What Is Freedom In Christ? – Pt.2

Read

Galatians 5:13–15 (ESV)

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.

Opening Prayer

Recap

So, I want to summarize a few things from last week...

And then go from where I stopped.

We left off last Sunday defining Christian Freedom.

Christian Freedom is a result of justification.

Because...

The Gospel Frees Us from the Exact-ment of Doing

Galatians 5:13 (ESV)

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers.

The doctrine of justification frees a person from the exact-ment of the Law...

We can pursue obedience to God...

Without worrying about being kicked out of covenant with Christ.

So, what does that mean?

It means in Christ we can pursue obedience...

And, God has graciously ordained that obedience is the context of our greatest joy...

And, failing or imperfect obedience does not result in exile.

Failing does not result in a court room notice of appearance.

We’re righteous in Christ...

So, Justification removes the penalty of Law-breaking.

How?

The gospel declares that By Faith...

The perfect righteousness of Christ...

And, the atoning work of Christ on the Cross...

Is imputed to our account.

What Christ did is credited to our account...

As if we did it our self.

But, the work of the HS in our life does not stop at justification.

We cannot, nor does Scripture allow us to stop there.

We have been given a new heart that loves the Law of God...

And, so, now as new creatures in Christ...

We delight in the law of God.

We pursue obedience out of love for God...

And love for the Law...

Because the Law shows us what pleases God.

-----Pick Up From Last Week-----

Now, and we must preach this truth to ourselves every day.

We do not pursue obedience for the purpose of earning.

Grace is in opposition to earning.

Grace is not in opposition to obedience out of love.

Now the Hyper-Grace movement that I spoke about last Sunday…

I don’t know how many of you were even aware of it...

But as a pastor it is a responsibility to not only guard from deception by teaching the truth...

But also point out deceptions that are popular.

Counterfeit money is spotted in two ways:

Knowing what a real bill looks like.

Knowing what the current circulating counterfeit bills look like.

The Hyper-Grace movement eventually started stating that we don’t need to think about, worry about, get caught up in obedience.

Sanctification, rather than being given its proper place...

Started getting pushed down to an unbiblical, irrelevant status.

So, that it started being stated, if you preach commands you’re a legalist.

If you preach repentance, commands to a Christian audience...

You’re legalists and are you’re harming the church.

This is false and unbiblical.

Galatians 5:13–14 (ESV)

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.”

Command:

serve one another through love

A command from the moral law...

And, Paul is saying do this.

You cannot read the NT, including the epistles without reading plenty of commands and warnings.

And, by the way, the epistles are written to churches, gathered Christians.

But, and I repeat, commands to live a certain way are not given in the NT epistles for the purpose of saying do these or be exiled from the new covenant.

That would be a foreign idea to the apostles.

But, the commands are given to help inform us, as Christians, what pleases God...

And, in are ongoing battle against sin...

Where we still battle with temptation...

And, we still battle justifying our sinful behavior...

And, we still do what we don’t want to do...

We need those reminders.

Because, as Christians:

We can be ignorant of the commands.

We can be forgetful of the commands.

We can be in denial of the commands.

And, we are called to serve one another...

And, bear burdens with one another for the honor of the Lord...

And, for the Christian joy of one another.

Let me insert, that in this passage it is critical to understand the difference between moral law and positive law.

Because circumcision, ceremonial laws are positive and God has done away with those within the Mosaic covenant.

But, love your neighbor as yourself is moral law...

And, it is universal and binding on everyone for all time.

For us, as Christians, and I go back to what I said earlier.

The moral law has been kept perfectly on our behalf by Christ...

So, that the exact-ment of the moral law of God has been completed for us.

So, one might ask, “Why pursue obedience?”

We pursue obedience because it is the context in which God has ordained our greatest pleasure in Him.

And, we pursue obedience because it is the context in which God has ordained our greatest joy, happiness, and satisfaction in life.

And, one day all of it will be enjoyed without the hindrance of sin.

Christian freedom is not freedom from caring about sin.

Christian freedom is not freedom from caring about becoming more like Christ.

Christian freedom is the freedom to pursue being like Christ in imitation.

Human beings are truly free when they are no longer under the dominion of natural desires.

To be able to live out your new nature.

We have been created in the image of God.

The Fall of Adam marred that image in every human being...

And, in Christ, that image is being restored in the inner man.

So, our freedom has been restored so that we are to imitate God.

God always lives according to His nature.

It’s not as if God wants to sin, but He’s just really good about resisting.

No, His nature is holy and righteous.

He does not sin, because He cannot sin.

He cannot lie, Scripture tells us.

He cannot sin. He cannot be the author of sin.

He does not tempt us to sin.

To sin, would go against God’s perfect, holy, righteous nature.

Theologically, we call the freedom taught in Scripture as Compatibilist Freedom.

God’s freedom is compatible with His nature.

God’s nature is perfectly righteous, and immutable.

Therefore, God doing what He pleases...

Equates God always acting righteously.

Applied to mankind, a person’s freedom is compatible with their nature.

After the Fall, and outside of Christ, we have a fallen nature and so our freedom is compatible to our fallen nature.

Hence, we sin because we have a fallen sinful nature.

We sin because we’re sinners.

Our new Christian freedom is due to justification...

And, our being given a new inner nature.

We are a new creation.

We have a new inner being through regeneration.

And what holds us back from perfect obedience, Paul says...

Is the outer man that is wasting away...

That causes us, Rom. 7, to do what we don’t want to...

And, not do what we want to do.

And, Paul concludes with the fix for this...

And the fix, is being delivered from this body of death.

In glory, we will be given a new body.

And, we will be in a state in which we cannot sin.

That is the future, glorified state of what we long for in the consummation.

That will be the state and condition of our eternal life after the consummation.

Now, we fumble around in our pursuit of holiness in this life as Christians...

But, we still pursue it.

And, we pursue holiness within the parameters of freedom from the exact-ment of the Law.

Freedom in Christ is for the Pursuit of Imitating Christ

Think about the new covenant.

What was God going to do in the new covenant?

He was going to give you a new heart or a new spirit.

Jeremiah stated, “He's going to write the law on your heart.”

What's the point there?

God will do this for all the people in covenant with Christ...

You will want to do what you ought to do.

Remember, not perfectly in this life.

We’re still battling sin.

But, many Christians today are trying to assure struggling Christians by saying, “You don't need to worry about ‘what you ought to do’ anymore.

You don't need to worry about commands anymore.

But Paul says, “No, no, no.”

That's not how Christian freedom works.

Galatians 5:13 (ESV)

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.

Paul is saying the freedom you have in Christ is not for the pursuit of things that bring God displeasure.

The freedom you have in Christ is not so that you can relish in the things that are the very reason the wrath of God is coming.

Christian freedom is supposed to mirror the same freedom that God expresses.

Christian freedom does not put at war the doctrine of justification...

With the doctrine of sanctification.

They’re complementary.

They’re both wrought by the grace of God.

Without justification there would be no sanctification...

And, because there is justification...

There is sanctification.

And, joy in sanctification...

With all its hills and valleys...

Can only be sustained by the knowledge of our full justification in Christ.

Take Away

As we get into the part of this epistle that is teaching sanctification...

We need to remember this truth...

A truth that we must preach to ourselves every day.

That truth is this...

Anything you think you need to do...

Which adds to the finished work of Christ on your behalf...

In order to make yourself right with God...

Is a works salvation. A false gospel.

The gospel denies all boasting.

Your only claim to being right with God...

Is to claim what Another (Jesus) did, fully and completely, on your behalf.

And because of our justification...

And, through the regenerating work of the HS in us...

And, through the knowledge of all the we have in Jesus...

And, through the knowledge of what our Savior delights in...

We imitate Him.

And, here’s the joy of imitation within the gospel...

And, within a position of being justified...

We are pursuing imitating Christ...

With the freedom to fail and not be exiled.

Why?

Because the covenant has been kept on your behalf by the Federal Head of the covenant, JC.

And, you lay hold of Jesus, by faith alone.

Closing Prayer