At this time, the Lord is re-emphasizing what it means to live as a spiritually free person. To forget just how free Jesus made us is a tragic error. As the Lord is doing this work many will be sidetracked because a deceptive spirit of bondage still wants to entrap people in its snare of deception.
Reading the book of Galatians is like splashing a dash of cold water in the face of our theology. It wakes us up to remember once again what Jesus did to open the door for us to live spiritually free lives. One of Paul’s clearest messages to the Galatians came in chapter 3.
“You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your human effort?” (3:2-3).
What was so amazing about this freedom was the reality that Jesus did everything to make us right with God before we could acknowledge Him as our Savior. It was a complete work. No human effort can add to what God did in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our problem today is the same problem the Jews had who lived before us. In our generation of faith, we still are tempted to create another list of religious laws not essential to our salvation believing that adhering to that list is what sets us free.
What Jesus gave us was freedom so dangerous it was used as a reason to kill the Lord. Today, that same freedom remains dangerous to the systematic theologians on either side of an issue who say it’s their way or the highway. It’s just as dangerous as the theology of Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law living in Jesus’ time.
We have been set completely free from the law and now live in the covenant of Christ’s grace that has fulfilled the requirements of the law. This freedom was given to us before we could do anything to free ourselves. Our point of passage into this freedom requires that we believe in Jesus as our Savior. “So, it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life.’ This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, ‘It is through obeying the law that a person has life” (vs.11-12).
To think that any form of law and our obedience to its dictates is what makes us free will always lead us to a place of spiritual bondage. The freedom Jesus offered is so freeing that it will allow us to move deeper into the Spirit and discover what truly pleases God.
“What Jesus gave us was freedom so dangerous it was used as a reason to kill the Lord”. Powerfull stuff.
Thank you.