FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. – Galatians 5:1.

There is probably no word in the Christian vocabulary that has been more misunderstood or abused than this one word, freedom (unless perchance, it’s the word love). What did Paul mean by freedom? First, he was not talking about political freedom. However much we Americans may believe on the basis of natural law that God has endowed all persons with certain inalienable rights, including that of political liberty, Paul provided no basis for the kind of philosophy articulated in our Declaration of Independence. Even less was Paul referring to that freedom in a psychological sense. Emotional and mental health is a desirable goal, and certain therapeutic techniques developed in the modern world may be quite compatible with New Testament Christianity. However, Christian freedom is not “an innate quality or state of being which the individual discovers (or recovers) by sorting out past experiences and relationships. It is a gift bestowed as a result of Good Friday and Easter.”

Finally, Paul did not expound through Christian freedom the right to advocate theological anarchy within the confines of the believing community. A church that is unable to define and maintain the doctrinal boundaries of its own fellowship or, even worse, that no longer thinks this is a task worth doing, is a church that has lost its soul. The proclamation of the whole counsel of God involves identifying and saying no to those forms of teaching that, if carried out consistently, would threaten the truth of divine revelation itself. This is one of the most serious issues facing the contemporary and modern church today. We can err deeply by either drawing the boundaries too tightly or by refusing to draw them at all. On the one hand, we lapse into legalism, as many today do; on the other, into relativism, as many more in this age do.

We will not go astray if we remember that for Paul, Christian liberty was always grounded on the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ on the one hand and with the community of faith on the other as led and directed by the Holy Spirit. Outside of Jesus Christ, human existence is characterized as bondage, and slavery, bondage to the law, bondage to the evil elements dominating the world, bondage to sin, the flesh, and the devil. God sent his Son into the world to shatter the dominion of these slaveholders. Now God has sent his Spirit into the hearts of believers to awaken them to new life and liberation found only in Christ.

When the Galatians first received the Spirit of God, they also received the gift of freedom, as Paul made clear in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” When Paul listed the various graces included in the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22–23), freedom was not included among these desirable virtues. This is because freedom is already presupposed in each one of them. Thus the fruit of the Spirit is freedom, freedom to love, to exude joy, to manifest peace, to display patience, and so on. It is “for freedom” that Christ has set us free. This means that Christian liberty is freedom for others, freedom that finds its true expression not in theological privatism (“I am free to believe anything I choose”) or spiritual narcissism (“I am free to be myself no matter what”) but rather freedom to love and serve one another in the context of the Body of Christ.

Evidently one of the major problems among the churches of Galatia was that believers there did not know what to do with their Christ-won freedom. Some were using their liberty as a pretext for license, to the gratification of their sinful nature. Others were “Lone-Ranger” Christians, having forgotten the mandate to bear one another’s burdens. Still others had fallen into discord and faction, backbiting and self-promotion. Thus in these closing two chapters Paul summoned the Galatians to a mature use of their spiritual birthright, reminding them that it is love, the love of Christ shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, that brings liberty to its fullest expression.

It is in that love, and in the love of Christ alone that we can stand firm in our freedom.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible®, NASB © 2020 by The Lockman Foundation.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. – Galatians 5:1.

If Galatians is the esteemed charter of Christian liberty, then Galatians 5:1 should most certainly be considered one of the key verses of the epistle. With the language of freedom and slavery still ringing in their ears from the analogy of Hagar and Sarah given in previous verses, the Galatians are now told by Paul: “Plant your feet firmly therefore within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves be caught again in the shackles of slavery” (Phillips). This verse contains both an assertion, “For freedom . . . Christ has set us free,” and a command based upon it, “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

The contrast of an indicative followed by an imperative is a common grammatical feature in Paul’s writings, as we see in much of his letters. The imperative, “Stand firm,” not only does not contradict the indicative, “Christ has set us free,” but in fact results from it. Because of who God is and what he has done for believers in Jesus Christ, Christians are commanded to “become what they are,” that is, to make visibly apparent in the earthly realm of their human existence that which God has already declared and sealed in the divine verdict of justification. When this enduring connection is forgotten or downplayed, the temptation for the believer, the disciple of Christ, to lapse into legalism on the one hand or into abject wantonness on the other, it then becomes a serious threat to Christian freedom/liberty.

The structure of the indicative/imperative formula in Paul also relates to the salvation-historical situation of the believer who must live out the Christian life in the eschatological (end times doctrine) tension between the No Longer and the Not Yet of this “present evil age” (Galatians 1:4). We have seen Paul struggling with this tension throughout Galatians, and it continues to shape his moral instructions found throughout the chapters of Galatians 5–6.

As the late German Protestant theologian, Walter Grundmann, has written:

“The Christian stands in the tension of a double reality. Basically freed from sin, redeemed, and reconciled . . . [yet] he is actually at war with sin, threatened, attacked and placed in jeopardy by it.”

The fact of justification propels the Christian into a world of struggle, an in-between time bounded by the great accomplishment of redemption in Christ’s finished work on the cross on the one hand and the yet-to-be-realized consummation of God’s redemptive purposes at the second advent of Christ on the other. In this real world of struggle and temptation, the sham gods of this present evil world, war against the people of God, ever seeking to subject them again to the yoke of bondage.

By the power of the Holy Spirit and His anointing, however, Christian believers are enabled and empowered to “stand firm” against the encroachment of such demonic forces. The indicative of their Christ-won freedom secures the imperative of their Spirit-led obedience and victory.

In the words of the Dutch theologian, Herman Ridderbos:

“Indicative and imperative [grammatical features] are both the object of faith, on the one hand in its receptivity, on the other in its activity. . . . The indicative represents the ‘already’ as well as the ‘not yet.’ The imperative is likewise focused on the one as well as the other.”

On the basis of the No Longer, Paul could say to believers that all things are theirs, and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (see 1 Corinthians 3:22–23). On the basis of the Not Yet, he could command, forbid, warn, and even threaten, as he did here in Galatians 5–6. The object of Paul’s ethical and moral exhortations, then, is not just a final justification, as if the first application did not quite take, but rather an imperative towards the Christians’ growth in grace, their call to holiness, sanctification, and new life in Christ.

Christian freedom is the precious birthright of every believer, “An inestimable blessing,” Calvin called it, “for which we should fight even to the death. For we are not talking here about our hearths but about our altars.”

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible®, NASB © 2020 by The Lockman Foundation.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Matthew 16:13-25

3. The Singular Way in Which the Church Does Its Work

Immediately after announcing how He would build His church, Jesus explained that He must die and be resurrected. Not fully understanding, Peter objected. Jesus rebuked him and then announced the eternal principal for building a great Spirit-filled church: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).

A. Self-denial

The church prevails and is invincible when we deny self. This means that we enthrone Christ as we dethrone ourself. Christians should remember that we never bless unless we bleed. A candle never gives light until it is consumed. Water does not become steam until it is put under 212 degrees of heat. Grapes have to be crushed before they become juice. Wheat has to be ground before it becomes bread. Christ is the Savior because He died on the cross. Jesus taught that self-denial is the key that opens the door to success in Christian service.

B. Cross-bearing

Our Lord taught that the church prevails when we take up our cross. The Christian life is the sacrificial life. Luke, in his Gospel, added one word to this command: “Let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily” (Luke 9:23, italics mine). A life lived in the constant hourly awareness of the demands of God and the needs of others is more important than moments of sacrifice.

The great Christian Missionary, Sundar Singh was traveling with a Tibetan companion on a bitterly cold day. As they trudged through the mountain, they felt they could not survive the terrible experience. Reaching a steep precipice, they saw a man who had slipped over the edge. The man was almost dead on the ledge of the rock below. Sundar immediately went down to try to help the poor fellow to safety. The companion refused to help saying that it would be all they could do to save themselves and went on, leaving Sundar behind.

With great difficulty, Sundar managed to get the dying man up the slope and back on the road. He struggled along, holding the man up. Before long, they came upon the body of his former companion. The Tibetan was frozen to death.

On struggled Sundar, and gradually the dying man, receiving warmth from the friction of his body against that of his rescuer, began to revive. Sundar himself grew warm through his labor. At last, they reached the village and were safe. With a full heart, Sundar thought of the words of the Master, “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

The church will prevail and remain invincible only as we follow Christ. Jesus said, “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19; Mark 2:14) The Christian must render to Jesus Christ perfect obedience.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.