Today, we're going to be in Galatians chapter five, and what we're going to talk about is choosing to live in the freedom you've been given. I'm going to read this passage; we'll be in Galatians chapter five, looking at the first 15 verses. Then we're going to stair-step our way through those verses as we go. Let's go ahead and read: "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 for 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."
"For you were called to freedom, brothers; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another."
Let's pray. Father, we just come before you, and we ask that you be our tour guide today. Holy Spirit, just lead us through this passage. Father, let me simply be your vessel for whom you speak today, and I pray, Father, that your words would come forth with power and authority. Father, that you would stir the heart today, and we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.
Last week, Scott was teaching on a very complicated section of chapter 4, and he laughed about the fact that he thought about giving me that section. Well, instead, he gives me the one that's full of circumcision. A couple of weeks ago, I warned the children's ministry leaders: "Hey, you need to know this is the topic of this passage. It's really about freedom, but it's centered on this topic. You might give some advanced thought to that before it catches you off guard."
Today, we're going to get into this idea of freedom—the freedom that Christ has purchased for each one of us, the freedom that we have the opportunity to live in, and we're also going to discuss the opportunity we have to choose the bondage of the law as well. "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."
In 1990, I was a detention officer at the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth, Texas, and I was working the release desk one night. There was a gentleman who had been in jail for the last two years; he had served his time. As he came to the release desk, I was processing all of his paperwork, and he said, "You know, I really don't want to leave here. I really want to stay." I said, "Well, here's the thing: you've served your time; the judge has signed off; you have to go." He said, "Well, I'm going to be back here in a couple of hours. I'm probably going to go out and smash the window on a squad car." And sure enough, he leaves, and in 1990, in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, Nolan Ryan was the star pitcher of the Texas Rangers. So, doing his best Nolan Ryan impression, he finds a rock, winds up, and lets go a fastball through the windshield of a squad car and immediately returned at the Tarrant County Jail to await new charges.
The reason I say that is he was free. He could have gone anywhere; he could have done anything with the opportunity, but instead, he chose the bondage of the law as his home. And so where I want us to come away with this: "For freedom, Christ has set us free." I don't want you to miss that. What Jesus did for you on the cross, what Jesus did for you when he stepped forth from the tomb, was he purchased your freedom—something you could not do on your own. In my personal Bible study time right now, I'm going through the Book of Leviticus, and I commented in our staff meeting the other day that the law was bad enough for the people, but I really felt sorry for Aaron, the high priest, and his sons. I don't see how anybody could maintain that law with any confidence. It was a constant battle, and that's the law that Jesus fulfilled. He fulfilled the law, purchasing that freedom for us.
And so, Paul is admonishing his audience: "Stand firm, therefore, in your freedom. Don't budge from your freedom. Don't be dissuaded to give away your freedom and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery." Here's what so often happens in our Christian world today—and I use that term a little loosely—well-meaning people begin to add things to the gospel. "Hey, Jesus died for you; he forgave you of your sins; he paid your debt. But you also need to do this. But there's this work you really need to accomplish. But there's this certain thing that if you would do more of that, you would become just a little more holy in the eyes of God." But there's a fallacy in that. We can't work our way into God's favor, and we can't work our way into God's freedom.
Jesus is the one who made those things possible. Remember what he says here: "For freedom Christ has set us free." For the very purpose of freedom, Jesus has done what he's done so that we can be free from the bondage of sin, from the weight of sin, from the things that hold us back. And so we have to stand firm. We have to become immovable in our freedom and not submit again to that yoke of slavery. Not go back and pick up the things of old that hold us down.
Let's keep going here, verse 2. "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. Paul's point is this: If I turn back to the law, then what I have done is I have negated the work of Christ at the cross. I have negated the grace of God demonstrated through Jesus Christ. And if I'm going to choose that path, then I can't just choose circumcision; I have to follow the whole law, and that's not a pretty picture.
So again, going back to Leviticus, some of my favorite Leviticus passages are the ones dealing with mold and leprosy. So if you have a pimple, the priest has to examine the hair, and if the hair is a certain color, you're unclean. Yeah, you have to get away from the people. If there's mold in your house, he has to come examine your house to determine if it's clean or unclean. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live under those laws. Anyone here in Kansas who has a leaky basement doesn't want to live under those laws. You're constantly in that battle.
But here's what Paul is saying: Listen, if you're going to turn to circumcision to make you more righteous, then that's not enough; you have to follow everything. What Christ set you free from was that bondage to the Mosaic law. What Christ set you free from was something that you, on your best day, were going to struggle to uphold. Christ will be of no advantage to you if you choose that route.
What he's saying is, if you're looking to the law to justify you, if you're looking to the law to make you right with God, then why did Jesus have to die? Why did he have to go to the cross? You've not benefited from his completed work at Calvary. Nobody wants to be under the obligation of the law. Nobody wants to be in that bondage, and yet, people are choosing to pick up those chains once again, and that's what was happening here in the Galatian church. The chain in the Galatian church was circumcision, but in church life, we can make lots of chains: Bible translations, music preferences, the way you dress, the color of the carpet, which side of the church the piano or the organ is on—all of those things can become chains of bondage if we allow them to be. They negate the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
Come to verse 4: "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace." Now, this is a very controversial passage. Some take that to mean, can you lose your salvation? What Paul is really getting at is not that. This is not a fruit of salvation discussion. This is a living in the grace that God has given you. You're severed from the grace that Jesus has purchased for you on the cross if you're choosing the law. You've basically put his work aside, and you're choosing your own righteousness instead. And the problem is, your own righteousness is not sufficient enough. You've severed yourself; you've separated yourself from the completed work of Christ at the cross, and you've fallen away from the grace that he gives. So, you've chosen instead of allowing him to do the hard work, in experiencing his grace new every morning, and experiencing his mercy new every morning, you're instead choosing to try and make it happen on your own. Which leads to the question, how's that working out for you? It doesn't work. And this is Paul's point to the church in Galatia. You can't do it on your own. Don't separate yourself from what Jesus has already done for you in an attempt to try and make yourself more righteous.
We have to remember that when Jesus did his work on the cross, he declared, "It is finished." Fact: the Aramaic word he used was "tetelestai," an accounting term that basically means the books are reconciled. There is no outstanding debt left. Well, if there's no debt left, why are we trying to work to pay off a debt? It's already been paid for.
Notice what he says in verse 5: "For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness." Let's talk about that hope. What is that hope of righteousness? Well, there are a couple of things that come into play here. Number one: Jesus' work on the cross paid the bill. You've been declared righteous by his work. You've been declared holy by his work. We're not working towards righteousness; we're not working towards holiness. It's already been declared over us because of his righteousness and his holiness.
The hope of our righteousness is that day when we meet him face to face, that day when we hear, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." That's the day that we long for. That's what we hope for. That's the thing that we yearn for in this life as a believer. I don't have to worry about, "Have I done enough good stuff?" because I already know the answer: I haven't. I don't meet the standard of God's righteous and holy standard, but Jesus does. Jesus has taken care of that work on the cross.
Verse 6: "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." It's not my outward acts that count; it's what Jesus has done for me that counts. It is my faith in Jesus working through me. That's the works side of our Christian faith, as I allow Jesus to transform my life, as I give him my all. He begins to work through me. The Holy Spirit begins to lead me in the path of righteousness, and I begin to bear fruit. Next week, we'll talk about that fruit that is born out of this walk and out of this journey.
Notice what he says in verse 7: "You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?" This is kind of a translation update. Paul's saying, "You guys were doing really well." Who started filling your head with nonsense? How did you get sidetracked? Your race was so good. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? You see, we have to be careful about the voices we let into our ears.
Notice verse 8: "This persuasion is not from him who calls you." This week, I was talking with our restoration youth students in our Zoom call on Wednesday, and we were talking about testing the words we allow into our spirit, the words we allow into our ears. Just because a preacher is dynamic or a good communicator or has a large church does not always mean that they are proclaiming truth. And we, as scholars, as Bible students, we've got to be so deep into the word that we recognize the counterfeit as soon as it comes past us. I always liken our Christian walk when it comes to knowing truth to how the Secret Service trains its agents. A Secret Service agent is never trained with counterfeit money. They are only trained with the real thing, and it's so they will become so familiar with the real thing that as soon as they hold anything else, they'll immediately recognize it as a counterfeit. That's how intimately familiar we need to be with the truth of what Jesus has done for us so that when we're running well and somebody comes along with that message that's going to lead us off track, we go, "Oh, timeout. That doesn't fit. That doesn't fit."
It's kind of interesting, Ravi Zacharias, the apologist, passed away this last week, so a lot of Ravi's teachings and his apologetics interactions with atheists and others are online right now. I was watching one the other day where he was discussing the idea of cults, and he said, "Here's what makes it a cult: it moves from the completed work of Christ." And this was the very thing that Paul was teaching to the Galatian church. This teaching is moving from the completed work of Christ. You're saying, "Okay, Jesus is good, but there's this other thing that has to be done if you're really going to be righteous." And that's the problem.
"Since you were running so well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you." It's not from God; it's not from the Holy Spirit's leading. And then he brings out this point: "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." It takes just a little bit of mistruth to start to spread. It takes just a little gossip to start to spread. It takes just a little bit of false teaching to contaminate the whole. And Paul is warning the people: Remember, if you allow this to take root, it's going to spread.
Verse 10: "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." So, Paul says, "This is false teaching. This is mistruth." But he's confident that the people are strong enough in their foundation that they're going to resist that mistruth. He's also confident that God will bring justice and judgment in his due time.
Here's the thing I want to ask you: How confident are you in your foundation in the truth? Do you recognize error when it's put in front of you? I often say that there are other groups who love to show up at your house carrying one of these. Do you have a Bible quote-unquote discussion with you? But if you only know 1/3 of the Bible, you're going to lose that. You're going to be at that place, "Hello, let me call my pastor." We need to be rooted and grounded in the truth because we're being barraged constantly with misapplication and twists. And what's interesting is they're always so subtle. They don't just come up and punch you in the face; they just kind of glance past you, and we start to chase that mistruth, and we find ourselves in a very precarious place. We find ourselves back in bondage again.
Here's what's interesting. I told the group this on Wednesday night: The largest number of converts to the groups that show up at your door on Saturday morning, about 9 o'clock, come from quote-unquote "Bible teaching" churches. Which means there are people who sit in the pews, and they hear a lot of Bible being taught, but they don't spend a lot of time planting roots into the Word of God, and so they're susceptible to any teaching, any doctrinal shift in the wind.
And so, Paul says, "I'm confident that you're going to stand firm, that you're not going to take another view, and if the one who's troubling you will bear the penalty for that false teaching." But then he goes on to say, "You know, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, which he doesn't, why am I still being persecuted?" See, the real issue with Paul, and what he's getting at here, is Paul was a Jew. He was a Pharisee by training. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. He was circumcised. He was trained at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the top teachers of his day. He had the pedigree. He even had Timothy circumcised so that he could be more effective in his ministry to the Jews. And Paul is saying, "If that's who I am, then why am I being persecuted?"
"This isn't a circumcision issue; this is a negating the completed work of Christ issue. It's the cross that's offensive." Notice where he goes: "But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. See, the cross is the dividing line. The cross is the thing that truly separates. The cross is the thing that we stick our stake in the ground, and we say, 'This is where I'm standing. I'm not counting on works. I'm not counting on my own goodness, my own self-righteousness, to do anything for me. I'm standing on the completed work of Jesus.' And if you're saying I have to do something else in addition to be right with God, I can't move from there."
"We talk often here at Restoration about open-handed and closed-handed issues in the Christian world, especially here; we're a non-denominational church. There are many things where we have varying views of doctrinal concepts, but then there are those core concepts of the faith we don't budge off of. The completed work of Christ on the cross is one of those. We don't have a 'Jesus plus' theology here. We don't move off of that, and that's the thing that Paul is encouraging the Galatian church: 'Hey, listen, if this were all about circumcision, then everybody should be getting along with me. But it's not about circumcision; it's about the cross of Christ. It's about Jesus doing the hard work, Jesus doing the completed work, and not relying on my own strength, my own good deeds, to make it happen because they're not enough.'"
"Let's keep going here, verse 12: 'I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.' Whoa, Paul sometimes, we laugh because Paul comes on pretty strong. He doesn't mince words. Paul's point is this: If you're gonna castrate your flesh to satisfy God, why don't you just go ahead and just do the whole thing? If that's what makes you holy, if that's what makes you righteous, then don't just settle for that; just go all the way."
"Here he's pointing out the foolishness of that thought process, and that's the thing we have to look at. When people confront us with a works-based doctrine, well, if I'm going to do that, then where else do I have to go to fulfill the law? Here's what's kind of interesting. I find that when people approach with a 'Jesus Plus' theology, they never really want to embrace the entire law. They just want to keep parts of it."
"So some of you who grew up in the era I did, so as a little boy, I remember you didn't show up at church without a suit, a vest, a tie, and some slacks on. Now, based on my age, my belt was white, you know, patent leather, and the pants were checkered, and so was the suit, right? Kind of way, but you didn't show up for church without that. And Sunday night, you got to dress down; you could lose the jacket. That's what it took to be righteous. And I grew up for years feeling like I wasn't holy enough if I wasn't buttoned up all the time when I was in church."
"That's one of those things that a little bit of a 'Jesus Plus,' and I was putting myself in bondage over that issue. I've seen people do that over music, over carpet color, over all sorts of crazy stuff. We never can be good enough. If I'm gonna go down that road, then I got to go further down that road. I'm gonna wear a suit and tie; I'm a pastor, so one of the things for the priests in the Leviticus, they had to wear a holy undergarment under their clothing. I don't have any holy underwear—well, I got holy underwear, but it's not that kind of holy underwear, right? And actually, truth be told, if Carol finds a hole in my underwear, it gets tossed, so I actually probably don't have any holy underwear. That's because I have a good wife."
"So anyway, the point is, though, if I'm gonna go down that road, how much further down that road do I have to go to be righteous? Because if I'm going to start keeping the law to be righteous, there's a lot more law to keep. Because you'll recall, we went through Exodus; there are hundreds of laws to keep. One of the problems you give is bald guys sometimes you get pimples on your head. It's kind of gross, and you hit them with your razor when you shave, and it's just your bathroom looks like 'Psycho,' right? It's horrid. Well, that's one of the things the law talks about. I'd be unclean; I'd have to remove myself. I can't keep the law on my best day. Jesus had to fulfill it for me, and that's why Paul uses such strong language here with those who are teaching that, 'Hey, if they're gonna teach that, just have them go all the way with it.'"
"Verse 13: 'For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.' And this is really important because Paul's going to make a distinction here because now you've got the other side of this equation. Well, I'm free; I can go do whatever I want because Jesus took care of everything. That's not right either. What is being said here is, Jesus has fulfilled the Mosaic law, the law as laid out in Leviticus, the laws laid out in Exodus. He's fulfilled that law, but in Christ, there is a moral law that we continue to follow. We continue to walk in that holiness and righteousness, and so this is where he gives that caution."
"You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but to rule of serve one another. It would be very easy for someone to say, 'I'm forgiven of everything, so so be it.' Even Paul said, 'Everything is permissible, not everything's beneficial.' But there's a moral law, and he brings us down to that. Use your freedom, not for your fleshly desires but out of love serve one another."
"I want you to think about that for a minute. Out of love, serve one another. What does it look like to serve someone else in complete freedom? There's not a cent-to aspect to it. You know, there are people sometimes that want to help, and you find yourself going, 'Yeah, but what's the catch? What's the hook? What are you gonna want from me?' because the motivations aren't pure."
"I've got a friend on Facebook I've known him for years, probably about 10, 11 years now. Love the guy to death, but if he ever asks me for anything, there's always an agenda behind it. And so, it's this point that sometimes I'll ask him, 'Okay, the only way I'm going to entertain whatever it is you're getting ready to ask me is no behind it. If I, if you're expecting me to reciprocate, then let's not have the discussion because there's always a hook to it.'"
"Paul is saying, 'Go out and serve freely. No reciprocation, no hook. You don't owe me anything. I just want to serve you because I have the freedom because God has done so much for me. Jesus fulfilled my debt. I just want to serve you. I'm free to do that. I don't want to use my freedom to fulfill my own desires and satisfy my own wants.'"
"Notice what he says, verse 14: 'For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Have you ever really thought about that? That's a passage most of us know, but what does that really look like? What are some of the things you do for yourself every day without even thinking? And then, if you looked around at your neighbors and they asked, 'Do they have the same thing? Do they have the same benefit I have? Do they have the same privilege I have? The same freedom I have?'"
"Well, things about traveling overseas as we begin to realize I've really been given a lot. And to me, that's become a real burden. Am I being a good steward of the freedom I've been given so that I have the opportunity to be a greater blessing to the people I can serve?"
"One of the interesting things we're finding in our time right now is whether we like it or not, in some ways, we're finding out how shallow we can be and how selfish we can be. We laughingly call these things 'first world problems.' 'Oh man, I just want to go sit around the coffee shop.' So, like, I was thrilled my favorite coffee shop opened up their lobby here about a week ago, and I'm like, 'Yes,' because I get tired of Zoom calls."
"But then I get messages from friends of mine in Uganda, Kenya, India. 'Yeah, there's no food here. We're trying to feed everybody in our congregation, and we're not allowed out of our houses.' Yeah, my problem is not really a problem. Shame on me for being so shallow. We posted up yesterday on our Facebook page; we've got one of our pastors bicycling close to 50 miles to deliver food to everybody in his congregation. I'm still driving to Dillon's. I don't know about you. Shame on me for being so shallow."
"You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' It's interesting, in times like this, we do find out where maybe I'm not as loving as I ought to be, sometimes where maybe I'm not as sensitive to what's going on in the lives of others as I really should be. Love your neighbor as yourself. See, that's what we're being asked to do."
"Jesus has done the hard work on the cross. He's made us righteous; he's declared us righteous by his work. But what we're asked to do is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves."
"Verse 15: 'If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.' I don't know about you, but my experience has been that those who are most vicious tend to suffer the most vicious of demises, whether that's professionally or personally. And so there's some principle that comes out of that. If you're going to bite and devour one another, watch out that you're not also consumed by one another. If you're going to enter into that battle, make sure you're able to withstand that. Now, better yet, just avoid the battle. Love your neighbor as yourself. What I find, it's hard to be angry with somebody that loves you all the time. It's hard to be angry with someone that loves you all the time."
"See, what Paul was preaching to the churches, don't use your freedom, don't wave it in people's faces, don't flaunt it, don't be arrogant about it, but use it to serve others. Use it as a means of building up one another. Use it as a means of building up the body. Use it as a means of building up the kingdom."
"Where I want to leave us today, it's interesting, this being Memorial Day weekend, where we pay tribute to our soldiers who gave their lives fighting for our freedom. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by the freedoms that we exercise over their sacrifice. At the same time, the truth could be said, I'm embarrassed by some of the freedoms I exercise over the sacrifice Jesus made for me. And even more than that, I'm embarrassed about how many times I go back and I pick up the baggage, the bondage, and the chains, and I just wrap them back around myself, and I live as a prisoner once again, not because anybody made me one, because I chose to be one, because I didn't stand strong in the completed work of Christ."
"And so I want to encourage you this morning, wherever you're at, if you find that you're in bondage, examine those chains. For many of you, you're going to find you also have the key to unlock yourself. Jesus has already paid the price. You don't owe anything. Don't be like the guy that got out of jail and then decided, 'Hey, I think I want to go back.' It's not a great place to be because once you start down that path, you'll never be good enough. You'll always be guilty. You'll always be condemned because that's what the law does. It condemns you. It shows you where you're wrong. But in Jesus Christ, we find grace. We find new life. We find new purpose. We find meaning. Live in that freedom. Use that freedom to change the lives of other people, to serve them well, to bless them greatly, to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to live out his glory in front of the world that's watching.
