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Who would ever imagine using the symbol of a cross to represent freedom? From the outside the cross seems like just the opposite. It was an instrument specifically designed to take away your freedom and ultimately your life. It was not something you would boast about! In this last chapter Paul does not “boast” about his intelligence, his accomplishments or his position. But his glory is in the cross and its power to produce a new creation! Out of what looks like a shameful, final ending God saw fit to bring a resurrection that would free his creation once and for all! Paul said; “ I am done talking about it. Now let’s go live it”
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Last week we finished with these words from the Apostle Paul. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Fruit is delicious. appealing and nourishing. And every fruit contains seed for the next harvest. It’s wonderful for me to enjoy it in the moment, but I have an obligation to sow into the future and into fields around me so that future generations can enjoy it as well. Both the promise and the principle testify that if I sow sparingly I will reap sparingly but if I sow generously I will reap abundantly! As we partner together with the Lord of the harvest imagine the possibilities of what our generosity could produce in a starving world! God's promises of return are the antidote for the fear that keeps me from being generous.
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This weekend we celebrate Independence Day in the U.S. In 1776 our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence declaring us a sovereign nation, free from the monarchy of King George of England. But for the last 250 years we have found that freedom is fragile and anything but free. In a world view without God freedom looks like self expression, independence and personal choices. But in Galatians, Paul says real freedom is found in serving one another in love. Indulging our selfish passions always tears us apart, but imitating Christ’s sacrificial love is what binds us together. This love is not the sappy, emotional form of love that makes for a Hollywood movie. It is a love that gives and serves and bleeds and dies for the object of its affection. It’s shocking and humbling when we see it in action.
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Free from what? Free to what? Paul has done a masterful job of arguing from scripture, nature, and the cross that we are free from fear and condemnation even though we failed to keep the law. He has set us up to understand our “sonship” through Christ's finished work of righteousness. This has led many to believe throughout history that all incentive to live a holy life has been taken away. If we do not need to fear punishment, what keeps us from enjoying that freedom through hedonistic living. Indeed, many who call themselves followers of Christ do just that. Hear Paul will show that this freedom from fear and condemnation, when properly believed and understood, will lead us to obey God and not simply please our flesh.
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Believing in God and learning to trust His word to us are two different things. In fact they are at the heart of all our issues. The first couple on the earth heard God clearly but failed their test miserably. Abraham had heard God clearly in the promise of Genesis 15 but the circumstances began to whisper something different to him. “Are you sure God can be trusted? Hagar seems like a very convenient idea” And that decision became a disaster that we still live with today. How many times have we been tested in trusting what God has said to us? Why is this so hard for us? How many times have we even shunned the words spoken by people who we know love us? Paul is pleading with the Galatians. Listen to me. These people wish you no good. My heart is that of a good father to you and yet you see me as your enemy? I only want to see Christ formed in your lives.
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Freedom, says Webster’s dictionary, is “liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another.” In our broken world slavery has always existed wherever people seek to control or dominate others for their own selfish and sinful ends. In today’s passage Paul would declare that “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:6-7) He is describing a freedom that goes to the very core of our being. I am no longer controlled by my past or by the power and opinions of others. I have been given the right to become a son or daughter of the most high God. If God is now our Father than we are enough, we will have enough and we will be enough. His resources are endless. Beware of those who tell us otherwise. They are peddling a false Gospel.
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This is Pentecost Sunday. Forty days after Jesus ascended to the Father the Holy Spirit was poured out with power on those who believed in order to accomplish his purposes on the earth. Their job was to wait and believe. In this Galatians chapter Paul calls a character witness from the OT named Abraham. He was given a promise of greatness yet he and his wife were old and barren and powerless to achieve it. Yet God called him to believe in the one who had promised. So by simply believing, this man saw the word come to pass in a way he never could have imagined or created on his own. Abraham wasn’t without questions or faults. Yet an unlimited God used him to model to us a righteousness that relies on faith in the promise keeper and not our own strength or works. Rely is a key word here. It means “those who depend on faith.” When I have come to the end of myself I can then rely on the one who is willing and able to work for me! We don’t serve him, he serves us! How great is our God!
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In our world today we are having a hard time distinguishing between what is real and what is not. Is “fake news” the real news? Is there a source of information I can trust? Is what I see on a reality show the "real" world? Is my environment safe and secure as I might hope or does danger lurk around every corner? Am I the gender I was born with or is it fluid? Is our planet doomed to extinction? Am I crazy or is it everyone around me? Our culture is adrift in a sea of relative truth and people are not certain what to believe anymore. This has caused a tremendous amount of division and fear because everyone has embraced their own view of what is real. In chapter three Paul will call the Galatians to snap out of their slide back to working in the flesh and remind them to get a grip once again on the one thing that had saved them in the first place. Christ crucified!
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Unity among believers is such a fragile thing. I believe that authentic unity without God’s gift of grace is all but impossible. I also believe that unity with all of our diversity is a powerful witness of God’s presence among us. In chapter 2 Paul would go to Jerusalem not to look for their approval but to make sure they were all agreeing on the main thing! He realized how critical unity was around this message of freedom. (Acts 11) He was very aware of the dangers of ethnic and religious pride that would divide them. In this chapter of Galatians we see Paul contending for the central truths of the Gospel. Truths that had the power to hold these diverse groups together. He was not afraid to point out the dangers even to his own teammates. He knew that the only way forward was to wholly lean on the cross of Christ and to lose yourself in His righteousness.
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Oftentimes we approach the Bible like a repair manual or a cookbook. We want a formula that will help get our lives back on track or a recipe that will cause our lives to turn out to be more appealing. The reality is that the Bible is a book full of stories about people’s lives, most of which are really messy. But messy is what provides a beautiful backdrop for the message of God's grace! Without God’s redeeming grace appearing, our life story is just one more reality show. But what if instead of trying to clean ourselves up to make us look more presentable, our goal was that “people would glorify God because of me?” What if instead of all my dysfunction and drama being the focus, God and his work became the center of attention? Through the Gospel, God is able to take all the crazy details of my life story, past, present and future and transform them into a new and living testimony that others can read. And in the process they are introduced to the author in all of His wisdom and beauty.
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Immediately after his greeting, Paul gets down to business: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you..."
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This Sunday we begin a new series based on the book of Galatians titled : “The Freedom Gospel” God has always been in the rescue business. In our “Ten Timeless Words” series we looked at how God took Israel out of centuries of slavery to form a people of his very own. A people who would display His glory among the nations. However they would find that being set free from Egypt was just the beginning. Living out that newfound freedom was going to require a process of spiritual formation.
Over the years the people of God, like the generation that came out of Egypt, have struggled with staying on the balance beam of a simple obedient faith in the person of Jesus Christ. We seem to either fall off on the side of license, and proceed to do whatever we want or to a legalism that tries to impose human regulations in the hope of changing us from the outside in. In both cases the end result is further bondage and brokenness and in many cases a falling away from the faith. Neither option produces life. This is why Paul wrote his book of freedom to the church in Galatia. He was zealous that the finished work of Christ on the cross would set them free like no other. He longed to see their lives shaped by an eternal, trustworthy Gospel.
