FREEDOM IN CHRIST
TEXT: Galatians 5:1-15
INTRODUCTION:
A. SKATING ON THE LORD’S DAY
1. A pastor got up one Sunday morning and all the roads were icy.
2. The streets were all blocked off and there was no way for him to drive to church.
3. He was forced to skate on the river to get to church.
4. When he arrived at church, several church learders were horrified that their preacher had skated on the Lord’s day.
5. After the service there was a special board meeting to determine whether or not he should be fired for skating to church that morning.
6. The pastor explained that it was either skate to church or not go at all.
7. This was not a satifactory answer for some of the more staunch legalists on the church board.
8. Finally one of them asked, "Did you enjoy it?"
9. When the preacher said, "No," then the board decided it was all right!
I. STAND FIRM FOR FREEDOM (v.1-3)
A. “IT IS FOR FREEDOM” (5:1a)
5:1a “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
1. Paul urged the Galatian Christians not to return to the slavery of legalism.
2. What good is it to be set free, if you still live like a slave?
3. To be set free “for freedom” was understood as being set free for God.
4. The phrase “for freedom” was well known in the ancient world.
5. It has been found in numerous documents for the freeing of slaves.
6. The procedure called for a slave to save up enough money, and then to have the local church use that money to buy him from the owner.
7. The slave was then the property of God, and no man could lay any claim against him.
8. On the walls of some early temples and church is recorded “for freedom” god has purchased such-and-such slave.
B. STAND FIRM (v.1b)
5:1b “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
1. It is a pity that some people who are purchased out of one form of slavery volunteer themselves to another form of slavery.
2. Some who have been enslaved by sin, volunteer themselves to be enslaved by legalism.
3. Some who have been enslaved by the world, volunteer themselves to be enslaved by cults.
4. This was what Paul was trying to convince the Galatians not to do.
5. Paul tells them, now that you are out of that, stand firm.
6. STAY OUT OF IT!
7. False teachers were holding out a “yoke of slavery.”
8. Paul was telling them, be stubborn like an ox that refuses a yoke.
5:3 "Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law."
C. DON’T BE INITIATED INTO SLAVERY (v.2)
5:2 “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.”
1. “…if you let yourselves be circumcised…”
2. Paul isn’t talking about those who’ve already been circumcised.
3. He’s talking about those who want to join up with the legalists.
4. He’s saying, “If you rely on circumcision, then you are not relying on Christ.”
5. This reliance on circumcision must stop.
D. ILLUSTRATION OF JIMMY THE TAYLOR
1. Legalists have their own rituals that they want to put you through.
2. They have a set of rules to follow to be a part of their group.
3. It reminds me of the story of Jimmy the taylor.
4. This guy named Joe was encouraged to go to Jimmy the Taylor.
5. Jimmy the taylor was supposed to be the best taylor in the world.
6. Jimmy measured Joe and told him to come back in a week.
7. So, the guy came back in a week with his friend to pick up the suit.
8. It looked awful.
9. It had an arm hole sticking out the front and the paints were very tight.
10. But, Joe’s friend told him he looked great in it and told him to take it.
11. Joe wore the suit home, and some guy on the bus asked him about it.
12. He said, “Did you get that suit from Jimmy the taylor?”
13. Joe said, “Yes, how did you know!”
14. The guy said, “Only Jimmy could make a suit for someone as deformed as you are.”
15. He said, “Jimmy’s made suits for every deformed person I’ve ever met!”
16. That’s what legalists do to you. They put you in a yoke that doesn’t fit!
17. They get some idea of what the Christian faith should look like: then they push and shove people into it until they fit.
18. It may be the most grotesque form of religion you can imagine, but they fit wonderfully!
E. CHRIST WILL PROFIT YOU NOTHING
Christ will be of no value to you at all.
1. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you for my burden is light and my yoke is easy.”
2. The cultists want you take a different yoke upon you.
3. They want to put a yoke of slavery on you.
4. If you take the yoke of slavery, then the yoke of freedom means nothing.
5. If you take the yoke of slavery, then the yoke of freedom is useless.
6. Christ will “profit nothing” to those whose trust is in their own work of keeping law.
7. It is not just a matter of adding an “extra” to the gospel.
8. It is a matter of changing it to no gospel at all (1:6–7).
II. DON’T FALL FROM GRACE (v.4-6)
4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
A. IF YOU DON’T STAND FIRM, YOU WILL FALL
1. “…you have fallen away from grace…”
2. The word translated “fallen away” is a nautical term which means to “to drift off course.”
3. A boat that is “off course” will not reach its destination unless it makes a correction.
4. This would seem to indicate that the problem was fixable.
5. In the arguments over whether it is possible for a Christian to “fall away from grace,” this verse is a two-edged sword.
6. On the one hand, it is clearly possible for a Christian to “fall away from grace.”
7. On the other hand, it must be noted that the way people fall away is not by failure to keep God’s rules, but by failure to rely upon God’s grace.
8. While hypercalvinists are cut by the first slice of this two-edged sword, legalists are cut by the second slice.
B. FAITH IS THE ANSWER
1. 5:5 “But by faith…”
2. It is “by faith” that we avoid falling away.
3. “Falling away” is not avoided by deciding it could never happen, such as the Calvinists do.
4. “Falling away” is not avoided by working hard to earn a safe place in God’s favor, such as the legalists believe.
5. “Falling away” is only avoided by those who keep their faith!
6. 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith...
III. THE YEAST OF THE AGITATORS (5:7–12)
A. YEAST OR LEAVEN CONTAMINATES A CHURCH (5:9)
1. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. (5:9)
2. False teachers contaminated the whole church.
3. They spread their heresy like rumors through a gossip meal.
4. Just like a little yeast will spread through a whole lump of dough.
5. A small dose of stinking thinking can spread through a whole church.
6. Legalism says when Christ died on the cross He did not give us a full package of salvation.
7. Legalism says you have to go through religious rituals to get it all.
8. Jesus said people would hide leaven in the bread.
9. Bread is symbolic of the gospel.
10. He was saying, people will hide legalism in the gospel.
11. Watch out for it.
B. DON’T TAKE ANY OTHER VIEW THAN THE BIBLE VIEW
1. Paul believed the Galatians would eventually stand firm.
2. He believed they would ultimately reject the teaching of the Judaizers.
3. He says, “I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view
4. They would eventually see that the teaching of the legalists was an intrusion, that it was leaven.
IV. THE LAW OF LOVE (v.13-15)
A. YOU WERE CALLED TO BE FREE
1. 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free.
2. There is always the danger that people will go from one villain to the next.
3. When they’ve been set free from one, they may fall for another.
4. New Christians, who find their spiritual freedom, may foolishly rush into a new slavery to their own flesh.
5. Some people spend their whole lives trying to satisfy their fleshly appetites.
6. It is all vanity. It is a waste the same as a drug addiction.
7. It is a selfish and wasted life that is spent on the flesh.
8. Rather, we should serve one another in love.
9. There is irony in this passage.
10. We are not to be servants to sin, to legalism, or to the flesh.
11. However, we are to be servants to one another.
12. True freedom is found in serving one another.
13. When Paul says, “serve one another” he uses a word normally employed in the context of slavery (Greek - douleuete).
14. The key that makes this kind of “slavery” into real freedom lies in the words “IN LOVE.”
B. THE ENTIRE LAW IS FOUND IN LOVE
5:14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
1. Legalists sum up the Scriptures with the words “Thou shalt not...”
2. God sums up the Scriptures with the word LOVE.
3. Legalists build fences in our lives.
4. God builds bridges in our lives.
5. Legalists hold us in. God causes us to reach out to others in love.
C. LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY
1. The children’s book Little Lord Fauntleroy illustrates the positive influence one can have by expressing love and trusting toward others.
2. The story is about a 7 year old boy who went to stay with his grandfather.
3. The grandfather had a reputation of being mean and selfish.
4. But, Little Lord Fauntleroy could see nothing but good in him.
5. He said over and over gain, "Oh, Grandpa, how people must love you! You’re so good and kind in all you do."
6. No matter how disagreeable the elderly man was, the grandson saw the best in everything he did.
7. Finally, the boy’s unquestioning love softened the heart of the cantankerous old man.
8. He couldn’t resist the trust that the boy had in his goodness.
9. As a result, he gradually began to change his ways, and he became the kind and loving person that his grandson thought he was.
10. Christians can take a lesson from that little boy.
11. We ought to be more like Little Lord Fauntleroy in our consideration of each other.
12. If you’ve tried everything else to get your neighbor to act right.
13. Why not try love?
