Sermon Text:
Galatians 5:1-15
All who trust in Jesus have been set free! Because of Jesus we have freedom from our sin, from the judgment against our sin and from having to work to be right with God. Instead, we are given a freedom to serve one another and glorify God.
Sermon Transcript:
(transcribed with AI)
Well, good morning. It is good to be here with you all. Those of you might not know me, my name's Jonathan, privilege of being the pastor here. As you probably have all noticed, we are approaching Remembrance Day this week, and even as Eddie just prayed, this is a day we set aside to remember the sacrifice of those who went before us. The freedoms that we enjoy, the freedoms we have in this country, we remember, actually it came at a very high price.
But as we think about that, let me ask you a question. And that is, are you free? Are you free? I think there's a lot of ways you could answer a question like that. In sort of the spirit of Remembrance Day, we could really think about, hey, we live in a country that has a lot of freedoms. We have a political freedom and the fact that we can vote, we can have our voice heard in that way. We have religious freedom, we can actually meet here, we can gather together, we can worship and talk about Jesus. Praise God for that freedom. We have that. We have a freedom of speech in this country, and you could debate on the merits of all that sort of stuff, but it exists. You could also talk about financial freedom. Are you free from debt? Are you able to actually use the money the way that you would at least want to be using it? There's a lot of ways to answer that question, but I'm gonna argue that's not what we're talking about at all.
I'm asking, are you free? That's a different question altogether. You can live in a free country and still be very much enslaved. You can be trapped in the choices that you've made, maybe you made choices years and years ago that still very much binds what you do today. You can be trapped to your own mind under stress, anxiety, worry, fear, all these things, that's what controls your actions, you are very much trapped in your own mind. You can be trapped and enslaved in addictions. Whether anybody else knows about it or not, your actions might be simply because of addictions that are in your life, very much controlling what you do. You can be trapped and enslaved to your own feelings, whatever you happen to feel at that moment, that's what's coming out and your life is constantly being shifted one way or another based on the circumstance and how you happen to be feeling.
So let me ask you the question, are you free? It's a very different question. And this morning as we open our Bibles, it's really the question that we need to consider. If you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to open to the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter 5 is where we're going to be. And as we've been walking through this book, we've been noticing the apostle Paul here, he's writing to these churches in Galatia. Talking about what has Jesus done, and he's gonna argue that actually in Jesus, we have freedom. That actually genuine freedom comes through knowing God, and he's not talking about political or freedom of speech, he's talking about our spiritual freedom. Because more than anything else, there is a problem in our lives, and that is we are enslaved to our own sin. But the good news is that that's why Jesus came, so that we would actually be free.
So if you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to follow along. It's our tradition here, we stand as we read God's word, so if you're able to, would you stand with me? Galatians chapter 5, we're gonna start reading in verse 1. This is God's word.
For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. 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, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Thus far the reading of God's word, you may be seated.
We are really in a new section of the book of Galatians. If you've been with us since we started this all the way back in September, you might remember that when we started, Paul had a goal as he was writing was, he wanted people to know where did this gospel message come from. Paul had come, he had preached, he had told them about Jesus, and he's kind of defending and saying, this is where it came from. It wasn't me, I didn't just make it up, rather it was God's message. And then having kind of defended that, then he moves on and he starts explaining what is this gospel. What is this good news of Jesus, that we can be saved by faith alone. We don't have to do all the works of the law, and he spends a while unpacking, why did God give us this law? Why did God write the Old Testament and all these different things to do? It was very much to expose our sinfulness. To show how very sinful we are and how much we needed Jesus.
And so now as Paul has sort of made his arguments, he's moving on to the next step, which is, well then, what do we do with it? Having actually been saved by faith, what does that mean for us? And he's gonna argue, we have freedom. We called this series deeply rooted freedom, because that's the point of the book. We are deeply rooted in the gospel of Jesus, and when we are rooted there, we actually have freedom. I know those two things seem contradictory. Being deeply rooted seems like you're gonna stay in one place. Freedom seems like the opposite, and yet in the gospel, that's exactly what we experience. The more we root ourselves in Jesus, the freer we are.
And so actually, in verse one here of chapter 5, Paul very much gives us kind of an outline of what he's gonna talk about. Verse one, he says,
for freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore. And do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
And actually in the following sections, that's what he unpacks just in reverse order. He starts about do not go back into slavery, then how to stand firm, then talking about the freedom we have in Christ. And so this morning as we walk through this text, I want us to see, what is this advantage we have in Jesus, as opposed to the law, what is this advantage we have? So let's stand firm in that and live in the freedom of Christ. God has called us to the freedom of Christ, let us hold on to it, not giving up the gospel of Jesus.
But let's start off here, just the advantage of Christ. You'll see it right there, verse 2. It says,
look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
Once again, Paul here, he's addressing these false teachers that were in the church. They were saying, hey, if you want to be a real Christian, yes, you have to believe in Jesus, but you also have to do all these other things. You also have to follow all these Old Testament laws, one of them being circumcision. Trust in Jesus, yeah, that's good, but it's not enough. This very much goes right against what Paul has been teaching, right against the whole message of the gospel, and this is why Paul is so forceful about this. His point is, look, if you try and keep all these Old Testament laws, if you say this is what I have to do to be right with God, if you accept circumcision. Than Jesus, his sacrifice on the cross, the salvation he has accomplished, his resurrection, your faith, all of that is worth nothing.
Why? Verse 3,
I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
Paul's made this point already earlier in the book of Galatians, but his point is, look, if you're gonna say, I have to follow the law, OK, great, then you have to follow all of it. You can't just take one little section that you like. No, in fact, you have to hold all of it. Galatians 3, he wrote.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it's written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.
So Paul's been asking them, do you think you're really able to do everything? No one has so far, no one's been able to keep all of this, not except Jesus. And so you can't just chop it up and say, well, this part, this part's really important. The other part's not so much. No, you gotta keep the whole thing or none of it.
Romans 2, Paul again writes, he says,
for circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law. But if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.
You break the law, you've broken all of it. You keep the law, you've gotta keep all of it. Can you really live your whole life without breaking any of them? Every single day, every single moment for the rest of your life, you'd have to be perfect. Can't actually do that.
And even more problematically, what Paul says is, you would be cut off from Jesus. Verse 4.
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you've fallen away from grace.
Paul is warning them, look, if that's what you are going to do, you need to understand how very serious it is. It is cutting yourself off from Jesus. Trusting in what you can do is severing yourself from grace.
In fact, this is exactly what Paul even preaches. Acts chapter 13, Paul's actually just outside of Galatia, about to enter in. He says,
let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
Paul's been preaching this from the very beginning. You trust in Jesus, and that is freedom from the law, freedom from trying to do everything yourself.
And so here's the point I want us to see. You either trust in Jesus or you don't. In one sense, that's exactly what Paul is saying. He's saying, look, you can't just halfway trust in Jesus. You can't say, well I trust in Jesus, but I'm also gonna make sure I'm doing some other things at the same time, just to kind of cover all of my bases. I'm gonna be a good person and then trust in Jesus, that's like my insurance policy. Paul goes, no. That's not how it works. It's very much one or the other. You either trust Jesus or you don't. Paul is really very much trying to call them to make this choice.
In fact, Jesus himself puts it this way, he says,
whoever is not with me, is against me. Whoever does not gather with me, scatters.
He says, look, you either trust me or you don't. There's no halfway, there's no sitting on the fence when it comes to Jesus, there's no adding Jesus into your life, just a little bit to trust in Jesus is to wholly, completely bring nothing to the table, but recognize my only hope is trusting in what Jesus can do. That's all I have.
Think about it this way If you're gonna get on an airplane, you actually have to trust that airplane. And actually you can't halfway trust, can you? If you try and halfway trust, you try and put 1 ft in an airplane, 1 ft, keep it on the ground, guess what, it's not gonna be very long until you are crashing and burning. It doesn't work that way, you either trust or you don't. Potentially this is what Jesus is saying. To trust in Jesus is to accept the fact that we cannot do it on our own, that we have sinned before God, unable to earn his favor, and the only way to be right with God is by trust in him. What Jesus has done on the cross has made a way for us to be saved. That is it, that is my only hope.
In fact, that's exactly what Paul reminds us, verse 5. He says,
for through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Our hope of righteousness. And notice here he's talking about a future hope. This is the hope that Paul has, that when he stands before God on that final day, when we all will stand before God and face the judgment of our sins, our whole lives will be laid out before us. Every single thought, deed, action or intention of our heart will be plain for everyone to see.
We will see finally and clearly just how foolish we have been through this life, how very little we have to bring before God. Our greatest of accomplishments will be so pale next to the glory of God that we shall be ashamed of the very greatest moments of our life. On that day, Paul says, my only hope is Jesus. My only hope is that Jesus would see my record of sin, all of the wrongdoing that I have done, and he shall say, I know that already, I have forgiven him. That's the hope we have in Christ. That is the day that we are longing for, that we are looking forward to, and that is why any attempt that we would ever have to try and earn our way to God is so foolish. Because it will do nothing. Our works on that day will do nothing but condemn ourselves. The advantage of Christ is we are saved by grace. We are saved because Jesus did everything, not us.
Don't sit on the fence. Don't sit on the fence when it comes to Jesus, don't play around with church, saying I've done enough good things, I'm sure being here in church counts for something. On that final day, you either will trust in Jesus or trust in yourself. Place your trust in him, share the invitation to come and be part of the grace of God. Do not miss the advantage of Christ, the security of our salvation, the completed work of Christ. It's not about what we can do, it is about what Christ has done.
This is why Paul writes in verse one, do not submit to a yoke of slavery. Don't turn back, don't go into any of that, that is ignoring the advantage of Christ, rather, stand firm in Christ.
Verse 7, he says,
you were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
Paul was there when they started. He's like, you were doing well. You were getting it, you were trusting in Jesus, and then something happened, somebody came in and they started convincing you of other things. They began to listen to people who taught a different gospel. Now here's the thing, I am, I mean I don't know cos I wasn't there, but I am sure that none of them walked in and say, hey, I have some false doctrine I'd like to teach. No. Of course they didn't say that. They just said, oh. What about, what about this little thing? What about this little change? Yeah, yeah, we need to trust in Jesus, but, but what about, but what about this also? It was always started with a little bit, verse 9,
a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Paul uses here, just a very common biblical analogy of bread. If you make bread, all you need is a little bit of yeast and the whole dough rises. That's what Paul is saying. Little change, little difference, and it makes a big impact. You're saved by faith. But you also need to speak in tongues. You're saved by faith, but you also need to do all the sacraments. You're saved by faith, but you also have to be baptized. I want you to be baptized. Jesus calls us to be baptized as a sign of our faith, but let's also be very clear that baptism does not save. No one's saved because they got baptized. No one is held away from salvation because they haven't. The thief on the cross did nothing. He had not time to be baptized nor do any good work, he was dying on the cross next to Jesus, and as soon as he trusted Jesus said,
you will be with me in paradise.
Don't get caught up in the lies that want to add just a little bit. Stand firm in the gospel, let us be rid of anything that would cause us to fall away from Christ.
Paul here says verse 10,
I have confidence in the Lord, you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you, you will, who will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
Paul says, actually there's a penalty for those who are teaching false doctrine in the church. I think he probably is thinking a little bit about church discipline. His language is very similar to 1 Corinthians 5, where he walks through all of that. But actually I think he might have a bigger one in mind too. Jesus himself says. He says,
but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin. It would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Jesus saying, it would, if you teach someone to go into sin, your punishment will be worse than drowning. God does not deal kindly with those who represent Him and teach others to sin.
And so Paul says, look, I'd rather face the opposition of people than the opposition of God. Verse 11, he says,
but if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted?
Paul was being opposed by by these very sort of Jewish opposition. And so he said, look, if I, if I was agreeing with that, I wouldn't be being attacked. And actually Judaism was, was protected in the Roman Empire, so even the Romans wouldn't be after him. But what does Paul say, I would rather preach the gospel, stand firm in it and face that opposition.
In fact, verse 12, he says,
I wish those who would, who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.
And here's probably Paul's harshest words in the book. Paul says, look, if you love circumcision so much, don't even stop at the tip, just take it all the way off. OK, that's what he's saying. Now Paul's probably actually also playing on the fact that in Galatia there were pagan priests who did that, who would castrate themselves to show their devotion, and Paul's saying it would be just as much value. Don't go back into this. Paul uses a very extreme example to make his point, cause he needs them to recognize just how futile it would be to turn from the gospel. All you do is go back into slavery.
So what does he say, verse one, stand firm therefore. Recognize there will be temptations. Stand firm. Stand firm in the gospel and be rid of whatever would pull you away, and in fact, I might even go a step further and say, and support and encourage and build one another up in it. Paul writes in Philippians. He says
only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come see you or I'm absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit and with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
Hear me, we need one another to do this. We're not called to go through the Christian life alone, in fact, we need one another to encourage us to stand firm in the gospel, to hold one another accountable, to care for one another. This is where things get messy, it is where things get uncomfortable, and it's also where it's good. Stand firm in Christ.
Paul's concern for the Galatians is that they would not ignore the advantage they have in Christ, that they would stand in the gospel because they have freedom in Christ. Now, here is really the point. This is why Paul has been warning them so much. This is what he's trying to help them understand. They actually have this freedom in Christ. Verse one, he says,
for freedom, Christ has set us free.
Christ sets us free for the purpose of us having freedom. Freedom is the goal.
I want us to understand this because it's so easy for us to get lost in all the tangents of what we might mean by this freedom. We get lost in the political and the sociological freedoms, but rather Paul is talking about a spiritual freedom that is far greater than anything else. It is a freedom from sin, and it is a freedom to God. Away from what would kill us and to use our freedom for the glory of God.
He says we are free from sin. Christ has set us free, from its ability to enslave, from the condemnation, the punishment over us. Outside of Christ, we stand under God's judgment, because of our sin, we stand condemned. We have done what is wrong, God knows it, he has seen all of it, he has a record of everything that we have ever done, there is nothing hidden from God, and he promises one day he will deal with all evil. So we already know what the judgment is, we stand condemned under our sin. But Jesus came to deal with that. He came to take that punishment in our place, so that we would have freedom.
Romans 8. It says
there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
We are free from condemnation of God's judgment, not because we've done anything, but because of what Jesus has done. There is no condemnation. Jesus didn't pay for most of our sins, he paid for all of our sins. So every time your conscience starts to work on your mind, every time you're laying awake at night thinking about all the things that you should not have done or said, and your stomach is twisting into a knot, thinking over. How guilty you are, you bring all of that to the cross of Jesus and you lay it down there because he has dealt with all of our sins.
All of our guilt, all of our shame lies dead there at the cross. We do not carry it any longer. You wanna know what freedom looks like? It is freedom from the guilt of our sins. Hear me, some of you are carrying around so much guilt. You are carrying around guilt of the past that you have not been able to let go. And some of you might be even saying in your own mind, you know what, I believe that God can forgive me, but I'm not sure I can forgive myself. Is your judgment greater than God's? Do you know more than he does? Is your sin greater than the forgiveness of Jesus? Hear me, do not dishonor the death of Jesus by hanging on to the guilt he has already forgiven. You are free. We have a freedom in Christ, free from the condemnation of my sins.
Secondly, we are free from the bondage of our sins. Paul's been writing about this all throughout Galatians. How everything outside of Christ, all our sin leads us to this bondage, sin holds us down, but in Jesus we are free from it. Romans 6 says,
we know that our old self was crucified with him. In order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For no one who has died, sorry, for one who has died has been set free from sin.
When we place our faith in Christ, we are united to him. That means we died with him, that means we rose with him, that means we actually do have a new life in Christ. Our slavery under sin has ended.
Every once in a while you probably have heard these stories of somebody who has faked their own death. They try and fake their own death and try and go off and live in a, in, in the woods, in a forest, wherever it is, get a new country. But why do they do that? Well, it's because they feel trapped. I'm trapped by my debts, I'm trapped in a relationship, I'm trapped in a job, whatever it happens to be, I am trapped under something, and so I'm going to fake my own death, prove that I've died, in order that I might live somewhere else. Free of those things. Hear me, in a far greater and truer way, that is what happens to us in Christ. Our old life is dead. All the debts that came with it, all the slavery over it, it's dead and gone. We have a new life in Christ. We have freedom now, so live like you are free.
How foolish would it be for someone to fake their own death only to show up at work on Monday morning? I'd be looking at me, wait, you're not supposed to be here. No, you're supposed to be dead. Exactly. Christian, don't go back to your sin. Jesus has set us free, and hear me, I know that in this life, sin hangs on, OK? We are not perfect people yet. When we come to heaven, then we shall fully experience the freedom from sin entirely, where every impulse of our heart and mind shall be glorifying to God and good in all ways. I cannot wait for that time when that fight against sin is over, but right now, please recognize we still have that freedom too.
Now hear me, you might still have sin in your life. Might have some pretty deep holds, habits, routines, addictions that are holding you down. And we do actually, we need to deal with them, we need to fight against them. But we do so having been set free by Jesus. Here's the difference. Imagine you are, you are tasked with cleaning up a river. OK, it's a river, and, and you kind of wade into it, and there's just garbage everywhere. And so you're, you're pulling out the garbage out of this river, you're, you're tossing it on the side, and every time you turn back around, more garbage is just sweeping down the river. And every time you're pulling it out, pulling it out, pulling it out, more just keeps coming, keeps coming, keeps coming. And finally you find out, well it's because there's a landfill, like just upstream, that is just dumping all of this garbage into the stream. So tell me, when are you gonna be done your job? Never. You're never gonna, you're never gonna finish that job, you will be enslaved to that job forever, because the source just keeps on dumping more and more and more. Everything you pull out will get replaced.
What Jesus does is he comes along and he deals with the source. Actually there's no more dumping in. So yes, do we have to pull out some of the garbage from our lives? Yeah, we do. But as we do so, what we find is, instead of more and more and more constantly replacing it, rather we find we are getting freedom. More and more and more, and yes we will spend the rest of our lives going through that river and dredging out more than we ever thought was possible, and yet as we do so we will find greater and greater freedom in Christ because he's dealt with our sin. There is no more sin over us. Fight for the freedom Christ has given you. Don't go back to your chains. We have the freedom from the punishment of our sins, from the bondage of our sins, and Christ frees us from having to work for our salvation.
Again, we've seen this over and over in Galatians. It's not about what we can do, it's about what Jesus has done. We are free to rest in Christ. And hear me, please understand how beautiful that is. We don't have to come to God and say, alright, God, I, I did, I did all my chores, I did everything. Can I please sit down now? Will you please be happy with me now? If I've, if I've read my Bible, I've prayed, I shared with 5 people today, certainly, now you'll accept me, right? That's not how God is working. What does Jesus say?
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden is light.
As opposed to this yoke of sin, this, this binding us to sin, that is dragging us into slavery, Jesus says, come, bring my yoke over you, it is light and easy, you will have rest for your souls. Look, the anxiety of working constantly for God's approval kills us. Come to Jesus, we find rest and are freed from the rat race of seeking God's approval. We are free. Free from punishment, free from bondage, free from working for our salvation.
And yet that's just the tip of the iceberg. We are free from anxiety because we know that we can bring everything to God and he cares for us. We can be free from worry because we know that God holds the future and will work all things for his glory and our good. Free from fear because we know that God holds all power and will not abandon us. We are free from seeking the approval of others because God has approved us. We are free. From the void of the present because this is not our home. We are freed from greed that tells us we never have enough, from lust that is never satisfied, free from pride that destroys relationships, free from guilt, free from shame, free from despair in a meaningless world because God has put us here for a purpose.
Do you not understand the freedom we have in Christ is unlike anything else on this entire planet. We have the freedom of Christ. Because Jesus has set us free. And hear me, I'm not done. In fact, there's one more thing. In Christ we have a freedom now to follow him. In fact, this is exactly what Paul gets to verse 13. He says,
for you are called to freedom, brothers. Only don't use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.
Paul says, now that you are free, you've been freed from all this sin, what are you to do? He says, don't, don't pull a U-turn and go back into your sin, that's not why God set you free.
In fact, Peter even says the same thing. He says
live as people who are free. Not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God.
God has saved us, not so we go back into sin, but so that what does Paul say, through love serve one another. You're given freedom, so now you can actually honor God and bless one another. Verse 14 says,
for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Here's the amazing thing, what are we supposed to do with our freedom? Paul's just spent chapters telling us it's not about what we do, it's not about all doing all the things of the law, and then what does he say we're supposed to use our freedom to do? Fulfill the law. Actually, honor God, love God, love one another. Our freedom is for the purpose of actually following God and blessing one another. That's why God called us.
Verse 15, he says,
but if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you're not consumed by one another.
You're constantly backstabbing, you're gonna find yourself stabbed in the back. You're constantly attacking others, you'll be attacked. Don't go back to that. Use your freedom to glorify God and love one another. In fact, the rest of the book is really just that point. How do we use this freedom we have in Christ? How do we follow the Holy Spirit to honor God and love our brothers and sisters? We've been set free from the punishment of our sins, from the bondage of sin, from working for our salvation, from worry, anxiety, fear, so that we can use our freedom to bless one another. Praise God, we are free.
So do not ignore the advantage of Christ. He has accomplished our salvation. Do not turn away, but stand firm in it. Side by side, let us seek the truth of the gospel, so that we might glorify God in our freedom.
For freedom Christ has set us free.
Let's pray together.
Oh heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much. Lord, we thank you for the freedom that we get to experience in Christ. Thank you that you have sent him to deal with our sins, not a little bit, but completely, that all our sins were taken on the cross, that we have a new life in Christ, that we get to experience the freedom of knowing you. That we can rest in what you have done, that we can follow you with hearts now aligned to seek your glory. Father, I pray by your Holy Spirit, continue to work in our lives that you might be glorified, that your love might be seen in this place. We ask all these things in your name. Amen.