,

I will lose my independence.

I will adjust to you.

I will sacrifice for you.

I will commit to you to the death.

I already surrendered myself to you.

I died for it.

All you have to do is surrender to me.

And, you can have the ultimate relationship.

In which you are fully known & fully loved.

That is true Freedom, folks.

And it is ours in Jesus.

Closing Prayer