No Longer Slaves But Free In Christ!

Galatians 4:8-11  Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.  But now that you know God — or rather are known by God — how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles?  Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?  You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!  I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

In the above passage, Paul shows concern that the Galatian Christians are returning to their old ways of living: the Jew back to observing the law and its special days and feasts, the Gentile back to worshipping demons and gods by participating in pagan festivals.  Paul knew these were weak and miserable principles, lacking any sustenance for victorious living and eternal life.  If the Galatians gave any credence to such practices, they would be enslaved again in a lifestyle that would lead to bondage in this life and to eternal death in the life that is to come.  As their spiritual father and shepherd, he warns them not to return to the unprofitable pastures of their past lives; desolate wastelands where they will not find God and will feed upon the fruits of the flesh that do not satisfy or build up the inner person.  When they were in those pastures, they did not know God; they were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.  They did not grow in faith and become more like God; they became more like the beggarly elements of the world around them.  Writing to the Romans, Paul said, 

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.  He goes on to describe that prior to knowing Christ, 

we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.  But now that we are released from the law, we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.  (Romans 7:4-6)  In Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are free to bear fruit for God and to show forth his love in a sinful world in need of his mercy and grace. 

 

 

Today, pastors do not have to be overly concerned about Christians dropping their allegiance to Jesus Christ to follow pagan Gods or that Christians will substitute the Jewish law with its concomitant sacrifices for the efficacious work of Jesus Christ and the cross.  These kind of reversals in belief are either very rare or nonexistent.  But what might happen within a Christian or even within a Christian community is what Jesus expressed in his parable of the sower.  Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable?  How then will you understand any parable?  The farmer sows the word.  Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown.  As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.  Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time.  When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.  Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;  but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."  The latter two conditions, where the seeds are sown in rocky places and thorns, are quite often seen in today's Christian community.  Some people receive the Good News with joy, their faces literally shine with this joy of finding Christ as their savior.  But all too quickly, when relationships and experiences in their lives are either hard or don't work out the way they desire, they become discouraged and walk away from Christ and Christianity.  The more prevalent problem in Christianity today is the lukewarmness of believers, illustrated by the seed among the thorns.  Christians hear the word, walk energetically and happily for a while in that light, but eventually allow the concerns of their lives and the deceitfulness of materialism to drain them of their zeal for Christ and his assignments for them.  They become unfruitful or marginalized: lacking prayer and dedication to the only one who offers eternal life.  Sometimes their only commitment to Christ is church attendance, which might be sporadic.

Paul fears for his Galatians, knowing their waywardness and inattentiveness to the purity of the gospel places them in danger of losing their belief in Jesus Christ.  He fears for them that he may have wasted his efforts on them.  He does not want them to end up in the condition described in Hebrews: It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.  (Hebrews 6:4-6)  He desires to stir up their allegiance to Jesus and his works and faithfulness to the Father.  Paul beseeches them to live by faith and not by works, not to return to the customs and religions of the past.  He warns them not to slide back into that which was never real, into that which has no eternal solutions for their lives.  He realizes if they throw Jesus Christ out of their lives, they are crucifying him again.  They are getting rid of the only answer for eternal life with God.  Turning their backs on Jesus means they are giving the gift God gave them back to God, dooming themselves eternally to be absent from a loving God.  Paul knows what he believes and is firmly committed to retrieving these wayward believers from the error of falling into Satan's traps.  He would say to them just as he said to the church in Rome: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”  (Romans 1:16-17)  Today is a good day for each of us to remind ourselves that our faith is based on nothing else than Jesus and his righteousness.  If we have turned back to any weak and miserable principles to substantiate our walk with the Lord, they will fail.  Christ alone is our cornerstone.  Seek him now: seek his will and his power through the Holy Spirit.  He will bless you with abundant life that overflows.  

Galatians 4:1-4 You Are An Heir!

Galatians 4:1-4  What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.  He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.  So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.  But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.  Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. 

The Jews were held captive to the law, the Gentiles to the basic principles of the world.  The Jews lived lives, attempting to please God through obedience to the letter of the law; the Gentiles lived their lives, attempting to please the basic elements they understood to be significant: the sun, moon, stars and planets.  The Jews had special ceremonies and special days to observe to please God; the Gentiles served the various gods of the basic elements by participating in special rituals and celebrations, particularly on selected days and times of the year.  Paul knew the Jews were trying to serve the one and only God by their obedience to the law and its rituals; he also knew the Gentiles were serving demons and evil spirits in their search to please the gods around them.  But in both situations, they were as children, bound to the traditions and the ceremonies of men, strictures that kept them from an intimate relationship with the only true God.  The Jews followed the law, which was good; it was light.  But the law did not allow a way for them to have direct communion with God.  The Gentiles served gods without substance or power, caught in lives of abysmal debauchery, leading to death.  When Paul wrote to the Romans, he said you used to be slaves to sin and furthermore you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness.  (Romans 6:17 & 19)  He understood that the efforts of frail humans did not lead to any sort of right living but kept people bound to impurity and wickedness, immature regarding the things of God. 

Both Jew and Gentile, before the sacrifice of Christ, were but children in their spiritual lives, kept from the freedom God intended for them.  The traditions and strictures of their culture were the guiding principles in their lives.  But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.  The Jews who were caught with the restraints of the law that always condemned them but could not free them would find FREEDOM THROUGH JESUS.  They would find their souls washed by the blood of the Lamb.  They would find eternal life embracing them through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Life eternal, face-to-face with their God, would be their inheritance.  And while walking this earth, they would have the voice of the Holy Spirit within them.  Likewise, the Gentiles would be free to find light in their darkness through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.  They would not be serving demons and devils; they would be set free from the bondage of darkness. Their lives would be polluted no longer by rituals and ceremonies of darkness.  IN CHRIST, they would find an eternal dwelling place where the Holy Spirit would come to abide with them, showing them how to serve the only true God in holiness and honesty.  The basic elements of existence would be God's new creation through Christ's sacrifice.  This was the inheritance of Jew and Gentile.  When we move into the next chapter in Paul's letter to the church at Galatia, we will see him come to the obvious conclusion of this state of grace in Christ Jesus: 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.  (Galatians 5:1)  All who are in Christ have been brought into his glorious kingdom of life.  Paul wrote: For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  (Ephesians 5:8) 

Those who have been adopted into God's family, whether Jew or Gentile, have the Holy Spirit within them.  They cry out, “Abba, Father,” knowing they have a heavenly Father who accepts them as his own.  Paul said those who are led by the Spirit are the children of God.  For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  (Romans 8:15-16)  We know that our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, sits at the Father's right hand, where He constantly pleads our case.  The writer of Hebrews says, knowing this, Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  (Hebrews 4:16)  Today, we are blessed beyond measure.  We are children of the King, cleansed and made holy by the shed blood of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the Lamb for sinners slain.  We no longer look to our own righteousness.  We do not try to keep holy days or religious observances, hoping they will earn us merit with God.  We join with our brother the Apostle Paul when he told Timothy of his faith despite his suffering: Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.  (2 Timothy 1:12)  We stand upon the shoulders of such men and women of faith who did not waver, did not faint, and did not fall back in the face of constant trials and great persecution.  They believed they were heirs of the promise of God and joints heirs with Christ.  They belonged to a new family as new creatures in Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Every one of us has the same inheritance they had.  We sing the same song of hope and deliverance.  We read in Psalm 40:1-3, I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.  He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.  Sing it loud, pilgrim, and wave your banner high.  You are an HEIR!   

Galatians 3:26-29 Children of God By Faith

Galatians 3:26-29  You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

We who are IN CHRIST, clothed with him, are all brothers and sisters, born into the same family of God through faith in Jesus Christ and his works.  He alone changes us into the likeness of God by placing himself IN US and we IN HIM.  This is the great mystery: we in him and He in us.  As Paul wrote, I have become its (the church's) servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness — the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  (Colossians 1:24-27)  Because of Jesus' work on the cross, our spiritual selves, our souls, can be an abode for the Holy Spirit.  Our very beings, not because of who we are but because of who Jesus is, are acceptable to God, bringing pleasure to him.  Jesus' substitutionary work on the cross gave us a rightness with God, a holiness, a perfection, that only a heavenly sacrifice could bring.  This holy propitiation, the washing away of our sins and cleansing of our lives, does not mean we don't have imperfections in the flesh, for our daily activities and thoughts are not always perfect or without blemish; but it does mean that we have a Savior and a constant advocate interceding on our behalf before the Father.  The sinless Son of God, the unblemished Lamb of God, brought a cleansing element to our souls that satisfies the righteous and holy God forever.  Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)  Only God can bring this purification to our souls.  

Members of a family usually have familial characteristics that can be identified easily by those who know the family.  Someone might say, "I see a little of Aunt Harriet in Suzy," or "Harold has the same nose as Uncle George."  These hereditary determinants are part of everyone's DNA.  We tend to look like the family members around us.  As we see in today's scripture, believers take on the nature and characteristics of Jesus Christ.  Why?  We are sons and daughters of faith because our father of faith is Abraham.  As surely as we are biologically determined, we are also determined, molded, by our position of faith in Christ Jesus.  We all become like he is.  Therefore, There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  We have his likeness, and we carry his body to the world as we function within the church.  We are members of his body.  He displays himself through us.  That is why we gather together on Sundays to be inspired to function as members of his body.  We do not come only to observe; we come to worship, to participate in his body as integral elements in his image on earth.  Each of us has faith to give to others.  We do this by fellowshipping, praying, caring, loving, and doing in the community of believers.  James said, Christians, show me your faith by your works.  Show me how much you are like Jesus Christ by your activity in his body, the church.  He concluded, As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.  (James 2:26)   Faith is the collateral we have to pass on to each other.  Faith is our investment in God's kingdom.  Just as we might give a dollar to a friend next to us who is in need, we, in the body of Christ, give faith, manifested by works, to each other to further the activity and health of the church.  We show our love and our concern for others through our faith in action.  

As individuals and also as members of Christ's body, we are joint heirs with Christ.  We are free from the restrictions of the law that condemn us, free to be God's sons and daughters as He leads us to do his will.  We are free to express his DNA in us, his likeness, his behavior, his voice.  Yet we must walk in that freedom.  Paul told the church, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  (Philippians 2:5-8NKJV)  We are in so many ways the ultimate Jew, meaning we are the chosen ones from every race, culture, and society, living to express God to a sick and dying world.  As his holy and righteous children, we will live in his intimate presence forever, with eternal life pulsating through our beings, no longer tied to time or space.  If heaven and earth pass away, we will still be in the presence of the living God.  No place is our eternal abiding place other than God.  No inheritance is ours but God.  We are like the Old Testament priests, God is our inheritance.  Land we do not need, gold and silver we do not covet.  We desire only the El Shaddai, the many-breasted God, as our protector, the keeper of our souls forever.  We are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise, children of the Most High God.  As you go through your daily walking-about life, think on these things.  Remember who you are, for you are not one person alone in a weary world: But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.  (1 Peter 2:9-10)        

Galatians 3:21-25 Let Faith Arise!

Galatians 3:21-25  Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?  Absolutely not!  For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.  But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.  Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.  So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.  Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

Before faith in Christ and his works, we were all prisoners of sin, designated by the law for eternal judgment.   None of us could escape this sentence of eternal damnation because the law revealed we were not perfect like God.  Jesus said, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  (Matthew 5:48)  As the Pharisees learned through Jesus' teachings, even our thoughts must be perfect.  After Jesus said He did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it, He talked about the heart.  He said, if we have murder, discord, anger, lust, greed, or any other sin in our hearts, we will be in danger of the fire of hell, and we will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  (See Matthew 5)  There can be no deviation from perfection in Christ if we want to be accepted by God into his family.  The law not only exposes our imperfections, it imprisons us, for we cannot escape from its condemnation.  It binds us to a sentence of death, rather than to the freedom of righteousness.  We are known as prisoners of sin: none escape this designation.  Why then the law?  The law controls this cancer of sin the best it can.  It cannot eviscerate sin from us, but it can help us to live orderly lives in our societies.  The law cannot set us outside of our imprisonment to sin into the freedom of righteousness with God.  The law can only dictate how we should live in this sinful world and show us where we fail.  The law attempts to control our nature by saying,  “Do not handle!  Do not taste!  Do not touch!”  (Colossians 2-21)  The stricture of the law helps to restrain our self-willed tendencies, which if allowed to go unabated would create untold misery and chaos in our world.  As Sir John Acton, a member of the British Parliament, said in 1887, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."  The law is good for it attempts to ameliorate man's innate desire to design the world around himself, but it ultimately fails in that it cannot change the heart.  

The law could not impart life: it could only describe what God desires in our lives.  The law has no creative power: no power to cleanse from sin, to create new life.  Life comes only from the Creator, Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  (John 1:1-4)  Without Christ in the formula of new life, we are hopelessly lost in our sins.  We are still imprisoned within the laws of life, knowing our failings, yet unable to break away from our bondage.  We are imprisoned in the laws of religion, culture, society, family, and the people around us.  Outside of Christ, we will always be condemned, for we will never be able to please all these laws.  Since we are earth-bound, laws are part of our existence, even the laws that we make for our own development.  But these laws can bring us back into condemnation and judgment after we know Jesus, preventing us from serving God in freedom as new creatures IN CHRIST.  We can imprison ourselves again by trying to please God through laws and obligations.  Then, how do we live?  How do we live as Christians?  If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.  For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”  (Galatians 2:18-21)  We don't rebuild our lives around the law: what is right; what is wrong.  No, we build our lives around Christ.  Who He is, not who we are.  Life, righteousness, holiness, self-worth, all come from him.  He made us everything that we need to be acceptable to God.  We are no longer imprisoned by condemnation, but we are free to live with God with our heads up high.  A little later in our study of Galatians, we will read: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  (Galatians 5:1)  This is our inheritance in Christ 

In our newly found state of freedom, what about our daily life?  How do we walk out this life if we live IN CHRIST?  We live by faith!  As Paul wrote to the church at Rome: For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”  (Romans 1:17)  Faith transforms life.  We know Christ's righteousness is our righteousness.  Knowing this, we become lovers of God, loving what HE loves, holding fast to the promises of his grace and mercy.  We know the truth: God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son; consequently, we love people because He loves them.  We serve people He desires to serve.  We go the extra mile because He goes the extra mile with them.  We seek to be his image on Earth by loving the people around us.  As Jesus was the servant to all, we become servants to all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  (Mark 10:45)  We follow Jesus by listening to the Holy Spirit within us.  For He is our blessed comforter and guide.  We love the unlovely, we care for the hurting.  We are a companion to those who are alone.  None of this is driven by a set laws, WHAT WE MUST DO.  Instead, we get up each morning, saying, "Lord, here I am, I am yours."  This is how we live in the Spirit.  Laws are not driving our lives; Christ, through the voice of the Holy Spirit, lives in us.  All of this comes through faith.  Faith is transpired through prayer.  As we pray, faith rises up from our hearts, as a sweet aroma.  Faith becomes a living substance God can use to move mountains.  As we read in Hebrews: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  (11:1)  We are no longer lost in sin and darkness: we have a living hope in a living Christ.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we believe in Jesus Christ.  We believe the living Word: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.  (Romans 8:11)  Arise dear friends and live!