The Price of Freedom (Galatians 5:1-15)
There
are two ways of considering the price of freedom: first, there is the price
that was paid to purchase it and, second, there is the price that must be paid
for maintaining it. This is true in political freedom and national freedom, and
it is also true in spiritual freedom.
Jesus
and freedom
Jesus
said on one occasion, ‘If the Son sets you free, then you will be free indeed’
(John 8:31-38). In that passage he tells Jews who had believed in him about the
path of freedom. Their adoption of his instruction would indicate whether they
were genuine believers. The development of their debate indicated that they
were not the real thing. He makes clear
that the path of freedom and the price of freedom is abiding in his Word and
practicing it. A failure to obey his word means inevitably a loss of spiritual
freedom.
Jesus said that before he went to the
cross, but he knew that what he would do on the cross would become the basis of
freedom for his people. He also provided the Holy Spirit to bring about freedom
because ideally, ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ Where is
the Holy Spirit to be found? In the church. Moreover, he provided teachers and
pastors to guide his people in the path of freedom. That is a very important
aspect of their role and they have no authority to add or to take away from any
of his instructions which are now found in the Bible.
What the Saviour expects from his people
is that they will so value his freedom that they will be immoveable regarding
it and not allow themselves to come under any form of spiritual slavery. It is
religious slavery that Paul is referring to here and not any other form.
Believers are to be very concerned about how they treat the instructions of
Jesus.
Benefits
of freedom
What
is the problem of spiritual slavery? The problem is that it is a sphere where
Jesus does not operate with divine blessing. Inevitably, when a person begins
to focus on what he does, he takes the eyes of his heart off what Christ does. In
a nutshell, the Judaisers had said to the Galatians, ‘If you add your obedience
to faith in Christ, you will be a better Christian.’ The truth was that they
were in danger of ceasing to be Christian, and Paul makes that very clear when he
says that they had fallen away from grace.
Paul mentions several benefits of living
by faith. We can think about them briefly and at the same time ask ourselves if
he is describing us. The first is that the Spirit works in and through those
who have faith in Jesus. It looks as if Paul mentions two outlooks that are
evidences of the Spirit’s presence in our hearts.
First, we focus enthusiastically on the
future. We see this in the clause, ‘we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of
righteousness.’ From a negative viewpoint, it means that the Christian’s
priority is not life in this world. Instead, he and she longs for perfection.
Why do they have this focus? One reason is that they have discovered that they
are bigger sinners than they had previously imagined. Spiritual slavery hides
this from view. Another reason is that the current status of justification
points to the future experience of glorification when they will be holy and
sinless. They long for Christlikeness.
Second, they realise that most things in
life that non-believers think are important, including religious emphases,
don’t matter. In Christ’s kingdom, it makes no difference if a Jew is
circumcised and a Gentile is not. Neither state is a prerequisite for spiritual
living. Anyone that focuses on those things has wrong priorities. In fact, they
are not even worth an opinion, they are so pointless as far as spiritual growth
is concerned. What matters in the kingdom of Jesus, in the realm of the Spirit,
is loving expressions of faith.
Importance
of spiritual freedom
Paul
likens the experience of the Galatians to an athletic race that had started
well for them. Unfortunately they had been hindered. Surprisingly, the matter
that was hindering them had not been with them when they started the race.
Instead, it had been given to them while they were running. When we try and
picture such a situation we can see how absurd it was. Imagine an observer
running on to a racetrack and asking the athlete to take on board impediments
to progress. Such advice would normally be ignored. But the Galatians had not
done so. Instead, they had accepted what was offered to them. The apostle calls
them to remember their better days, which we know is often an effective call to
rethink where we are.
Paul points out that it does not take much
to disqualify a person when he says that ‘a little leaven leavens the whole
lump’. He is referring to the making of bread or cakes and the use of leaven in
the process. Or he could be pointing out that leaven in bread prevented it from
being accepted as an item in worship at the temple in Jerusalem. It would have
been inappropriate for a person to make such a loaf. Yet that was the kind of
activity the Galatians were engaging in and it was inevitable that their
contribution to spiritual progress would be rejected. In addition to memory,
they were to think about the danger of a little departure from God’s ways.
A third element in realising the
importance of spiritual freedom is for the Galatians to use their spiritual
ears. Who does Paul have in mind when he refers to ‘him who calls you’? He
could mean himself, but I suspect that the one he is in mind is Jesus who
called them initially through Paul and Barnabas and was still calling to them
through his gospel. All genuine preachers want their listeners to hear the
voice of Jesus through their sermons.
A fourth detail that can be drawn from
this section is that it is appropriate to ask God to remove those who are
causing the trouble. This is obvious from Paul’s words in verses 10 and 11. There
is punishment ahead from God for the ones promoting the false gospel and its
demands. We can see from Paul’s graphic illustration about castration how much
he valued spiritual freedom and the necessity of ensuring that no one destroyed
it.
The fifth detail regarding spiritual
freedom is that we should expect people to attempt to distort it and to
persecute God’s people when they practice it. I suspect that this is one of the
aspects that we are finding very hard at the moment because we in the West have
not had persecution for centuries. We get disturbed when our rights are
infringed, but maybe in the process we forget about the offence of the cross.
Paul was determined not to give up on that offence.
Practice
of freedom
How
and where do we practice freedom. Perhaps Paul’s response is initially
surprising because he cites a command from the Old Testament, which may have
been one that was often discussed by the Pharisees because on one occasion a
scribe had asked Jesus about the greatest commandment in the law. Instead of
slavery to the law as a means of attempting to obtain divine favour, true
freedom is expressed by loving service of others, here defined as neighbours.
In Romans 13:9, Paul says that the instruction to love one’s neighbour
summarises the second table of the law. The scribe in Mark 12:32-33, when
responding to Jesus, had recognised that loving God and neighbour was of much
more value than all the ritual sacrifices of the Levitical system. We can see
that the obvious application of the Old Testament law, including the ceremonial
and the civil, was practical love.
The wrong teaching of the Judaisers,
despite its seeming adherence to the law, was producing the opposite effect.
Instead of showing love, it was leading to nasty personal disputes, described
by Paul as animal behaviour. In that scenario, the only outcome was
destruction.
Application
The
first application concerns how we view Jesus. Obviously, there are numerous
ways we can do so. So it would seem appropriate to view him in connection to
any problem that is taking place. The people in Galatia were encouraged to view
Jesus as a liberator from religious slavery. So should we when people ask us to
do anything that is not required in God’s Word.
A second application concerns whether we
regard faith in Christ as sufficient for receiving divine mercy or do we
imagine that we need to add something to it from our own dedication. For
example, do we imagine that God is more likely to help us if we do certain
things? Usually, such ideas only come from comparing ourselves with others. God
does take note of our actions which please him, but they are not bargaining
chips for obtaining mercy.