Series: “Traveling Light” (GALATIANS)

 The Question Freedom Hangs On

Galatians 5:13-26

 Illustration: Black Bear—“Wild” Black Bear (Zoo); wild only in the wild.  Freedom is like this.  We are only truly free when we are living in the vast expanse and wonderfully created freedom of God.  As we have come to know over the last while, there are tricksters among us.  There are those who’d have us believe that to be truly free it depends on me—my effort, my good behavior, my adherence to a set of rules and regulations to win favor with God.  This is akin to living as an animal in captivity. 

 There is an alternative, however.  We know also that the gospel of Jesus Christ is what true freedom means.  The gospel is the glorious truth that the only way we can be made right with God is through faith in the cross, and the only way we can live free, live a holy life and obey God is through his Holy Spirit.  Nothing we do earns us favor with God.

 When it comes right down to it, we’re faced with an inescapable question.  When all is said and done, when the letter to the Galatians has been read and studied—which it nearly has been, when the case against slavery to the law and in favor of freedom in Christ has been made, one question remains.  When the following piece of scripture, arguably one of the top ten most popular, or at least well known, has been read, and explained, we will still have to ask ourselves a crucial question.  The Bible, and more specifically Jesus, demands a response from those who hear his teaching.  (Remember: neutrality is not an option in the face of Jesus Christ)  So it comes down to this, the question freedom hangs on: do we genuinely believe that God’s Spirit is a sufficient guide for our lives? 

 Through the entire letter to the Galatians, Paul has been building to this place of response.  He’s been laying out the arguments for the gospel in hopes that those who read his letter will choose well when faced with this question.  He’s saying to the Galatian Christians, “do you genuinely believe that God’s Spirit is a sufficient guide for your life?” 

 Paul’s saying, “Now before you answer that question, my Galatian brothers and sisters, consider the word, ‘sufficient’.  It means ‘enough’, ‘adequate to meet needs’, in other words, God is sufficient, enough, adequate to meet your needs—physical, emotional, spiritual. 

Through his Holy Spirit he guides and shapes you in the life that is best, the life you were created to live: free and alive.  Now, do you believe this to be true?” 

 This is the question before us this morning, and indeed every morning of our lives.  Do we believe that God’s Spirit is a sufficient guide for our lives?  Do we truly want to live in freedom, a life at the mercy of the Holy Spirit, or do we want to live as slaves to our humanness?

 Context: 

-A time of great angst in the Galatian church.

-Fighting and tearing each other down

-Confusion over the different arguments: PAUL (Gospel freedom) or JUDAIZERS (Adherence to the law)

-ILLUSTRATION: Not fork in the road, but stage upon which Paul and the Judaizers presented their case.

-The life of freedom in Christ will always stir up trouble in our world; conflict is not avoidable because it leads to a life completely opposite to the prevailing culture around us.  The life in the Spirit is selfless; the culture around us is selfish. 

-Part of the reason there was confusion and a holy tension in the Galatian church was a result of them evaluating their lives based on what was presented.

-Here at the climax of his letter, Paul lays it all on the line…

 Unpacking the Text:

 “[13] You, my brothers (and sisters), were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. (In other words, you have the choice how to use the freedom you have: you can use it to gratify your fleshly desires, your sinful nature, or you can surrender to the Holy Spirit and allow it to shape you into people, a community, of love.)

 This is the choice we have before us: to use the freedom we have to indulge our sinfulness, or to live by the Spirit that will lead us to a life of love. 

 ¨     ILLUSTRATION: Freedom Not a Destination but a Base of Operations. 

The word picture that comes to mind goes back to the original Greek translation of the text.  It is one of a base camp.  Freedom is not the destination; freedom is a base camp.  From this base of freedom we live, we go, we interact with the world around us, we engage. 

  ¨     ILLUSTRATION: Soldier weeping

On Monday I watched news coverage of the Remembrance Day ceremony from Ottawa .  In this particular news story, they showed a clip of an old soldier weeping.  Even the torrential rain pouring over his head and streaming down his cheeks could not hide what is impossible to hide.  Weeping is like being naked in public. Your face contorts as the muscles used only for crying shift and strain forming the terrible and beautiful face of sorrow.  Often your shoulders shudder so even if you’re wearing dark glasses, or covering your face with your hands, others know you’re crying. 

 But this was not the case with the old soldier.  He made no attempt to hide his tears.  Out there in the icy November rain, surrounded by an ever-shrinking company of old soldiers, he wept.  And I wondered why.  Maybe the pain of those war days always lurks just below the surface.  Perhaps Monday was just like any other day in that regard. 

 I couldn’t help but wonder, however, if there was more to his tears.  Surely the ugly pain of war dogs his dreams almost daily; there must be tears between Novembers.  Why then did he weep so hard on Monday?  Could it have had anything to do with what we’ve done with the freedom he fought for and helped win?  I wonder, as he slogged through the European mud, bombs and brothers falling around him, if he’d have fought on knowing what we’d make of the freedom he was willing to die, and kill, for.  Was he willing to give his life so that generations to come would have the freedom to consume the earth with gluttonous efficiency?  Would his death be justified so long as we would have the freedom to oppress the poor, allow hundreds of our fellow humans to starve each day, and build a society fueled by selfish ambition?  Would killing be worth it so long as subsequent generations had the freedom to cast off restraint and live in the gray haze of pluralism, where right and wrong is as shifting sand?  I don’t think so.

 I think the freedom this old solider was willing to pay the ultimate price for looked a lot different than the hollow replica we live by.  As the old soldier looked around him on Monday morning and saw on one side a smaller group of his comrades than last year, and a larger group on the other ready to further trample true freedom, he did all he could do: he wept. 

 You see, true freedom does not mean we can do whatever we want.  True freedom is living at the mercy and grace and strength of God’s Spirit.  The state of our world is exhibit “A” for the choices God allows us to make.  It is what Paul is defining clearly for the Galatians: don’t use your freedom to destroy one another and the world around you.  Use your freedom and be filled with the Holy Spirit that will lead you to love each other and your world.”  We have a choice as to how we use the freedom we’re given.

 [14] The entire law (The entire design of God’s law, God’s freedom) is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.  [15] If you keep on biting and devouring each other (fighting amongst yourselves over which way is better), watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  This indicates that the Galatian church was not surrendered to the Holy Spirit.  They were fighting and devouring each other. 

They had lost a holy perspective in their fellowship.  They were all about their own selfish desires and it was killing the church. 

 [16] So I say by, live the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  [17] For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. (In other words, you can’t have it both ways.  You’re either surrendered to the Holy Spirit, or you’re not.  Surrender is complete by nature.) 

 [18] But IF YOU ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT, you are not under law.  [19] The acts of the sinful nature (the result of human effort) are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; [20] idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions [21] and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God .  I want to point out that this list of sixteen sinful actions, 8 have to do with humans interacting with humans.  Paul’s saying if you are led by the sinful nature, these, among other things, will be what you look like. 

 ¨     ILLUSTRATION: Have you ever seen a bench-clearing brawl at a baseball or hockey game?  Yelling, punching, kicking, chaos! 

 This is the picture Paul’s painting.  You’ll be completely at odds with the community of faith around you.  There will be nothing but chaos and hostility among you if you continue to allow yourselves to be rules by your sinful nature.  This is what the Galatian church was starting to look like.        

 Don’t forget, this is a new congregation.  They haven’t learned the fine art of decorum and keeping a good Sunday façade!  This was starting to be chaotic!  This, as Paul says, is not acceptable.  Anyone, any people, who live this way, will not inherit the Kingdom of God .  The consequences are dire! 

 [22] But the fruit (PASSIVE, divine activity) of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.   These are characteristics that describe a Spirit led person, a Spirit led people.

  [24] Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  If you have chosen to follow Jesus for your life, you’re no longer sentenced to a life struggling in the flesh. 

 [25] Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. This is Paul’s encouragement to the Galatian Church : people, if you’ve been set free by the Gospel, if you’ve chosen Jesus, let the Spirit lead you.  Let it shape you into loving people, free from all the garbage that marks those who are struggling to live by the flesh.  

 [26] Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other” Finally Paul takes a bit of a shot at the Judaizers at the same time he warns the Galatians.  He says, you people who’ve chosen Jesus, don’t be conceited and arrogant like those Judaizers who’re trying to fool you.  They’re promoting an elitist way of living, a life of segregation and self-service.  The way of the Gospel is for all, for anyone who chooses.  Don’t be like them!  Be gracious, eager to have new people come, welcome the stranger, show them the love of Jesus.  Let mercy and grace lead you.  (Galatians 5:13-26, emphasis, parenthesis added).

 Highlights:

 -Love is the Thread

The entire point of God’s law, God’s freedom, is built on one word: Love.  It was an act of ultimate love—the cross—that made it possible for us to live free, it is therefore love that distinguishes us as God’s free people. 

So what’s the evidence that our lives are surrendered to the Spirit?  Put simply, are we becoming more loving of God and neighbor?

 How we answer that question depends on a choice we make…

 -The Choice: Life in the Flesh OR Life by the Spirit

19…The ACTS of the sinful nature, the result of human effort will always lead to these things.  Why?  Because we are completely incapable of anything else in and of ourselves!  Left to our own choices, our own abilities, we will always choose to live for our flesh, and thereby these things will characterize our lives.

 The FRUIT of the spirit—Passive—Fruit doesn’t have to do anything to grow but stay connected to the vine.  The Holy Spirit producing fruit in your life requires only that you continually surrender to its power.  A work that God does in us, nothing we can do but surrender. 

 The tension that the Galatians were feeling was due in part to the fact that the Law presented a cut and dry system of right and wrong.  They could easily tell when they were doing well and when they weren’t.  I identify with that. I like a moral guide.  I like to work hard at being good and see results.  I like to have a clear sense of what’s up, what I need to do; I like a checklist.  But the problem with the checklist idea is that it totally depends on my ability to fulfill it.  When I live by my own moral checklist, I live still clinging to the Law, as it were.  When I live still clinging to the law, God cannot set me free to be as he wants me to be.    

 We talked about this a couple of weeks ago.  This is a life-long commitment.  Living honestly before God daily by confessing your need for him, following the teaching of Jesus through his word, the Bible, and being filled daily with the Holy Spirit.

 But first we must make the faith choice to allow God to reshape our lives.  God cannot lead us by His Holy Spirit if we are content to navigate life on our own.  Fruit grows in proper conditions: light, water, good soil.

Application:

 -This is a message first and foremost to the whole people of God, the Church.

 Unity in the church is of utmost importance to God: If you live by the Spirit as a people, you’ll reflect these things: love, joy, peace…etc…

 This text of scripture is directed with laser-beam focus on a specific group of God’s people who were allowing their fellowship to be destroyed by disunity.  Notice Paul’s plural references: brothers (and sisters), serve one another, devouring each other.

 Paul highlights the sacred: unity among God’s church.

 That’s why prayer, fellowship, Bible study and communion are so important to our becoming more like the Church as God designed. 

 When the Holy Spirit has its way with us as a community of faith, as a church, we change.  Our behavior changes, we become more loving of God and neighbor.  (Acts 2) 

 - But again it comes down to this, the question freedom hangs on: do we genuinely believe that God’s Spirit is a sufficient guide for our lives? 

 Perhaps a different question ought to be, “Are we willing to surrender to God’s Spirit so that we may experience His kingdom and share it with our neighbor?”  Frederick Buechner says, “The Kingdom of God is where we belong.  It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it.” [i]

 Do you, do we, want to be free?  Do we want to bear fruit?  Let’s pray.

(c) Shaun Dyer

Zion Baptist Church