Audio Transcript
Happy Memorial Day in the United States, a holiday to celebrate those who gave their lives for our freedom. Everywhere you look, that’s the word you see: freedom. Freedom is a precious gift to be celebrated, but sometimes people talk about it like freedom is a blank check to just do whatever you want. Wake up, do whatever you feel like, no rules. But of course, doing whatever we want will eventually leave us feeling empty and trapped and regretting our decision we made under the influence of “freedom.” It’s a good time to be reading Galatians together, because Paul wants us to talk about freedom in totally new ways. Today on Ask Pastor John: the freedom that kills regret.
Providentially, we are in Galatians 5 in our Bible reading plan right now, in time for this question from Vicky in Edinburgh, Scotland: “Pastor John, thank you for this podcast. I write because in Galatians 5:1 and then again in verses 13–26, Paul teaches that Christians are called to live in the freedom that Christ has won for us, a freedom not to indulge in the flesh but to live by the Spirit. If you are struggling to live free, what do you think it means to be ‘set free’ in Christ? How does freedom in Christ differ from the freedom the world offers, which is basically to do whatever you want, whenever you want to do it? And what does it mean that we are freed in order to love in Galatians 5:13?”
1. Set Free in Christ
I hear three questions. Let’s take them one at a time. First, “What do you think it means to be ‘set free’ in Christ?” Now, that phrase, “set free,” is taken from Galatians 5:1, and so we can get our answer from the context. Here’s verse 1: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” So, what’s the yoke of slavery that we were set free from? Here are the next verses, Galatians 5:2–4:
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.
What does it mean when he says, “If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you”? We know from Galatians 5:6 that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. Paul doesn’t require circumcision. Paul doesn’t require uncircumcision. So, when he says that Christ will be of no advantage to you if you accept circumcision, what he means is if you accept it as a requirement for justification. He says in verse 4, “You are severed from Christ” if you try to be justified by law-keeping — in this case, by circumcision. Why is that? Because if you’re going to base your justification on law-keeping, it’s going to have to be perfect law-keeping. That’s what verse 3 says: “He is obligated to keep the whole law.”
So, the answer to Vicky’s first question is this: To be set free in Christ is to be set free from justification by law-keeping. To be set free from the law means that we do not have to obey the law in order to be justified — that is, to enter into God’s favor. We are justified by faith alone. Galatians 2:16 says,
We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
All of our obedience is not in order to get God’s favor. It is because we are in God’s favor by faith alone. That’s Christian freedom.
2. Wanting God’s Will
The second question Vicky has is this: “How does freedom in Christ differ from the freedom the world offers, which is basically to do whatever you want, whenever you want to do it?” Now, we might be tempted to answer that question, “Well, Christians don’t do whatever they want. They do God’s will.”
But that’s not the way to say it, because it assumes that God’s will and what the Christian wants aren’t the same thing. It assumes that we are always having to do what we don’t want to do. That’s not Christian freedom. That’s the old bondage. The difference between Christian freedom and the freedom of the world is that the world gets to do what it wants, but it is in bondage to want what is not the will of God. That’s their bondage, because whatever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:23).
“Freedom is doing what you want to do and not regretting it in a thousand years, because it was what God wants you to do.”
Non-Christians, by nature, do not love God with all their heart. They don’t love God above all things. Therefore, their behavior is not an expression of love for God, and therefore, it is sinful. When they do what they want, they will regret it, and that’s not freedom. You’re skydiving and you fall. It feels good, but if you don’t have a parachute, it’s going to end badly. But the freedom of a person who is justified by faith comes into being when the Holy Spirit changes that person’s desires to love the will of God so that we can do what we love to do, which is great freedom.
For example, Romans 6:17: “Thanks be to God” — that’s important; God gets the thanks — “that you who were once slaves of sin [which is the opposite of freedom] have become obedient from the heart [that’s the key phrase] to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” So, Paul thanks God, not us, because God is the one who set us free from slavery to loving sin and changed us so that from the heart — that is, from our own accord, from our own desire — we obey God’s will. You could say that Christian freedom is doing what you want to do and not regretting it in a thousand years, because it was what God wanted you to do.
3. Overflow of Love
Vicky’s last question is this: “What does it mean that we are freed in order to love?” In Galatians 5:13 it says, “You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” So, if Christian freedom is doing what you want to do (when what you want to do is what God wants you to do), this makes sense, because love is a summary of what God wants you to do. That’s what the next verse says: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14). But we can go deeper than this.
Why is love the clearest expression of Christian freedom? It’s the same reason that God’s love is the clearest expression of his freedom. God did not create the world or send Jesus to die for sinners because he was under some kind of external obligation, some law outside of him that he had to obey. He was acting in complete freedom. He didn’t have to do it. Doing it was the overflow of his fullness, not to supply something to his deficiency. That’s what freedom is, and that’s what love is. And the very same thing is true of those who are born-again sons of God. Love is the overflow of the fullness of joy in God.
Here’s the picture of love and freedom. In 2 Corinthians 8:2 it says, “In a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy . . . overflowed in a wealth of generosity.” Love is the overflow of joy in God, and joy is the opposite of bondage.
So, Vicky, press on in your quest for Christian freedom. Embrace all that God is for you in Jesus as your supreme treasure. And the result will be that your joy will be your freedom, and your freedom will become love.
