Freedom

Celebrate freedom.

      Freedom on the Fourth of July conjures up all sorts of images. One of the first images that comes to my mind is William Wallace standing on a hill with one hundred other men screaming the word at the top of their lungs. Those men fought bravely for their freedom hundreds of years ago just as all our service men and women work tirelessly and fight bravely for our freedom today. It takes thousands upon thousands of dedicated persons to give us a level of security today, and we often take that for granted. It takes one person to tear down those walls of security and bind us in the shackles of fear. That person, the one who brings fear and death, looks different to a lot of people. I'm not writing as much about him though. I'm writing about the one person who secures our eternal freedom, that we may live fulfilling lives today.

Jesus Christ.

      This is a brief meditation on the book of Galatians, written as a letter to Galatia by the apostle Paul. The book spends itself in the pursuit of making a case for our freedom in Christ. This is worth reading, writing about, and talking about. Let's not waste our time.

      For those who long to know God, we must first gain some perspective on ourselves. How can you view anything properly if you aren't even sure of the lens you are viewing it through?

      To gain perspective on ourselves, it doesn't take long to begin to understand our depravity and our need of a greater good, a Savior. If we would plumb the depths of our depravity, we would find in our hearts the tendency to turn good things to bad. Glimmers of light break the darkness whenever we experience true goodness, but those glimmers radiate from the truth that stands outside of ourselves. This is the true light. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Call this truth the Word of God.

      And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. [John 1:14]

      Jesus used his life and ministry to do many things. He spoke of the Truth but he also spoke to each person individually, showing them how they had come to misunderstand the truth. He exposed every misuse of what God had created for good, declaring that the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, was here and being made full. At the fullness of this Kingdom, there would be no evil. [Revelation 21]

      With such a powerful message, many expected Jesus to show his power by creating a kingdom of government on earth. They expected a warrior, a leader, and Jesus was those things, just not in the way they first expected. Jesus exposed the awful use of power by the authorities, which had be used to enslave and oppress people, by being a mockery in court where he was ridiculed, shamed, and tortured. The power of Jesus and his cross scream loudly “Look at what you've done – this is not the way things were meant to be. You've lost your freedom. You've made a mess of things.”

      Freedom was lost under the law, but because of Jesus' death at the hands of the law and at the hands of God, freedom is again ours.

      For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, and do not submit yourself again to slavery. [Galatians 5:1]

      We do not live in this freedom from Christ by continuing to rely on ourselves. We will never climb a ladder of good works into heaven.

      In his letter, Paul goes as far to say “You are severed form Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”

      “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” [Galatians 5:4-5]

The only thing that counts is Christ. Faith begins and endures in love.



       So this is the message of freedom. When we lost freedom because we subjected ourselves to slavery by our own sin, when we made bad things out of the good things God gave us, God made a way through Jesus. He made a way back to Him, back to freedom, and only through Jesus. What Jesus has done, do not attempt to do better. Do not attempt to continue to earn the free grace of God by working tirelessly at making yourself better. That's not freedom – that's slavery to the law and slavery to self, the very things that Jesus has freed us from.

      Live in love. Walk in the Spirit of God, which is no longer our spirit, but His. Produce the fruits of the Spirit [Galatians 5:22-24] – but remember that those are produced by the Spirit and not yourself.
What God has done, let no man un-do. Jesus set you free, so walk with him and don't wander off trying to do it all yourself.

That's freedom, eternal freedom.