In Christ Alone (Part 3) Series

In Christ Alone (Part III)

Galatians 2:17-21

Many years ago in New Orleans, and an attractive young 17 year old Negro girl, was being sold at a slave auction. She had been taken from her parents and was very bitter over the whole experience. When she was turned over to the highest bidder and he came to take her, she said defiantly, “Well, what are you gong to do with me?” Much to her surprise, her new owner said, “I am going to give you your freedom.” And saying this, he handed her the papers of emancipation. That is what God the Father has done for us. Through Christ HE reconciled the world unto himself. —1989 Ministers Manual, Ed. by James W. Cox (Harper & Row, 1989), p. 62.

A common theme throughout Paul’s epistle to the Galatians is “Liberty”. Liberty is defined as freedom from captivity or slavery. Before Christ, we were in bondage to sin - Galatians 4:3 … when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Those who truly appreciate liberty are those who recognize the terrible bondage they have been delivered from!

> Songwriter Phil Cross put it this way:

“I was a slave in a foreign land”

”So very far from the Father's loving hand”

”He rescued me, one glorious day”

”He brought me out, paid a debt I could not pay”

”I am redeemed, I am redeemed”

”Jesus loosed the chains of sin and set me free”

Praise God for the liberty we have in Christ Jesus!

* Last week we began a sermon entitled “In Christ Alone”. We saw that:

I. We Are Justified Through Christ Alone (Part I)

II. We Are Accepted Through Christ Alone (Part II)

* I would like to continue to walk through these verses and see that:

III. We Are Free Through Christ Alone

IV. We Are Victorious Through Christ Alone

Background: Paul has been confronting issues brought about by the Judaizers among the Galatian believers. There was a point of contention over how man becomes right with God. In verse 16 Paul asserted that the only means of Justification is through Jesus Christ. He makes it clear “that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ” - Justification doesn’t come by obeying the law. No one has ever or will ever be “made right with God by obeying the law.” Thankfully, Jesus has done what the Law could not do, He made a way for us to be justified and accepted! And along with this, He has supplied us with LIBERTY!

* This fact is explained in verses 17-19. Notice that:

III. We Are Free Through Christ Alone - v17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

There are several areas in which we are FREE THROUGH CHRIST ALONE.I would like to examine four of them today… Consider:

A. We Are Free From The Suppression Of The Law

In these verses Paul is asking Peter “if being set free from the restraint of the law causes more sin to occur?” He then states that if this is the case, then “Christ who freed us from the law would be a promoter of sin” Paul then declares that this would be a ridiculous notion…Concerning this he says “God forbid”

On the cross, Jesus took our punishment so that we are no longer under the curse of the Law. Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us…

This doesn’t mean that we are given license to sin! It means that we are free from the Law of Moses and under the Law of Christ. The demands of the Law were met in the person of Jesus Christ. Paul goes on to clarify this freedom from the Law. Notice - v18 for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

For some time Paul had been preaching the message of Grace. Here he states that he refuses to call for the Gentiles to observe the Jewish rituals. This is seen in his question to Peter in verse 14 “since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?”