WHAT IS FREEDOM?
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Opening Prayer
God in Heaven, your Word offers me everything I need to live a life pleasing to you. Give me a heart open to receiving and applying its truths.
Read GALATIANS 5:1–12
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Freedom in Christ
5 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.
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Have there been times when having free reign caused you or someone else difficulty?
Having free rein gives a horse the liberty of unrestricted movement. Is this the type of freedom that Paul is highlighting for the Galatians? In the contemporary Western culture in which I live, people pursue freedom, rarely denying themselves any desire. Everything is permissible as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. This is a false type of freedom and not what Paul is alluding to. Paul longs for the Galatians to experience a freedom from the exhausting pursuit of having to do enough to earn the favor of God.
The legalists who have infiltrated the community are advocating that you can have both Jesus and a law relationship with God. As Calvin noted, ‘Whoever wants to have a half-Christ loses the whole.’1 At the root of his argument, as we’ve seen throughout the letter, is Paul’s sorrow that the Galatians were leaving Jesus for the teachings of legalism.
Once again, Paul uses the example of circumcision, noting that, should a man insist on this, then he is beholding to the whole law. Paying your taxes is no defense for a speeding infringement. While Paul’s point is clear, we do detect hope in verse 10. All is not lost, and Paul is confident of two things. First, that those to whom he writes will respond positively to his appeal and, second, that those who are sowing confusion will be judged appropriately. Indeed, Paul’s indignation reaches an apogee as he expresses a desire for those who are insisting on circumcision to take the knife and use it for emasculation—we won’t dwell on this now!
Thank God today that in his mercy he is willing to offer such freedom—but find comfort that his hand is close to the rein should he need to take hold for our protection.
Apply
Ponder the times when you’ve misused the freedom that is yours. Ask God to forgive as necessary and live in the true freedom that is offered.
Closing prayer
Father, give me courage to allow you to take hold of my hand and guide the reins whenever I need you to.
1 Charles Partee, The Theology of John Calvin (Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, 2008), 231
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