Fulfilled
Notes
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Introduction
Introduction
When I was in college, and we started a new class, we would go over the syllabus. The syllabus would not only tell us the purpose and goals of the class, it would also give us the schedule of topics covered in class, as well as the assignments, quizzes, and tests.
And then, there was the grading system. Most students would turn to that page and then back to the work to determine what would be the minimum they needed to do in order to pass the class. For those students, taking the class gave no joy nor was there any passion for learning the subject. They just wanted to pass.
Do we also take the same approach to following Christ?
Body
Body
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
The “you” in this text is emphatic, which highlights them as opposed to the other group.
It’s important to note the context of the book of Galatians. This book is actually a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the group of believers in the province of Galatia.
The church was made up of primarily Gentiles, non-Jews, who recently accepted the call to follow Jesus. But at the time of Paul’s letter, the new believers were on the edge of spiritual collapse.
A group of Jewish Christians tried to convince them that Paul had not told them the whole truth. They told the Gentile Christians that while faith in Jesus was important, it wasn’t enough. If they wanted to be genuine followers of Christ, they would have to be circumcised.
While circumcision is not an issue we’re struggling with today, the heart of the issue is who can be Christian?
It’s not based on ethnicity, culture, or works.
What defines the life of a Christian is faith in God and his promises.
Circumcision was an outward sign of an inward reality: faith in God. What transforms a person into a Christian is an inner circumcision of the heart. The matter of faith, is a matter of the heart.
He summarizes this in Galatians 5:1 “1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
What slavery? Slavery to a legalistic religion that may have modified behavior but did nothing to change the heart. Legalism only serves to lead you further and further from Christ. You are never good enough, obedient enough, strong enough, faithful enough…it’s never enough!
It’s like investing in your retirement. You work hard to make sure that in the end you have enough or more money to retire. You’re worried about putting just enough so that you’ll make it.
That’s not how it works!
But we were set free. John 8:36
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
True freedom is the result of what Christ has done for us. This is Paul’s way of saying, “become what you already are in Christ.”
In Christ, we are free from the bondage a religion that values only what we can do in order to earn salvation.
In Christ, we are free from the condemnation of not being able to measure up to the law.
In Christ, we are free from the fear that God wants to destroy us.
In Christ, we are free to live in goodness of God’s grace.
In Christ, we are free to embrace the beauty of living the law of love!
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
But while freedom sounds good, it also comes with a warning: be careful how you use your freedom.
We have a very interesting relationship with the term and concept of “freedom.” A popular understanding of freedom is the ability to do what you want, without oversight, and without responsibility to anyone else except oneself.
But that is not the freedom we’re called to live. The word that opportunity is translated from Greek, gives the picture of a starting point or a base from which an expedition is launched. Flesh refers to the life centered around pleasing the self.
Paul is telling the believers that they should not use their freedom in Christ as a starting point to indulge in self-centered desires. Instead, those who have found freedom in Christ, should use that freedom to serve others with love.
Love. Yet another word that has a variety of meanings in American English. We have many ways of saying and expressing love, but the Greek language had very specific ways of describing it. In this text, agape is the word that’s used. It’s other-centered love.
In other words, Christ has freed us from self-serving existence, to a life of serving God and others. Galatians 5:14
14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
This is the law that we live by. True Christianity is much more than outward obedience of “doing” the law or following a list of rules. For Paul, the word “fulfill” goes beyond simply doing, it means more than meeting the minimum requirements of the letter of the law. Rather, it encapsulates the intent of the law: love. It’s not an abandonment or a reduction of the law, but true fulfillment.
The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Volume 6 Serve One Another
Love for God finds its highest and best expression in love and service for one’s fellows
15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
If you bite and devour one another - a vivid metaphor that paints a picture of cannibalism. If you don’t love, value, respect, one another, then your recourse would be to take advantage of or control one another like a predator.
How do we bite and devour one another? Gossip, slander, sharp dealing, fighting one another when we have different opinions on non-salvation issues.
A. Don’t use freedom for the flesh
B. Instead use it for love
B’ Love is the summary command
A’ Flesh is seen when you fight with one another
Appeal
Appeal
Are you and I experiencing that freedom in Christ?
Perhaps you grew up in a church or an environment where following Christ was like pushing a boulder up a steep hill - difficult, painful, and told that’s what good Christians do?
That’s not how living free in Christ is supposed to be.
It’s not supposed to be living in constant fear of judgment.
It’s not supposed to be fearing being around other people of God because you’re afraid of what they’ll see about you.
What if I were to tell you that real, authentic Christianity doesn’t bite, it encourages. It doesn’t hurt, it heals.
But none of that is possible, unless you and I make a commitment today to ask Jesus to set us free.
Free from selfish living to selfless living.
Jesus said that the world know that we are His disciples not by being perfect, but being perfected in love. And there’s no better way for us to learn how to love better than being together.
Will you join me now as we pray to ask God to set us free?