Series

Steel and cement grumble and moan as they come together with an echoing crash behind him. Crude, invasive sunlight beats onto his face as he extends an arm to shield his eyes. The gravel beneath his threadbare shoes crunches mockingly as he takes his first steps as a free man.

In the manila envelope under his arm, his life: a bit of money, a bus ticket, the address of the halfway house in town, and an old driver’s license bearing the picture of a younger man he knows only as shadows.

He’s free. But he’s been on the inside longer than he’s been out, so he’ll need to learn to walk again. He can’t just stand there. Though part of him wishes he could. From the tower the guards watch the drama of freedom unfold. They’ve seen it before, the tentative tearing away from what has been so safe and familiar, yet so oppressive, for so long. Many choose to eat the oppression just to have the safety of the prison. It’s dark, dank and makes slaves of all who enter, but it’s safe. Quietly they place their bets: two to one he’ll be back before Christmas, they think.

He knows that the next few days and weeks are perilous. He knows the statistics; he’s heard the stories. He’ll be different. He’s dreamed of freedom for so long. Now, it gapes at him like a vacuum waiting to suck him in and toss him about. But he won’t go back. Freedom, for all its uncertainty and pace, is too beautiful to reject. He’s paid a high price for this moment. That’s the thing about freedom, you see, it never comes cheap.

He’ll need to do something, anything, with this freedom. He can’t just stand there breathing in the fresh air for the rest of his life. It’s time to move. It’s time to learn what freedom looks like. He begins to whistle as he takes his first few steps in the fresh air of freedom…

For the last couple of months, we’ve listened to Paul explain the theological arguments against the slavery that inevitably comes when we live by the law. We’ve stood in the Galatian churches as his letter is read aloud warning us of the dangers inherent in the teaching these Judaizers are peddling. They say Jesus plus. They say the gospel’s important, but not enough. They say do and do and do, try and try and try, work, work, work and God will be happier with you. They say Jesus plus all their rules—festivals, diet, and circumcision—then you’ll find true freedom. We’ve looked at our own lives and seen how sometimes the way we live puts us in bondage.

Over the din of this slave chatter, God, our Abba Father, calls us to be free from sin, estrangement, guilt, selfishness, enslavement to religious rules, and even our own human mortality. But if we’re to be free from these things, there must be a destination, a place to end up. We must be free for something. And we are. For when the gospel sets us free, when the cross of Christ and the Spirit he imparts to us sets us free, we are free to obey God in a radical fashion by serving and relating to our fellow human beings in selfless love. Simply put, we are free to live as we were created to live.

We live in a world that says freedom is the most important thing we can achieve. And we agree, freedom is the most important. But I must warn you, as Paul warned the Galatian Christians, the “freedom” they speak of is really slavery with a candy-coated shell.

Society wants to foist a freedom on us that actually enslaves us because it makes us the winner, the provider, the securer of freedom. I don’t know about you, but any attempt I’ve made to win freedom—from insecurity, bad habits, selfishness, greed, consumerism, lust, anger, gossip, apathy, and arrogance—always, always tightens the tangle of slavery’s cords.

Society’s freedom is the freedom to do whatever I want. It pushes me to be alone, to get what I want, to determine my own path. The freedom it promotes has independence at its core. Society’s freedom makes us slaves to ourselves. Individual freedom, social freedom and psychological freedom are what our society tells us are core values to live by.

God’s freedom, on the other hand, affirms individual, social and psychological freedom, but as they were meant to be before human ego and selfishness distorted them. Instead of freedom being won by our own effort, true freedom has already been won through the cross and is lived out through the Holy Spirit at work in our life. It is about what God can do in and through us to heal us, to heal our relationships, and heal our world. God’s freedom leads us to interdependence. God’s freedom means rather than being a slave to ourselves, we are slaves to His will.

So the choice we make is this: what do we live in bondage to, the world’s way that makes us slaves, or Abba Father’s way that sets us free?

“[1] It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. [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. [3] Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. [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. [7] You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? [8] That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. [9] "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." [10] I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. [11] Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. [12] As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!”(Emphasis added).

In short, he’s saying to the Galatian church, “If you want to go the way of the Judaizers, Jesus is meaningless to you. God’s way is not your way. The cross is an impotent symbol of freedom rejected. If you choose the Law, you’ll never be free. The stakes are incredibly high.

I first wore glasses in Junior high. For several months before I wore glasses I got horrendous headaches from squinting to see. So bad were the headaches that I’d feel faint and nauseas. One day my parents took me to have my eyes tested.

The test determined that I needed help seeing so the doctor prescribed lenses. Following the doctor’s appointment we went and picked out glasses. We waited and then they were ready.

When I first put on my new glasses, the world was like it had tipped on its side. However, I soon realized that though the world was wobbly for a time, it would straighten out as my brain adjusted. Immediately after that came the exhilaration of seeing clearly! I reveled in my new sight! My headaches ended and I read and drew and played as I hadn’t done before.

Now, how foolish would I have been to decide against wearing my new glasses? What if, instead of seeing clearly, I chose to live with the headaches, blurred vision and nausea? That would be silly. I had glasses so that I could see, so I wore them.

Paul is saying something similar in 5:1. He says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” In other words, you’ve got glasses people, wear them, and see clearly! Don’t let yourselves be burdened with blurred vision and headaches anymore.

Paul’s saying Jesus didn’t die so he could become part of a formula for success as the Judaizers were suggesting. Jesus didn’t die so that his people could be burdened by slavery anymore. He died so that his people could live the free life God designed for them, a life of beauty, wholeness and restoration.

But this freedom Paul speaks of needs to be defined clearly. Everything we understand in this passage, and indeed everything we take from the Galatian letter, hinges on our ability to perceive what the term “freedom” means.

“Being free” is a relationship with God, for in the presence of God we are free from the curse of the law. Because of this relationship with God, we live as sons and daughters, free children, not slaves.

“Being free” is the result of the death of Jesus Christ. We were captives to sin and slavery. But when Jesus died, he won our freedom.

“Being free” is life in the Spirit of God. Second Corinthians says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”( 3:17 ). Romans says, “Because through Christ Jesus the Law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death”(8:2).

“We get nowhere in talking about freedom until we comprehend that it comes only through a work of God in our lives through Christ Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. Freedom is not being turned free to be whatever we want (i.e., egocentrism); nor is it some kind of ‘self-discovery’ or ‘self-actualization’ (that, too, is egocentrism); rather, it is being incorporated into the life of God, which he mediates to us through Jesus and allows us to enjoy in the Spirit.”[i]

Fourth, freedom sets us apart. True freedom is something only Christians can know. Freedom in Christ is what Paul accuses the Judaizers of trying to steal. They were, as you well know, promoting the thought and life that places human effort at the center. They couldn’t know freedom in Christ—which places God at the center—until they let go of adherence to the Law. So freedom in Christ sets us apart. This is true in our day-to-day life. God’s way is not the world’s way. Because God’s freedom is different and true, those who follow God’s way operate from a different set of values.

Fifth, “being free” is personal and experiential. In short, true freedom looks a certain way. We’re not set free in Christ to do whatever we want. We are set free to do what is right, what ought to be. In other words, those set free from the law have been freed to become slaves of Christ, God and righteousness. This is the heart of the gospel message: God sets us free through Jesus Christ (Cross) and in the Spirit, so that we can love God and others.

This is what Paul meant when he said the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love. Having a license does not make me a driver—my Grandma lived for decades with a license but no car. Only driving makes us a driver. Freedom in Christ is not just a spiritual reality; it is also physical. The spiritual reality of the gospel expresses itself by the way we live!

Go back for a moment to the story of my first pair of glasses. I could have, as I’ve already suggested, lived with the squinting and headaches. And even though my glasses sat waiting to be used, they’d be useless if I chose to solider on with the blurred vision.

Paul says the same about Jesus and us. “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised (live by the law), Christ will be of no value to you at all… You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace”(5:2, 4, parenthesis added).

Unless you want to see right, the glasses are useless. Unless you want to be free from the burden of human effort at pleasing God, then you have no use for Jesus, and Jesus will mean nothing to you.

The Judaizers had no use for Jesus because they were committed to circumcision, or the strict following of Jewish law. They set Jesus as part of the package, a halfway point to acceptance. Any moment we allow Jesus to be part of the equation, he ceases to mean anything to us. For, as I’ve said before, it is impossible to remain neutral in the face of Jesus, for in Jesus we were created to find our true life. Neutrality, or attempting to make Jesus a flavor, one of the things that are important, renders us slaves.

So the question is: “Do you have need for Jesus?” Have you lived with him as a neutral figure, a flavor? Have you lived trying to follow a set of rules and formulae? Has it been “Jesus plus” good behavior? Are you filled with joy? (By “joy” I don’t mean a giddy happiness all the time, but rather a deep abiding sense of peace and divine confidence that no matter what comes, God is God and He’s your source of hope, healing and wholeness.) Is your relationship with him just one of the things you do? If so, then I’d be a bad friend if I didn’t say you are in slavery. However, there is, as Paul proclaims, grace, and freedom available. Do you want to be free? Do you want to be free? This then is what freedom looks like…

I mentioned at the beginning that the sort of freedom our world tries to pass off on us is really slavery because it places the weight of securing it squarely on our shoulders.

We need to understand that biblical freedom is not our society’s way of freedom. At the heart of biblical freedom is a fundamental truth we need to believe before we can live freely, and that is: God’s way for our lives is best for us.

How can we follow God’s way? How can we achieve Freedom? It begins by confession. It starts by us coming honestly before God. A good confession helps us to face who we really are: sinful, imperfect and in constant pain over our imperfection. This confession is a solitary act: I, though maybe nobody else with me, am a sinner. Freedom, ironically, begins with surrender.

Secondly, we must come to God and rely on whom he wants us to rely on: Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way God made to freedom. Freedom was won at a very high price: the gift of Jesus, God’s one and only son. Jesus, through the cross, tore down barriers, cleansed from sin, essentially unlocking the prison cell. Freedom, therefore, is found by following Jesus wholly. This isn’t a mystery, either. We can know Jesus’ way though reading and study of the Bible, and through the power of the Holy Spirit (which takes us to the third step to achieving biblical freedom…)

Freedom is achieved by living in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s way for us to be renewed every day. The Holy Spirit animates our lives before God so we can be and do what God wants us to do. A life lived in God’s freedom is a life lived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Again, a life that is truly free looks a certain way. In a couple of weeks we’re going to talk about the evidence that the Spirit is alive in us. You see, when God’s Spirit is leading our lives, we become more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, good, kind, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. These are called the “Fruits of the Spirit”. We can know if we’re living according to God’s freedom by the fruit we bear. For the Holy Spirit will always lead us to these things.

In short, we are truly free when we live honestly before God (Confession), when we follow His son (Jesus) and live by his Spirit. This is a life that is truly free.

Living free in Christ sets us free individually, psychologically and socially. Only instead of it all being about us, as society says, God’s freedom makes us who God wants us to be; it makes us free socially so that all can see the glory of God; and free psychologically so we relate to God and others authentically and clearly. This is true freedom.

As I conclude, I must ask the question: “Are you ready for life on the outside?” If the answer is yes, I must say, “Praise God”. But I must also warn you. Like the prisoner who struggles to adjust to life on the outside, living free in Christ through the gospel is a struggle. For one, everything in our world works against us. Also, the gospel requires us to be laid bare before God.

Frederick Buechner says that before it is good news, the gospel is bad news.[ii] It’s bad news because to live according to God’s way, God’s free life, we need to be cleaned up. In order to be cleaned up, we need to be stripped of what has held us in shackles all these years.

The prisoner spat out into freedom is, in a very real way, naked. He has just himself to live with before the world and in the world. But in this nakedness, true freedom begins. He’s been stripped of his possessions, his pretensions, his security, his status, and his schedule. He is alone and, for the time being, free. The choice is his to make: learn to live as a freeman, or return to bondage—there is no comfortable middle.

The prisoner I speak of is me. But it is you, and you and you. It is all of us. Like the prisoner, we face daily the choice to live free or live as slave. The prisoner knows there is no half way. Beloved of Christ, you have been created for the free life on the outside. What will be your choice? Will you continue to try life on your own steam, or will you surrender to God’s way? Will you place God, his son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit at the center of your existence, or will it be “Jesus plus”? Will you allow God to clean you, clothe you, and guide your every step by the power of his Holy Spirit? Let’s pray.

[i] Scot McKnight, The NIV Application Commentary: “Galatians”, Terry Muck, General Editor

(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan: 1995), 244.

[ii] Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth, The Gospel As Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1977)

November 03, 2002