Claim Your Freedom - Galatians 5:1-5

A generation is said to be the average length of time that expires between the birth of a parent and the birth of his/her first offspring. I do not remember ever seeing the exact average as pertains to the citizens in the United States so I will just assume that it is twenty years or five generations equals one hundred years. This means that we are living in the eleventh or twelfth generation after our founding fathers.
It has always been the assumption of conservative Christian thought that time is an excellent teacher because of the accumulation of experiences that occur. As a conservative pragmatic person I sometimes think that time is a better teacher of forgetfulness than it is of remembrances. So often when a person has endured a sequence of hard times his bent is to forget about the pain and anguish as soon as possible. The actual response is to try in every way possible to see that their offspring does not have to suffer the same pain or hardships. The generation that follows is never made fully aware of the price that has been paid for their so-called freedom.
Our lesson today is entitled CLAIM YOUR FREEDOM. Personally, I have considered this word {FREEDOM} from every angle, and I do not believe that the state of {FREEDOM} even exists. Freedom is actually two words and the last word is [DOM] and it means {the state of being; or those belonging to a group;} therefore it is a state or fact of being an American citizen; or it is the state or fact of being a Christian—or even being a member of your earthly family.
Freedom consists of two separate words—the first of which is FREE, which means that something of worth, or true value, is obtained by a person without any cost to him/her in money or in kind. To obtain anything free means that you now own an unmerited gift that cost no one anything; and that appears to me to be impossible. Why? Because we are not totally free in America and what freedom we experience was bought and paid for with the blood of the faithful soldiers that have given their all.
The lesson admonishes us to CLAIM OUR FREEDOM and we are able to do that only because Jesus Christ paid the price on the Cross of Calvary. If there ever was a misnomer this is it—because our salvation is only free to us and not to our Savior who paid the ultimate price.
We have studied the first four chapters of Galatians and find that Paul’s opponents have appeared creditable. They did not present any wild ideas about obtaining religion; neither did they suggest idol worship. They simply held out that the law had been give by God and could not be replaced. This was devastating to Paul who had lived by the law, and knew it better than most. He had met Christ personally and knew by that experience that Christ died for the sins of men and that salvation came by God’s grace through our faith and nothing more or less. For four chapters now, Paul has argued this point without relenting.
He is still somewhat perplexed to find that the Jews will not accept fully his teaching. Now throughout the remainder of this letter to the Galatians he will try to show them that they can experience this salvation simply by faith. He tells them that they now have the freedom they have always wanted because Christ has now paid the price that makes it FREE to them…that it is unmerited grace; undeserved grace; and cost them nothing, but has already been paid for in full. He fully explains this in the very first verse of chapter five.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Like I said at first, freedom does not exist outside of Christ. Christ set us free—so salvation is free to us. But it was not free to Christ because he DIED that we might be free. So, once saved no man should allow anyone or anything to cause him to willfully sin again. Paul told the Gentiles {us} that if they {or we} allowed themselves/ourselves to be circumcised thinking there was any value in it that they/we were actually taking their/our salvation into their/our own hands and Christ is of no value. There is no substitute for Christ.
I ask, are you a good person? You answer, “Oh yes, I think so. I go to church regularly. I tithe, pray, sing in the choir; and I visit the ill and give to the poor—I love the Lord and I am proving it by doing right by his little ones just as he told me to do. I live a Godly life as nearly perfect as I possibly can and I believe that is all Christ expects of me. I will go to heaven!”
I then ask God, is he/she a good person? God says, “No, there is no one good, no not one. All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. And then I went back and read this second verse in Galatians which says that if you allow yourself to be circumcised {or do anything else to obtain salvation} “it means that Christ is of no use to you at all.”
I remind you again, there are only two covenants. The first demands that you keep the law…all of it…all of the time—and you can not fail any where or any time; if you do you are forever lost. The second covenant demands that you live a perfect life. And it also declares that it is impossible for you to live a perfect life. But in due time [at the right time] God sent his Son, Jesus Christ who died on the cross and paid for every sin you have, or will ever commit. Then he told us through Paul, in Galatians, that if we would accept his grace through faith, repent of our sins and ask Him to save us—all he has to do is write our name in the Book Of Life, because he has already paid the price for our sins…they are already forgiven.
You obey the law by your works—you do what ever it requires. Those of you that try to be made right [or put right] with God by obeying the Law through your lawful works, have cut yourselves off from Christ. You are outside [and not in] God’s grace.
Paul was very concerned about his early followers that had begun to stray. He said to them, “you were doing so well! Who made you stop obeying the truth?” Whoever this man is, God will punish him.” Paul continued condemning this man. He said, “I wish the people that are upsetting you would go all the way; let them go on and castrate themselves!” I think that he was saying that if circumcision will take care of the lack of cleanliness—then castration should take care of committing adultery. What ever he meant by it—it was said in a tone of condemnation for their false teaching.
In verse thirteen he tells us that we were called to be free. God made us to be free. Sin took our freedom away. Then Jesus purchased our freedom and it is ours for the asking. However once we are saved…once we are free…we can not allow that to be an excuse for our letting our physical desires rule over us. As Christians we are to let love make us serve one another. This is not to be our personal choice. We must serve one another.
Christ said that he did not come to destroy [or condemn] the law, but he came to fulfill it. How did he do that? He fulfilled the entire law by making the 11th [eleventh] commandment. First, he loves us more than he loved his own life and then told us to “LOVE YOUR FELLOW-MAN AS YOURSELF.” Christ told his disciples that this was a greater law than any of the first ten recorded in the Old Testament. The entire law is summed up in that one statement.
Watch the news carefully for the next few days and see what most of our foreign neighbors are saying about America. Do they treat us as friends or foes? You make the decision. Here is what Paul told us about them. “If you act like animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.”