The Book of Galatians #23
Galatians 5:13-
I left us hanging in the middle of a thought last week. We were looking at Galatians 5:13-16 where Paul is helping his hearers to understand what freedom in Christ is all about.
Specifically he is describing freedom from having to observe the law because it is commanded. The New Covenant that we have in Christ offers us an inner power and compulsion through the Holy Spirit. So we are, as the old hymn says, “Free from the law, O happy condition”.
Now to better understand what freedom in Christ is, Paul reminds them of what it is not. There are three things in particular that he mentions.
First of all, Christian liberty is not freedom to do anything you want to do.
Ever heard anyone say that? If I believed like you Baptists then I’d get saved and do anything I want to do.”
Not if you understand what Christian liberty is. Look at verse 13 again.
What does he mean by “the flesh”? Well, we certainly don't mean what's clothing your skeleton. It’s not the physical body.
Instead that is one of Scripture’s ways of describing the fallen human nature. It is the old man.
We were not set free in Christ to do whatever we want. Christian liberty is not designed to give the flesh an opportunity to sin. If you're truly saved, you won't be looking for an opportunity to disobey God and please the flesh.
Notice the word “opportunity” there in verse 13. The KJV uses “occasion”. It's a military term that speaks of the base of operation. In other words, Paul is saying “Don't use your Christian liberty as the base of operation to commit sin.”
Christian freedom is not freedom to sin. It's freedom from sin. We get a little commentary on that in Romans 13:14 where the Bible says, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."
There's a contrast there. You either make provision for the flesh or you put on Jesus Christ. What does he mean put on Jesus Christ? Think about how Jesus lived out his humanity. He did not think of Himslef. He did not provide for His own desires. He desired to obey God. He said, "my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me."
Christ was free and it’s evidenced in that He didn't please Himself. He's the perfect example of selflessness. True Christian freedom is to be free from slavery to self desire and to be totally liberated to do whatever God wants you to do.
So first of all, our freedom is not a license to sin. That blows the modern-day arguments of the liberals out of the water. You can’t live anyway you want to and believe that God won’t condemn you.
Sexual sin is the current front-page illustration of that. God’s Law was very clear regarding sexual behavior. And the Old Testament covered everything. Adultery, animals, homosexuality, incest; it’s all in there.
And even though much of that is not repeated in the New Testament, God hasn’t changed His mind. He is simply guiding His people through the indwelling Holy Spirit rather than the Old Testament law.
Therefore, I cannot say, that’s not repeated int eh New therefore it must be OK. God’s Word hasn’t changed; He hasn’t changed; Jesus hasn’t changed. Therefore, His Holy Spirit will never be content to let me indulge in sin contrary to His word and excuse it away by saying, “I have freedom in Christ.”
Whatever else it means, it doesn’t mean I can do anything I want to do.
Secondly, Christian freedom is not freedom to injure others.
Look at the last phrase of verse 13
Somebody could say, “I'm free in Christ, so I'm going to do what I want no matter who it hurts or injures.”
As someone in the secular world has observed, your freedom ends where my nose begins.
That’s true spiritually speaking also. Again, the argument of the Judaizers would have been, If everybody’s free what keeps them from abusing others?”
And that’s a valid question. Here we get into this whole area of Christian liberty and relationship to my brother. My freedom is not a license to hurt my Christian brother. In fact, if you look at verse 13 you see that, in fact, just the opposite is true.
And to do justice to the verse, it really needs to be left intact. Our freedom in Christ isn't to do whatever we want, it's to do that which is going to help our brother, not hurt him.
And I like that word serve. It means bond slavery. It means to do that which would serve someone else. Make yourself a slave to someone else.
It’s kind of a paradox isn't it? Liberty and slavery don’t seem to go together. But that’s the way it works. It might be a paradox, but it’s not a contradiction.
Our freedom allows us the opportunity, not to do whatever we want, but to serve others.
That needs some explaining. Who is it that “free” Christians are to serve? I think he is directly addressing the conflict that has been created in the Galatian churches and his appeal is for those who understand Christian liberty to use it, not selfishly, but to help others come to understand it by serving them.
Romans 14 gives us some help. Here Paul identifies the one who is legalistic as “weak” and the one who understands liberty as “strong”. Notice what he says in verses 1-3.
In the church at Rome there were a lot of Jewish converts. So suppose here is a Jew who is saved and all of a sudden he is told, “You’re not under the law anymore. That’s over. You're free, no more bondage to the ceremonies, you can change your diet. You can change your cooking habits.
You can change all the feasts. You can alter everything. You're free from all of that.”
And he just gags. There's no way he's going to do that. There's no way he can get by the Sabbath and not keep all the laws. He's not about to carry sticks on the Sabbath. He's not about to work on Saturday so he can meet with the Christians on the Lord's day, the first day of the week. He can't do that in that his conscience yet.
In particular this text is talking about meat that had been offered to idols. Let’s suppose one of the good Gentile brothers in the church invites him over for supper and decides to fix some of this meat and it causes some strife among the brethren and they get into it about what’s allowable and not and so forth and so on.
Even though he is free, he may not have come to understand and accept that yet. So what is Paul’s counsel to the one who understands his freedom? Don’t sit there and eat that steak in front of this guy and talk about how immature he is in the faith for not doing it. Don’t flaunt your freedom and injure him, instead serve him. Help him. Encourage him.
There are some that are weak in the faith. There are some who are stronger in the faith. But God loves and cares about the eaters and the non-eaters, both the weak and the strong.
So don't make a big issue over whether he eats or doesn't eat a certain thing.
And what he is saying to the mature in Chapter 14 is “Just remember the weak person hasn't yet discovered the meaning of his freedom. He's still a legalist. He still sees Christianity as a set of rules. He hasn't yet understood his liberty.”
And boy there are a lot of Christians like that. There are a lot of churches like that. Everybody has to function by the rules.
And generally speaking, it is all about the non-essentials; what Paul calls “doubtful things”.
Our freedom is no excuse to be all high and mighty about insignificant things like eating certain foods and such neutral things.
What do I mean insignificant things? Does that mean baptism? No. Does that mean the authority of the Word of God? No.
Does it mean going to Wal-Mart or eating out at a restaurant on Sunday? Yes.
If in your mind there's something wrong with shopping at Wal-Mart or eating out on the Lord's day, then that's fine. But understand, that's a non-essential. That's just the way you feel. Maybe you've been raised that way. I'm not going to take you over there and push in the door and say be free my brother!
If that's where you are, I love you, and I'll say praise the Lord! I thank God for your convictions.
But you have no right to impose your convictions on someone else and accuse them of being non-spritiual just because you feel that way.
That’s true of shopping on Sunday or doing business with a store that sells beer or even worship styles. We have no right to expect everyone has to do it like us or their not right with God.
(Joe Wiggins and beer)
Listen to Paul’s counsel in Romans 14:4-12
You let God be the judge of him. Don't flaunt your freedom over somebody who doesn't understand it. You're going to meet legalistic brothers. You're going to meet people who think it's wrong to dress a certain way. It's wrong to do certain things on the Lord's day. It's wrong to go to Disney Land or wear Calvin Klein jeans.
So what is our responsibility?
Romans 14:19-21
Christian liberty is not the freedom to injure my brother. It is not an opportunity to do whatever I want and say I'm free, I'll live it up. It is the freedom to lovingly serve one another.
There are some things that I could do that are not wrong. But they are those gray area things that to some people would be very, very wrong.
And so I don't do those things because I wouldn't do anything consciously to offend my brother. That would be a misuse of my liberty.
(Subaru)
By the way, what if if you decide you're just going to use your liberty to do whatever you want. You're going to live it up. You're going to go out and drink and smoke and do whatever you want and maybe even throw in some of those little kind of neutral things and just live it up. Do you know the result?
Verse 15
You're going to have the whole church in conflict fighting itself. The words bite and devour are words used primarily of animals. We act like animals. If you're going to always be looking out for number one and using your strength to your advantage, you’re reduced your existence to that of an animal.
Is that not how they live? It’s all about survival and protection, even if it involves consuming your own offspring. That’s the way selfish, immature church members are. We destroy, not only the unity and testimony of the church, we destroy each other.
Christian freedom is not the freedom to do anything you want, no matter who it hurts. And finally,
Christian freedom does not mean you can ignore the law.
Verse 14
Freedom in Christ isn't freedom to ignore the law. Instead, it's freedom to fulfill the law.
Remember, we’re talking about eh Moral Law of God that never changes. Not the civil and ceremonial stuff that has passed away, but the moral law.
Now for Paul the moral law is summarized in love. That's really nothing new. Leviticus 19:18, tells us the law is summarized in love all the way back then.
Again, what has changed is that it's now made possible by the power of the indwelling Christ. The requirements haven't changed but the basis of operation has moved from external to internal.
The law is simply this, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
So Paul’s message comes to a sharp focus here. Christian liberation does not result selfishness or taking advantage of others, and It does not ignore God's moral law. Instead, it fulfills it from the inside.
Back over in Romans 13:8-10 Paul said, "You've heard the law, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not covet," thou shalt not do this, thou shalt not do that, and they said the whole law is fulfilled in this. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self."
If you have love you don't need those laws.
Think about it: Do I need a law that says don't kill if I love somebody? Do I need a law that says don't covet if I love somebody? Do I need a law that says don't steal if I love somebody?
No! Think about it like this: As a Christian do you not do those things because there is a law against it or because you are a Christian and you love the Lord and want to follow His example and teaching?
See, when a Christian acts on the principle of love, he is fulfilling everything that mosaic law was intended to accomplish, but he's doing it from the inside. We are free in Christ, not to serve self, but I'm liberated from myself to serve God and others.
Now let me wrap it up by showing you something. in the three points that I gave you, every relationship of your life is covered.
First of all, I told you that Christian liberty is not freedom to do whatever you want. That's self-control. That covers your relationship with yourself. Christina liberty is self-control.
Secondly, I said that Christian liberty is not freedom to injure others. That addresses your relationship with others, both friends and enemies. Here we are directed to love and serve.
And thirdly I said Christian liberty is not freedom to ignore the law, but to fulfill it. That is your relationship with God.
Therefore, my freedom is expressed in self-control, love of others and obedience to God's law. Every relationship is harmonized in Christian liberty.
So last week we saw what Christian liberty is, then we looked at what it is not. Next week, from verse 16 we’ll see how it operates. Let’s pray
