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True Freedom

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Galatians 5:1 (ESV)

1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.


To say that we are free can mean many different things. In fact there are maybe as many different kinds of freedom as there are people to think about different kinds of freedom. And because of that we want to make sure that we are living in the right kind of freedom. The kind of freedom God intends. When anyone talks about freedom it is always in terms of being free FROM something. Something that at one point we were enslaved to: free from debt, free from guilt, free from prison, free from bad memories. Being free from some sort of enslavement. So when Paul says here it is for freedom that Christ set us free, what does he mean? In Galatians this freedom all centers around Christ, His work for the believer, not the believer's work for God, and therefore it is freedom from all sorts of things.
  1. Freedom from the Law - The unattainable demands of the law. When Christ lived a perfect life he perfectly fulfilled the law for us, freeing us from its demands - This freedom actually means that we are free to now fulfill the law's central thrust - love for God and others What matters now is faith working itself out in love vs 6. 
  2. Freedom from Sin - Or as Galatians so often puts it, Freedom from the FLESH. Our heart and desires want what they want. Sin is truly lurking aound every corner, add to that the temptations of the world and the devil and we are bound for slavery to sin. Enter Jesus Christ dying to set us free by changing our hearts that ran after the flesh and giving us new hearts. He sets us free from the flesh by continually giving us a new heart and new desires that want sin less and Him more. As we respond in faith and trust and gratefulness, the grip of sin will loose its grip on us. That is truly what the Holy Spirit works in us. Galatians 5:16 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 
  3. Freedom to... - Though there are more things that Christ has set us free FROM even in Galatians - there are therefore even more things that we are now freed up to do. Galatians 5:13 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. We are freed up to serve, love, work, worship, live, share, reconcile, care and actually go about the lives that we were always meant to live. Jesus has set us free to live the best and only life that could possibly be fulfilling and worth it. Our freedom means our joy and Christ's glory!

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