Finally Free

Summary: don’t give up the freedom Christ has given you and return to law-slavery. If you start down that road you lose everything - it’s all or nothing. The righteousness we hope for will surely come through the Spirit and faith; for those in Messiah Jesus nothing that’s gone before has value - only faith working through love.

Big idea: we’re freed to flourish, living out love, in sure hope (no square watermelon)

Intro me

Well, welcome to 2022. I expect for many of us this feels a bit like groundhog day - if you’ve seen that film? It’s about a guy who’s living through the same day, over and over again. Here we are at the start of another new year and there’s another variant. Another vaccination. And we’re living in yet another lockdown. Yippee.

It’s pretty hard to be excited about life sometimes, right? And I think this pandemic has left almost everyone feeling trapped, feeling constrained, feeling squashed and squeezed into a smaller life than the one we wanted to live, than the one we hoped we might live.

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So I want to start this morning with a question for you all about freedom. If you were free, truly and totally free, what would that look like for you? What would you do if you were free? How would you live? Hop onto slido for me and tell me: what would you do, or be, if you were truly and totally free? You can chime in from home, too, if you’re on the livestream - there’s just a few seconds of delay before you’ll see your answers pop up here too.

For me, I don’t really know. I have a bunch of ideas but then I start second-guessing myself. If I was truly free, I’d retire and travel, see the world. But would that really be freedom? Certainly not in this covid era - that’d be a recipe for endless PCR tests! But even apart from that, would I really want to be free from community? Free from friends and family? Maybe if I was truly free, I wouldn’t use that freedom to go anywhere after all. Write a book? Learn to cook?

What would you do if you were truly free? Let’s take a look...

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It’s a big question, really: what is true freedom? What would it look like to live out true freedom? When a dolphin jumps from a wave, or a flower reaches out towards the sun, that seems a lot like true freedom, right? And when you shut a dolphin in a pool and make it do tricks, or grow a watermelon into a square, that seems like the opposite, right? But is a bird in flight just as free as a cactus rooted to the desert floor?

Perhaps we might say true freedom is the freedom to fully express yourself, to be who you really are? Freedom to do what you are made to do, what you are wired to do. Freedom to pursue everything you want, not be held back from anything?

Then we have to ask the question: would it be good for you and I to be totally free? For everyone around us? What would we produce if we were totally unconstrained? How would we live? Would it be beautiful and good? Would a freed world more and more resemble heaven? Or would our freedom express itself in selfish grabbing and shoving and a fight over the spoils of a hellish world? What would happen if all constraint was removed?

As we start this new year, we’re going to continue our journey through a short letter in the Bible, a letter written to a group of churches in an area which used to be called Galatia - modern-day Turkey. A letter written by one of Jesus’ first followers, written to churches he had started which just a short while later were in danger of losing the plot, losing the message of hope that he’d brought to them.

We’ve been exploring this letter for quite a few months now but if you’re just joining us (or if you’ve simply forgotten what we covered last year), let me quickly bring you up to speed: some people had shown up in those new churches with an update, an add-on, an extra. It’s great that you believe in Jesus, they said, there’s just one more thing: you also need to follow all these Jewish rules in order to really be right with God, to be a part of God’s people.

This letter we’re looking at is Paul, the guy who started all those churches, writing to say “oh no you don’t”. He’s explaining Jesus plus nothing is all you need, not Jesus plus these Jewish rules. And it can seem a bit repetitive in the letter because he’s really banging on that one point again and again - but it’s really important because it’s easy to lose that truth.

As we pick the letter up in this new year, we’ve arrived at a bit of a turning point. Front and centre in what we’re going to be looking at today is this idea of freedom. Listen with me this morning as Jennifer reads for us from Galatians chapter 5 - page 1176 in these blue bibles if you have one of them. Galatians chapter 5 - just look for the big 5. Page 1176.

Galatians 5:1–6 NIV

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Thanks Jennifer. "it is for freedom that Christ has set us free” - but free from what? Well, that same verse tells us - look carefully at verse one. “do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Again. So what he’s warning them about is a return to something, not some new kid on the block. Do not let yourselves be burdened again.

And what were they burdened by before? The yolk of slavery. Ok, couldn’t resist it. Like so many times with the English language, we have two words which sound the same but mean something radically different. It’s yoke - the thing that joins animals together to make them work, to harness them to a plough! What is this yoke? This burden to bear?

In view here is the Jewish religious Law, the Torah as it’s called. The Law is described as a yoke, this burden, in the book of Acts, in chapter 15. And that’s the point in the story of the earliest churches where we think the letter we’re studying is written. So the burden in view the Jewish law - and particularly in focus here is circumcision, a permanent body-marking act that was the point of no return for people joining the Jewish faith.

But before you write all this off as irrelevant to us, know that it’s wider than that. This letter is written to a mixed group, some ex-Jews, but some never Jewish - so-called “Gentiles”. How could Paul write to them all here about being burdened again if he was just talking about this Jewish Law? Well, if you were with us last year, perhaps you’ll remember we talked about the “basic principles of the world” which show up in chapter 4?

Our writer explained to us that there’s a basic principle in the world: we all have rules we feel we need to keep in order to be in the right with the powers that be, to earn our place: Get in with the eco-brigade? Thou shalt Recycle. Get in with the dentist? Thou shalt Brush your teeth - morning and night - and floss after every meal. Get in with God? Be a generally decent bloke. Give to the poor. We’ve all lived under that burden of needing to be good enough, to do right enough, to try hard enough to make the grade. It’s a basic principle of our world, just the way we assume things work.

But the good news of Christianity is that Jesus Christ has set us free. Free from needing to be good enough for God. The bible word used in Galatians to describe what Jesus has done is that he has “redeemed” us - Jesus redeems us. That’s not like redeeming coupons at Tesco, it’s a word from the slave-market meaning to buy-back, to buy someone from slavery into freedom. Jesus has set us free from the Jewish law and all its regulations - but not just that. He’s set us free from ever needing to prove to God that we make the grade, that we measure up.

And we are to stand firm in this freedom, not go back again to the Jewish Law, or back again to those basic principles of the world. We relate to God through Jesus and what he’s done, not through what we’ve done. We are redeemed - and we can, and should, live like it - to live free.

“Stand firm” was the first command we read today. Our writer tells us we must stand firm, not go back even one inch. Why? because these two ways of relating to God don’t mix at all. You can’t mix them. They’re like oil and water. Shake as much as you like but they’ll never mix. We can’t relate to God both on our own merit and on Jesus’ merit - it’s either one or the other.

Now that might seem a bit odd - especially when we live in a world where people feel free to pick and choose their way through life. A bit of new age. A bit of science. A bit of rules where it suits me. A bit of easy going where it doesn’t. You know. But there’s a logic to it: if we’re going to choose to relate to God through law, our writer says, through ticking boxes, then we have to tick all the boxes. Not just a few here and there. Gal 5:3

Galatians 5:3 NIV

Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

There’s no point in just ticking one box on a page full of them and thinking we’re done. Either we don’t need to tick any, or, if we choose that way of relating to God, we’re going to have to tick every single one. Another of the earliest followers of Jesus, a guy called James puts it this way:

James 2:10 NIV

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

It’s like crossing a border between countries. You’re in one nation or the other, under one set of rules or the other. We went to France recently through Switzerland. Just before France closed the door to brits - don’t worry, all legit. Switzerland? negative PCRs within 48 hours and nothing less will do. France? negative antigens within 48 hours are fine. No mix and match, a bit of this and a bit of that. It’s all about which side of the border you stand on.

That’s how it is with relating to God. Are you standing on the law side of the border? Gal 5:4

Galatians 5:4 (NIV)

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ

You’re across the border so you need to tick every single law box. Are you standing on the Jesus side, the freedom side? Then things are completely different. You’re in one country or the other. Not both.

Ok, so far so good. Our author wants us to choose the freedom side of the border: freedom in Christ, not a life under law, in slavery. He urges us to stand our ground, to hold onto our freedom, and to reject these constraints.

But think back to where we started: what would it really look like to be truly free? We talked about it being the freedom to fully express yourself, to be who you really are. Freedom to do what you are made to do, what you are wired to do. If I were to live in total freedom and you, too, how would that work out for us, for our world?

Well, I don’t know you inside and out - but I do know myself, at least to some extent. I know what’s still rooted deep inside my heart. I know there’s still bitterness there. Still selfishness. I know there’s still anger there, still pride. And I don’t want to see a world filled with that, where all my mess is freely expressed. There’s enough of that in our world already.

So how can it be true that Christ has set us free - when I’m still so broken inside so I can’t really be freed? When I still need constraint? Will I need to always live under law to constrain me, never truly free? Is that the only way to finally be right?

No: Gal 5:5

Galatians 5:5 NIV

For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.

We’ve been set free for freedom. That’s our destination. A day when it will be right and good and wonderful for each one of us to finally and fully express ourselves without constraint. When that will produce heaven not hell. And we can eagerly await that day by faith: through the Spirit of God, alive within us, reprogramming us and transforming us from the inside out, we have sure hope that it will come: righteousness fit for true freedom.

Now that’s something worth hoping for: a future where I can be truly free at last - truly free because I will be truly good at last. Imagine that - truly free.

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Is this your hope? Do you know this lies ahead of you? Perhaps you’re listening today and you’ve never really taken that step of faith. Perhaps you’ve only ever thought of it as captivity, as rules, as constraint - perhaps it’s always felt like you’d be giving up freedom rather than finally finding it in following Jesus? If that’s you, can I invite you to start a new life, with this new year, right now?

The first step is simple and small - and yet profound and life-changing. Simply accept the truth that Jesus is Lord: He is God, to whom all will answer, and before whom none can stand; all of us fail to meet his standards. And then believe that rather than destroying you, he choose to die in your place, taking the penalty which should have been yours so you could go free. He offers you the only path to true freedom: God the Holy Spirit coming to live within you and to transform you from the inside out.

This hope can be yours today. Do you want to say “yes” to it? I’m going to pray a really short prayer and if you’re ready to say yes, pray along with me.

Father, I acknowledge you are God and Lord. I know I have not lived rightly before you.

Thank you that Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment that was my due so I can live.

Please forgive me and send me your Spirit so I can share this hope of finally being truly free.

Amen.

If you prayed that prayer, you now share that hope. Please tell someone so we can celebrate with you and help you as you take your first steps in this new life. If you’re on the livestream, there’ll be a button you can click to tell us, and a chance to pray with someone if you like. If you’re here in person, tell someone you came with or tell me.

A hope for true freedom at last.

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But what about now? What about here? What about 2022?

We’re not to be “burdened again by a yoke of slavery” - we’re not to place ourselves under law, the Jewish law or any other set of rules and regulations. That won’t bring us any true hope of freedom - it can only offer a lifetime of captivity. See in that last verse in our section, v6:

Galatians 5:6 (NIV)

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. Has any use. No system of rules, no set of check boxes will ever bring us freedom. There’s no path to true freedom through that, Jewish rules or otherwise.

But there is something which can be ours now in Christ Jesus, an anticipation of the freedom which will one day be fully and finally ours: Gal 5:6

Galatians 5:6 NIV

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Faith expressing itself through love. You and I can begin now living out the true freedom which one day will finally be ours - by living out love. Because when God is done with us, that will be who we really are, inside and out, through and through. That will be what we are wired to do, our true and full nature.

As the flower freely grows towards the sun, as the eagle freely soars on the wind, as the dolphin freely leaps through the waves, our faith will freely express itself through love.

And as you and I choose to act out love in this year we are just starting, in small things and large things, this is our foretaste of the freedom that will one day be ours. This is the firstfruits of the Spirit within us - love beginning to bud. This is our anticipation of that true and full freedom in righteousness which is our hope.

This year, this week, choose to let your faith express itself through love, again and again, more and more: make this year a year you know a richer foretaste of the freedom which we hope for in Christ.