Galatians 5 - Set Free for Real: Why Christian Freedom Isn’t About Rules or Rebellion

Are we living free? Or are we actually calling ourselves free and dragging the chains behind us? Hi, this is Jill from the Northwoods talking about the Bible one small chapter at a time. That's what we're going to find out today in Galatians 5. We are going to learn about what it means to be truly free. Paul shifts this idea away a little bit from theology to the idea between liberty and legalism. Whether you've grown up with lots of rules that define your faith, if you lived, as rules don't matter. Either way, this chapter speaks to you directly. In chapter 4, Paul gave us a contrast between Hagar and Sarah. Slavery versus promise. He told us that we're children of free women, not born of the law, but born of the Spirit. And so Galatians opens up that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then. Don't submit again to the yoke of slavery. We've seen in previous chapters that law had a purpose. It gave us a guideline, a speed limit to our moral life. It showed us what we were doing wrong. But like any speed limit, it also awakens rebellion in us. Well, you know what? It says 55, I'm going to go 60. We see something, a line that says, don't cross this line, and we cross that line. There's just something in our human nature that wants us to break rules. And that law, instead of saving us, exposes our inability to follow us and enslaved every single person, including Paul, who was the ultimate rules keeper. And so, Paul, please don't go back. Don't listen to those people who are saying that Jesus isn't enough. If you believe that circumcision or any work of the law is there to save you, Christ has no advantage for you. If you go back to obeying the law out of obligation, you are essentially saying that Jesus didn't do enough. You have to do more. He didn't complete the work. He left you a pile of dirty dishes to do. And we're not talking, you know, about, I mean, it is talking about the procedure of circumcision, but He's talking about the religious act, the belief that something is necessary for you to be saved. And it's your belief, Paul says, that severed you, severed the Galatians from Christ. They're falling away from grace because they don't believe it exists. They believe that there's more that they have to do. And because salvation is not earned, it's not about being Jewish or keeping the Sabbath or washing your hands in a ritualistic way. It's about faith working through love that God did all of it. He gives us a faith. He works through love. That's the part that matters the most. And Paul writes, you know, you're running well. Who hindered you? Who stopped you from being on the right track? Why are you so confused about this? And he uses that illustration about leavening. A little leavening ruins the whole batch. Leavening does whatever it does. It's a very small particle, right? If you put leavening in flour, it makes you a wonderful bread. But you have bad leavening, false teaching. It infects the whole bit of dough. It infects the whole body. And that's what's happening here. Some false teachers came here, said some bad things, and now it's infecting you and hampering your grace from God because you are starting to believe there are things you need to do. And then Paul says something really interesting. He says, you know, if I still preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted? That reminds me, you know, that Timothy was circumcised by Paul. Yes, but not for salvation. It was for outreach. It was so that he could talk to the Jewish culture better. And it wasn't necessary for his salvation. Timothy could have gone his whole life without being circumcised. Sure, he's glad he found that out. Titus, a Greek, wasn't circumcised. And Paul doesn't think he has to be. So Paul's not being inconsistent with this. He is being contextual that you can follow rules, you can follow laws. You know, some people like to do it. You know, I know that there are people who literally like to keep Sabbath, even though they're Christians and it's not part of their faith. Women who wear head coverings. As long as they understand it has nothing to do with their salvation. The work was done already. These false teachers are accusing him and going after him for saying even that. So he was saying, you know, that if I was saying it's fine, go get circumcised, why are they coming after me? And Paul says, that's why. Because I say it's not mandatory. That he wishes those who troubled the Galatians would just emasculate themselves entirely. So there's a blunt statement, but the stakes are high. He is shifting those people away from and saying that Christ's sacrifice on the cross wasn't good enough. His resurrection wasn't good enough. You are called to freedom. This freedom isn't permission then, this is the second part, to live sinfully. Freedom from sin. Freedom from, you know, to do what you want to do. Instead, he's saying this freedom is free to love God. Freedom to love God. Paul says the whole law is fulfilled in this. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said the same thing. When we, I don't know, conflict and devour each other with these things, Paul warns us, we'll be consumed by it. And that sure describes our world, right? When Christians fight and backbite and are divided, the whole world witnesses that. And the whole church suffers because of that. That's the idea. Because, you know, now they're saying, oh, you know, they don't even love each other. Why are they telling this? So the idea is that it's important, you know, I just want to finish this out, that just because we are free doesn't mean that we do everything that we want to do. God still has a code and a method for our lives and how we should live it. He is trying to perfect us into a more holy being. And we are now free to follow and love Jesus as we should. So he urges us now to walk by the Spirit. And if we do, we won't be gratified by these spirits, these the desires of the flesh. And those are going to be all the things that we know we shouldn't be doing. What's interesting is that Paul doesn't name these Judaizers. He doesn't get that specific. But what we know is we know exactly who they are because we know of the history in the history of the church. But their influence and what they're doing is clearly destructive and destructive to the church of Galatia. The key is that the flesh and the spirit are at war at all times. They pull an opposite direction. If we live by the spirit, We're not under the law anymore. Christ freed us from both extremes. The extreme of legalism, I have to dot every action in my life, and the bondage of lawlessness. I'm just going to live like I want to live. Neither of those two things are right, right? We are going to work inside of righteousness, but not because it saves us, but because we love God and we are trying to work ourselves through being a better being, a better human. And Paul lists these works of the flesh, sexual morality, impurity, idolatry, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, drunkenness, and there's a lot more. These are the signs of a life without the Spirit. And if that's what defines their lives, they are not on the direction of inheriting the kingdom of God. They won't. That's the idea. And if we sit there and let them define us either through legalism or through lawlessness, We're in trouble. The fruit of the Spirit, though, are actions that we perform when the Spirit is growing inside of us. And that's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those are the fruits that come out of the tree that we're trying to grow, right? We talked about Jesus, right? He saw a fig, and he said, that fig is not producing fruit. Or here's a thorny vine. It is producing poisonous fruit. It's not producing grapes for wine. How we know what's inside of us is what comes out of us. And when we see these fruits, we know the Spirit is present. And Jesus said, a good tree bears good fruit. And that's the idea. To follow Christ is to crucify the flesh, its passions, and letting the Spirit guide our lives. As Paul closes this chapter, he reminds us, don't be conceited. Don't be provoked to envy each other. Boy, isn't that our culture? All we do is spend time either trying to tear each other down or being jealous of other people. People living for themselves, attacking each other, measuring themselves against each other, that is not the way of the Spirit. And whether it's a legalistic religion, reckless self-indulgence, both paths miss the point that we've been called to What we're going to talk about next in Galatians 6 is Paul calls us to bear each other's burdens, to continue to walk in the Spirit. And it's not about personal holiness or, like I said, saving ourselves. It's about community transformation. What I'm going to take time to reflect on is the idea that fruits are... What kind of fruits are growing in my own life? What kind of fruits are growing in your life? Are they traits of the Spirit? Are they evident that the spirit is inside of us? Or is it evident that the works of the flesh are creeping in? The goal isn't perfection, it's direction. And it means that being led by the spirit, are we drifting towards the flesh? Are we drifting towards legalism? Are we drifting towards the good fruits of love and joy and the things that we're supposed to be producing? So we don't examine necessarily all of our actions, too. We examine our attitudes, our responses, our reflections, but then in the end, we look to see what fruits we're producing. That's where the Spirit is present, and that's where transformation happens. What I'm going to pray about is that God has given us this freedom in Christ to forgive us so many times that we go and forgive each other. His love proves to us our worth, not because of our effort, but because He helps us to walk with the spirit daily, crucify our desires in the flesh, produce fruit that reflects God's character, and let us love each other with our actions and our words so that we may be in humility and grace. God shows us the example of what we're supposed to be living in, and I hope that he protects me, and I hope he protects you against the extremes of legalism and lawlessness. that we become people who belong to his true spiritual freedom, and not for ourselves, but by his glory. What I'm going to share with others is this idea that true Christian freedom isn't about what we're meant to live. You know, you're not meant to live like that. You're not, you know, you're meant to do this, and you're meant to do that, and it's not about the ments. It's not enslavement to the rules or enslavement to sin, neither of those things, but instead, freedom Christ that empowers us to love deeply and serve freely and walk around joyfully in the Spirit. It's that kind of freedom that this world can offer us. And it's one really worth striving for. And it's the kind of freedom that the world can't offer us. And it's worth living for. All right, everyone, thanks so much. Appreciate you being here. Hope you're having a great study through the Bible. And that you have anything to say to me, you can email me at jillstar.com. with smallsteps. You can go ahead and put a comment in the chat channel. Love to hear from you. Hope you're doing great. Thanks so much and have a great day.