Gospel Freedom
Galatians 5:1-15
Main Idea: Christ has exchanged the enslaving yoke of the law for his freeing yoke of faith working through love.
I. Freedom From Law-Reliance (5:1-6)
Though Christ has set us free positionally, there is a warning here that we can “lose” this freedom practically. It is possible, through adopting a “law-relying” posture (“if you accept circumcision…”), to lose the freedom won for us and instead be loaded down with a “yoke of slavery” (cf. Rom. 2:25; Jas. 2:10).
There is no middle ground between Christian righteousness and works-righteousness. There is no other alternative to Christian righteousness but works righteousness; if you do not build your confidence on the work of Christ you must build your confidence on your own work.
~ Martin Luther, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians
Paul reminds us once more that salvation is not something we “work” for but rather something we “wait for,” “through the Spirit, by faith” (5:5). While the penalty and power of sin have been dealt with at the cross, the presence of sin remains until our “hope of righteousness” is fully revealed.
When we are freed from the “yoke of slavery” of obligation to the law (“circumcision”) and our enslavement to sin (“uncircumcision”; cf. Jn. 8:34), we then take on the “yoke of Christ,” tethering and obligating us to him.
Matthew 11:28–30: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
When we imagine freedom as only negative freedom – freedom from constraint, hands-off liberty to choose what I want – then our so-called freedom is actually inclined to captivity. When freedom is mere voluntariness, without further orientation or goals, then my choice is just another means by which I’m trying to look for satisfaction. Insofar as I keep choosing to try and find that satisfaction in finite things – whether it’s sex or adoration or beauty or power – I’m going to get caught in a cycle where I’m more and more disappointed in those things and more and more dependent on those things. I keep choosing things with diminishing returns, and when that becomes habitual, and eventually necessary, then I forfeit my ability to choose. The thing has me now.
~ James K.A. Smith, On the Road with Saint Augustine
II. Freedom For Loving Service (5:7-15)
Paul shifts from warning about losing our freedom to warning about abusing our freedom.
1. Gospel freedom does not mean freedom to believe whatever you want; gospel freedom means we cling to the “offense” (lit. ‘scandal’) of the cross (5:7-12).
Rather than preaching for the “approval of man” (cf. 1:10), Paul was committed to preaching “Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:23).
The good news of Christ crucified is still a ‘scandal,’ grievously offensive to the pride of men. It tells them that they are sinners, rebels, under the wrath and condemnation of God, that they can do nothing to save themselves or secure their salvation, and that only through Christ crucified can they be saved. If we preach this gospel, we shall arouse ridicule and opposition. Only if we ‘preach circumcision’, the merits and the sufficiency of man, shall we escape persecution and become popular.
~ John Stott, The Message of Galatians: Only One Way
2. Gospel freedom does not mean freedom to live however you want; gospel freedom means “through love we serve one another” (5:13-15).
The paradox of gospel freedom is that we are freed to be “servants” (lit. ‘slaves’) of one another, just as Christ became a “servant” on our behalf (cf. Phil. 2:6-7). The whole law is “fulfilled” by this loving service, embracing a life empowered by the Spirit of true obedience, keeping the law in its proper place.
If freedom is going to be more than mere freedom from, if freedom is the power of freedom for, then I have to trade autonomy for a different kind of dependence. Coming to the end of myself is the realization that I’m dependent on someone other than myself if I’m ever to be truly free… It is the posture of dependence that liberates, a reliance that releases. Once you’ve realized you need someone not you, you also look at constraint differently. What used to look like walls hemming you in start to look like scaffolding holding you together. If freedom used to look like the no-obligation bliss of self-actualization, once the unfettered freedom has become its own bondage, you look at obligations as a restraint that give you a purpose, a center, the rebar of identity... The paradox (or irony) – especially to those of us conditioned by the myth of autonomy, who can imagine freedom only as freedom from, is that the gracious infusion of freedom comes wrapped in the gift constraint, the gift of the law, a command that calls us into being.
~ James K.A. Smith, On the Road with Saint Augustine
