Freedom – Week 10
let’s look down at Galatians 5:1-12
Passage:
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 as 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, 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. (Gal. 5:1-12)
Prayer:
Introduction:
For freedom Christ has set us free;
- This phrase – sums up the ENTIRE first four chapters of Galatians – The literal translation here is “for freedom christ freed you” both the noun and the verb are the word “freedom”. the word freedom is in what is known as an “aorist” tense which in Greek means it refers back to a single completed event. or in other words – with ONE action – ONE event – the cross – Christ has set you free!
- the only shackles you and I wear now are the ones we go and put back on.
- which is why Paul adds the second phrase!
stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (v. 1)
What Paul is addressing is that you while you can’t lose your salvation and freedom in Christ – you can lose your sense of freedom if you live like you are still chained.
- For us to overcome – to live in the freedom that we have been talking about in Christ – here what this text is talking about
He says first you need to recognize where you are stuck.
he calls you to reject what is false.
he calls you to receive what is true.
Recognize where you are stuck:
“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.” (2-4)
The first thing Paul does here – is shine a light on the place where the Galatians are stuck –
the second thing I want to highlight is that this this section here shows why this legalism stuff is so hurtful to your relationship with God – look what he says here – when we fall to legalism – or we walk around carrying the scorecard that Pastor Dave talked about last week – as the determiner for how good or bad we are with God –
- Paul says – when we do that – we are severed from Christ – and – we have fallen from Grace –
what he is saying is that when we base our relationship with God on our performance – of how well we are doing or aren’t doing – or how well others are doing compared to how we are doing – that we aren’t able in those moments to hear the song of grace – or listen to the voice of Jesus speaking the truth over us –
- not because he is not speaking – but because we are tuned into listening to lies and half-truths rather than The Way – The Truth – The Life.
- that’s what happens – And the first thing we have to do in order to change – is we must recognize the lies or false ideas that we have embraced about God.
The first thing we have to experience freedom is recognize where we get stuck – we have to recognize the yokes we are submitting to that are not from Christ –
We have to recognize it – That’s step one – we have recognize the places where we get stuck
Reject what is false and Receive what is True
For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts as 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.
Paul acknowledges the lie – he rejects it – then he replaces it with the truth. look at this – You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
It’s false – he says God doesn’t care if you are circumcised or not – he’s after your heart – God’s love for you wasn’t bought for you because of your scorecard – It was purchased through His!
- Paul rejects the lie – and replaces the lie with truth!
If you want to experience change and live in the freedom that was purchased for you in Christ – you have to reject the lies and receive the truth.
- And sometimes – what this means is in order to reject the lies – we have stop listening to some voices – for the Galatians – that meant they had to stop listening to false teachers – look at this
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, 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.
- The reason why the Galatians were stuck like they were – was because they let in false teachers – and not only in their midst – there’s always going to be bad voices – you will always be around people with bad theology – but what we can’t do is put those voices in places of authority and influence in our life.
- the Galatians had to get rid of these voices.