Galatians - Real Freedom

Christ died to set believer free.  He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly!  Yet much of the time believers continue to live as if we were still slaves - to sin, to the law, to the world.  The book of Galatians is about the freedom which God won for the believer in Jesus Christ.  This study will take you verse-by-verse through the book of Galatians - called the "Magna Carta" of the Christian faith.  We are all in chains - Come to Christ and be Free Indeed.

Who We Were

Philip Yancey, in his book What's So Amazing About Grace, tells a story about a woman that he knew who was struggling with some major issues, including drug addiction and prostitution. When he asked her if she would like to come to church she replied, "Church? Why would I go there? They would just make me feel worse!" This quote probably reflects the attitude of more people then we know, and it is heart breaking. In the same book Yancey poses a powerful question which I will paraphrase, "Why were tax collectors, drunks, and prostitutes so comfortable around Jesus, yet now so uncomfortable around those who now claim to be His followers?"

Jesus was not sinful in any way, nor was he permissive of sin. Yet He embodied grace and compassion and displayed it freely to these hurting people. Paul wrote: "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

May we never forget: Being a Christian is not about what we have done, but about what HE has done. When we see the lowest wretch in the saddest condition, totally by their own doing (or not), we must always remember, "...but for the grace of God, there go I." Other religions of this world may grow because of the greatness of it's adherents, but true Christianity can only grow because of the greatness of our God. There is not one person in human history at whom we can look down our nose and say, "I would never be that bad!" But only confess the greatness of our Lord who saves us at His own expense. We can only confess, that if it had not been for the Grace of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice for our sin and His resurrection from the dead, we would be no better off. We have a great message of love and grace for the lost! We can weep with them and say, with all honesty and humility, "I am no better than you, no stronger, no smarter, but I have placed my faith in Jesus Christ, and HE has saved me." We don't clean up to come to God, we come to God to be cleaned. Do you know someone who needs to hear this message?

Rejoice!

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Phil. 4:4 (NASB)

It's funny, we get all bent out of shape about certain things and not others. Legalistic Christians will get their rope in a knot about dancing, rock music, drinking alcohol, tobacco, and a variety of other things. The funny thing about those things is that the Bible doesn't say anything forbidding a single one of them! (For sure, alcohol not in excess is in there, but there is no word against responsible drinking for those who are of age) It has always felt a bit strange to me, for sure. But I think it's funny that the actual commands of scripture are so often overlooked. When did one Christian ever say to another, "I'd like to talk to you about your sin issue. You simply are not rejoicing in the Lord at the moment, and Philippians says that we should be rejoicing ALWAYS!" I have never heard that comment uttered between two Christians, but I wish that I had.

It seems the usual conversation that comes from a rebuke about some non-biblical issue (such as dancing or listening to rock and roll) is followed by a long boring diatribe that is completely free from any grace or joy addressing why a certain behavior should be avoided. However, how would the rebuke over rejoicing have to go? I can imagine a number of different ways it could be done, but it would seem that the "rebuking" party would have to make a serious effort to explain to the party who is a down in the mouth why they should be rejoicing. Telling about how good the Lord is and how rich His blessings are. That's a conversation I would like to hear.

I love that the Lord's desire for us is that we should be rejoicing. All that He is makes us able to rejoice. There is no aspect of His character that we cannot be encouraged by. The Lord is so good to us, and we should be rejoicing each and every day. I think, though I am not sure, that if we are not rejoicing it is for one of two reasons (or both):

1) We don't understand/know.

2) We don't believe.

Either we don't understand the great love He has for us or we don't believe it. We don't understand what He has done for us and what He is doing in us, or the good news is simply too good to be true. In my life it can also come from forgetting or losing sight, but that (I think) is closely akin to our not understanding/knowing. So I would say I'm pretty well split between 1 and 2 most of the time. What brings you back to rejoicing?

A Free Gift

Romans 6:23 tells us: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." This verse gets used when explaining salvation to people all of the time. After this verse is brought out we follow the usual steps through how we have a choice to either put our faith in Jesus and recieve the full life which he gives (John 10:10) or we can reject Jesus and face the judgement of eternal separation from Him (Revelation 20:15). While this is true, it is not actually what Paul is thinking about when He wrote the verse. (Note: I am not saying it is wrong to use this verse when explaining salvation. I am merely saying that the context points to a more direct application.)

Romans 6 isn't addressing non-believers telling them why they should come to Christ, here the Holy Spirit is addressing people who have already put their faith in Jesus, been identified in him in His death, burial and ressurrection. So what is this death that can be reaped by someone who is already saved? Is our salvation in question? Is our hope of eternal life to be dimmed by the chance that we may be reaping death for our actions constantly? No.

This chapter is telling us about the Christian life in very exciting terms. We are given the piciture in Romans 6 that the believer has two choices. We have been freed from the power of the Sin Nature that ruled us, and now we can present ourselves to God or to Sin. What happens if we present ourselves to sin? Sin pays wages!

Wages are earned. If someone recieves wages it is because he worked for them. After a week of work the employee doesn't have to beg for his wages, and then thank the benevolence of His employer for paying him. He earned the money and it was payed to Him. So what are the wages that we recieve for living as slaves to sin? Death.

Death in scripture is a powerful and complicated word. Death doesn't just mean physical death in Scripture. Death means separation. When Adam and Eve at the apple they were told that they would die on the day that they ate of it...yet they didn't physically die on that day. On that day they did die spiritually: they were separated from God. This rings true with what Jesus would say later in the true Lord's Prayer: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3) So, when the believer presents himself to his Sin Nature to obey it the results (wages) are separation from God. Though that believer is still saved by the work of God, because of His faith in Christ Jesus, He is out of fellowship. The thing that is needful in this situation is confession and repentance (1 John 1:9). This, however, is not the main thrust of what I hoped to address in this posting.

There is more great news yet here. The natural conclusion that we are bound to make from looking at, and understanding, Romans 6:23 in context is to say something to the effect of: "OK, I get it sin means death. So, I'm going to try super hard not to ever sin again and then I won't get death! Then I will earn life!" The trouble with this logic is that you can only earn one thing in this verse. If you want to earn something you have only death to choose from. If you want life (again, this is talking about the christian life, NOT salvation) we must accept it as a free gift from Jesus Christ. We must believe that real life only comes from him and recieve it! Trusting in Jesus fully is the way to be saved (we don't contribute even .0000001 percent of the process), living the Christian life successfully is trusting in what He has done and is doing (again, we don't contribute even .0000001 percent of the process). That's bad news for legalists, but GREAT news for Christians!