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Set Free In Christ - Gal. 5
Set Free In Christ - Gal. 5
Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Set Free? We have never been in bondage to anyone!
Well, actually we have. Financial debt? Social obligations? Restrictions by various governmental laws? Etc. Yea, but … That is a real ‘but’ – for we were/are NOT automatically free from self and our habits NOR financial obligations we have entered into NOR laws of government that are meant to provide for a civil society in which to live. If we owed $10,000 on our credit card when we were baptized, when we came up out of the water, we still owed the $$. If we were serving a prison sentence for a crime we had done, we will still do the time.
So, the question is real, WHAT were/are we set free from? In the context of Paul’s argument here in Galatians 3-4, the obligation of fulfilling all of God’s law on our own. We have found forgiveness from all of our past sins. We have found the way of forgiveness from our present sins (cp. 1 John 1:7-9; 2:1-2, etc.). This is the debt that would have eternal consequences.
So, in a broader view of such freedom, it is founded upon the concept of sin and its consequences. The soul that sins shall die” said Ezekiel (18:20). The wages of sin is death wrote Paul (Romans 6:23). The penalty of death – yet in our ‘living’ most people in the world are simply unaware of such indebtedness and slavery!
Such is NOT a freedom TO engage in sin and disobedience to God (“For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” Gal. 5:13). We became slaves of righteousness! (Rom. 6:19) We are to realize we are now slaves unto God (Rom. 6:22).
I am FREE – free to serve God. Yes, Lord, what would you have me to do today? Was that your waking thought?
Hugh
