Freedom in Christ

​Galatians 5:1 ~ “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
 
There is a liberty of life given through the hard-fought war against tyranny, a liberty that millions enjoy and multitudes desire. However, I am not speaking of the great freedom that was won through the determined men of the colonies, now known as the United States of America. This freedom that I speak of today, this liberty that all of mankind need, is the deliverance from the tyranny of sin. Every person who has ever lived suffered under the yoke of such oppression. For the majority of the world, however, that slavery to sin is one that is willingly accepted and, by many, desired. Jesus said in John 8:34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
 
There are those who deny their enslavement, loving their sins and embracing them as if they were what demonstrated their liberty. But, to give you an illustration, imagine being imprisoned and yet walking around the jailhouse as if you were at liberty. You are, but only so far, for you cannot escape the prison. This world is a comfortable prison, but it is only the holding cell for all who are waiting final judgment and then punishment. Once a person realizes that they are enslaved to the dread master of sin, they know that there is a terrible end awaiting. At this point, there are those who will try to work a strategy of effort to find a way to deliver themselves from the coming judgment of God. Through religious effort, even as Paul described in Galatians 5:2, they hope to procure for themselves liberty from sin. Paul illuminates this in Romans 10:3, “For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.” And for those who recognize that such efforts will only fail, that is when they cry out for the deliverance and liberty of Christ.
 
And so we come to our text today, that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. And what a freedom it is. We are meant to walk at liberty in a world that is bound in sin. True freedom does not mean that we can do whatever pleases our carnal or fleshly desires. It means that the shackles of sin have been severed and we are no longer bound over to that which is reprehensible to God. Jesus as come to set the captives free, as it says in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” But, beloved, I caution you not to define oppression and liberty based on the understanding of this world, but from the perspective of the LORD. For the world looks upon slavery and oppression as a man-caused condition against an individual or group that is detrimental to basic human life and dignity. But the oppression of sin and the slavery of our own depravity is what God sees, and it is that for which Christ died in order to set the captives free. He didn’t merely break us out of our rightful incarceration, the LORD paid the penalty so that we could be justly released from God’s judgment and be set free from the controlling power of sin.
 
And, being set free, we are now commanded to “stand firm” and not to submit ourselves again to slavery. To what slavery would we submit ourselves again? To the slavery of human effort, believing that we could deliver ourselves from the bondage of sin through our own work and determination. Dear ones, you must understand that the depravity of mankind is so great, that no effort of our own would ever be able to breach the walls of God’s righteous judgment and deliver us from the condemnation deserved. We must be delivered by another, and not to be yoked to anything that keeps us bound to this world. And for that reason, it required the willing sacrifice of Christ Jesus to set us free.
 
So, on this day when so many celebrate the liberty won against the tyranny of human oppression, let us also remember the liberty won by Jesus Christ and submit ourselves to Him for the pardon He promised and the eternal life He will provide.
 
In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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