WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.339 We are going to read together and think about gospel freedom, think about what freedom in Christ 00:00:08.339 --> 00:00:16.019 looks like as Paul describes it here. So let's hear God's word from Galatians chapter 5. 00:00:17.019 --> 00:00:25.440 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:33.840 burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words, I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:42.120 circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself 00:00:42.120 --> 00:00:49.900 be circumcised that he is required to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law 00:00:49.899 --> 00:00:58.579 have been alienated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await 00:00:58.579 --> 00:01:06.219 through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor 00:01:06.219 --> 00:01:14.219 uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 00:01:14.219 --> 00:01:21.340 You are running a good race who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth. 00:01:22.140 --> 00:01:28.480 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:35.719 batch of dough. I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing 00:01:35.719 --> 00:01:44.099 you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, 00:01:44.219 --> 00:01:50.980 why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been abolished. 00:01:51.679 --> 00:01:56.500 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:04.759 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. 00:02:05.420 --> 00:02:12.360 Rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command. 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:19.220 Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, 00:02:19.600 --> 00:02:29.580 watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So, freedom in Christ, that's our theme for this 00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:39.440 morning. First thing to say is that Christianity is a rescue religion. It's there at the heart of so 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:46.539 many of the stories that people perhaps know really well. The story of Noah rescued from the flood, 00:02:46.620 --> 00:02:53.659 as God tells him, to build an ark. Or Moses, the one who is sent by God in order to set the people 00:02:53.659 --> 00:03:03.099 of Israel free. King David, who was used even before he was king in order to free the Israelites from the 00:03:03.099 --> 00:03:11.459 terror of the Philistines and Goliath in particular. All stories of God acting in order to rescue his 00:03:11.459 --> 00:03:18.259 people, ultimately bringing us to Jesus, God's ultimate rescuer. So, it's there in our stories. 00:03:18.379 --> 00:03:26.319 It's also there in our language and vocabulary. We talk about a movement from death to life, 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:32.680 about a transfer of kingdoms being taken from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:38.120 of light or the kingdom of the sun that God loves. And here in Galatians, we have the language of 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:47.900 slavery being changed to freedom through grace in Jesus Christ. And this theme of rescue and deliverance, 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:54.560 it's there in our fairy tales. It's there in our folk tales. We can think of the story of the 00:03:54.560 --> 00:04:03.520 princess locked in a castle in a forest, unable to find freedom, perhaps guarded by a dragon or a wicked 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:10.580 witch. And who's the hero? The hero is the knight in shining armor, the brave prince who's riding 00:04:10.580 --> 00:04:17.259 through the forest and sees the fair maiden and vanquishes the dragon and sets the maiden free. 00:04:18.040 --> 00:04:24.540 It's the gospel in folktale. Jesus is that hero. Jesus is the one who has 00:04:24.540 --> 00:04:32.480 come to rescue us, to set us free from the power of sin and also, as we find in Galatians, to set us 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:38.460 free from the slavery of trying to prove ourselves, trying to earn our way into God's favor. Jesus is 00:04:38.460 --> 00:04:46.840 the one who defeats our enemies. In fact, he sacrifices himself so that we might be free. Now, we know that 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:54.759 freedom is a big deal today. Brexit emerged from a desire to be free from the control of Europe. 00:04:55.779 --> 00:05:04.859 Freedom of self-identity and self-expression are really high values right now. People desire freedom 00:05:04.859 --> 00:05:13.159 from oppression of various kinds. And what the Bible says to us is that Christianity offers what every 00:05:13.160 --> 00:05:19.120 heart longs for. It offers free, it offers true freedom because it offers freedom in Christ. 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:26.260 So, when we come to Galatians 5 and verse 1, it's a verse that's really central to all that Paul has 00:05:26.260 --> 00:05:33.640 been saying. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. And what he's going to do in this section, 00:05:33.700 --> 00:05:40.740 he's going to declare to us, here's what freedom in Christ is, and he's going to defend it over against 00:05:40.740 --> 00:05:46.040 works religion as he's been doing throughout the letter. And then he's going to begin to define in 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:51.680 this section what that freedom in Christ looks like. How does it play itself out in everyday life? 00:05:51.800 --> 00:05:57.920 And we'll see much more of that in subsequent weeks. But first of all, let's think about gospel 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:09.800 freedom declared. Galatians 5 verse 1. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, 00:06:09.800 --> 00:06:18.360 and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Okay, so why did Jesus come? 00:06:19.180 --> 00:06:26.379 Paul says Jesus came to carry out God's rescue mission so that we might be set free. 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:35.100 So, we can picture ourselves locked in a prison cell or in chains as slaves with no freedom. Paul says 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:44.180 Jesus came on a rescue mission to free us from, at the end of the verse, a yoke of slavery. And we understand 00:06:44.180 --> 00:06:50.700 from Galatians what Paul means by that. He means the slavery of thinking that acceptance from God 00:06:50.700 --> 00:06:58.640 comes from earning it or proving it by our goodness and law-keeping. And so, he says Jesus came to set us 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:05.039 free from that. And he warns them not to be burdened again by that yoke of slavery. So, this is something 00:07:05.039 --> 00:07:11.060 they'd experienced in their past. So, even before they were Christians, when they were worshipping false 00:07:11.060 --> 00:07:16.959 gods, when they were serving the idols, they were making sacrifices and they were doing things hoping to earn 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:24.500 the favor of the gods. Because that's an instinct within us. I need to do so that God will be pleased with me. 00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:29.160 And now, in the present, they're being tempted to this way of thinking again. Only this time, 00:07:29.560 --> 00:07:36.439 it's couched in religious terms. To be moral and to be religious and to keep the Jewish law, 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:42.060 false teachers are saying that's the path to freedom. And Paul is saying, no, that's the way to slavery. 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:54.120 And so, he reminds them that Jesus set them free, sets us free for freedom, not for a return to slavery. 00:07:54.500 --> 00:08:02.079 So, Jesus has come to set us free to this struggle that maybe many of us have experienced of keeping 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:07.920 the law, thinking that by keeping the law, we will earn our acceptance from God. That God will be more 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:14.779 pleased with us now depending on our obedience. Jesus has also come to set us free from being 00:08:14.779 --> 00:08:22.480 overwhelmed by condemnation and guilt. Because we look to him and we understand that he has paid for sin, 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:30.300 that he has paid the penalty for it so that we can live with freedom. So, Jesus has set us free from 00:08:30.300 --> 00:08:39.159 those things for this sense of security, knowing that in Christ, I am accepted by God and I have 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:49.340 wonderful intimate access to God. I have this freedom for living with joy as a child of God, 00:08:49.340 --> 00:08:54.960 adopted into the family, as we thought about in chapter 4. 00:08:56.660 --> 00:09:02.899 And how we get that freedom, Paul has said again and again in this letter, is not by our work, 00:09:03.259 --> 00:09:10.280 not by our effort, it's by trusting in Jesus' perfect work. It's by recognizing that he is perfectly 00:09:10.280 --> 00:09:17.100 obedient, where I am in, and that he has offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to deal with sin, 00:09:17.100 --> 00:09:23.740 to bring us to God. And therefore, because of all that, there is a command here in the middle of verse 1, 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:35.279 stand firm then. It's a military language. Guard this gospel freedom with your life. He says to the church, 00:09:35.659 --> 00:09:43.639 stick together in defending and enjoying the gospel of God's grace to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:53.580 Like bodyguards, surround the gospel. Don't let any harm or distortion come to it. Don't preach a message 00:09:53.580 --> 00:10:02.059 that would suggest to people that they need to earn God's favor. Because as Galatians says to us, 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:07.980 and as verse 1 says to us, there is a danger that we all face where we can disconnect our belief and 00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:16.379 our practice. So I can believe in my head that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and because of that, 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:23.420 God loves me, and I'm a child of God. But in my practice, I can still function more like a slave than 00:10:23.420 --> 00:10:29.860 a child, thinking if I have a good day morally, God will be more pleased with me. And if I have a bad day, 00:10:29.860 --> 00:10:39.700 then perhaps God will want no part of relationship with me. And so Paul again and again is bringing 00:10:39.700 --> 00:10:47.940 this message of grace, that grace gives us freedom, freedom to know and enjoy God for all of life, 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:54.879 because it rests on what Jesus has done. So that's him declaring gospel freedom to us, 00:10:54.879 --> 00:11:02.740 and then he takes some time to defend gospel freedom in verses 2 to 12. He does it in two 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:11.340 different ways. The first thing, in verses 2 to 6, he emphasizes that freedom comes when our faith is 00:11:11.340 --> 00:11:18.740 in Jesus, not in our own law-keeping. So again, we've seen this as we've looked through the letter of 00:11:18.740 --> 00:11:24.600 Galatians. It highlights two mutually exclusive ideas, two ideas that are totally opposed to one 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:30.340 another. It's that either we are saved by grace, that's Paul's message, that's the Bible's message, 00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:37.220 or we're saved by works, and that was the message of the false teachers. Either our hope is in the Lord 00:11:37.220 --> 00:11:46.340 Jesus Christ, or it's in circumcision, as they're speaking about here in these verses. Now, why does Paul 00:11:46.340 --> 00:11:52.879 draw attention to circumcision? It's because we discovered in Acts chapter 15, there's this party, this 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:59.179 Jewish legalistic party, or saying, unless you're circumcised according to the laws of Moses, you 00:11:59.179 --> 00:12:09.679 cannot be saved. So in their day, they are saying circumcision is a symbol of salvation, that you are 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:17.159 saved by your works, by going under the law. In other words, they are implying to this Gentile church, this 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:24.959 non-Jewish church, trusting in Jesus is not enough. You need something more. So circumcision is this symbol 00:12:24.959 --> 00:12:34.679 of trusting in our own goodness and obedience to add to what Jesus did for us. It's a way of thinking, 00:12:34.839 --> 00:12:42.139 I am contributing to my own salvation. That yes, there's Jesus, yes, he died on the cross, but I also 00:12:42.139 --> 00:12:48.240 need to do this and that and the other thing if I want to be in the family of God. Something that Paul 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:54.779 absolutely denies and rejects throughout the letter. And the result of that way of thinking, Paul makes 00:12:54.779 --> 00:13:03.379 clear in these verses. So in verse 2, if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value 00:13:03.379 --> 00:13:11.159 to you at all. Jesus is either everything or he is nothing when it comes to our salvation. It's not 00:13:11.159 --> 00:13:18.340 Jesus does some of the work and then I top it up. It's all or nothing. And if we trust in circumcision 00:13:18.340 --> 00:13:26.519 and our own works, we make Jesus of no value. And again in verse 3, I declare to every man who lets 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:35.179 himself be circumcised that he's required to obey the whole law. So if we put our trust in our own 00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:42.220 records of doing well, Paul is reminding us we can't pick and choose which things to obey. 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:47.679 We need to keep the whole law and not just by our standards. We need to keep it by God's perfect 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:53.659 standard since God is holy and perfect and good. That's the only standard that he will accept. 00:13:53.659 --> 00:13:59.219 And then you're back in that slavery of trying to reach a standard we can never reach. 00:14:00.219 --> 00:14:08.240 Verse 4, you who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ. If you hope to 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:13.240 be justified, if you think that when you stand before God, you'll be declared righteous on the 00:14:13.240 --> 00:14:21.559 basis of your own efforts, then you're walking away from Jesus. You're out of line with the gospel of 00:14:21.559 --> 00:14:29.139 grace. You've fallen away from grace, as he puts it in verse 4. This is a serious thing that he's 00:14:29.139 --> 00:14:34.139 talking about. Paul is reminding us once again, grace and works, they're like oil and water. The two 00:14:34.139 --> 00:14:42.579 cannot mix. They are entirely separate and distinct. And he draws attention to that to remind us that true 00:14:42.580 --> 00:14:51.360 freedom is only found in Christ. It's only found when our faith is in Christ. Because when our faith 00:14:51.360 --> 00:15:01.220 is in Christ, to go back to verse 2, Christ is all of our value. Because we recognize that I can't do 00:15:01.220 --> 00:15:07.180 anything for my salvation, and I don't need to add anything to the perfect salvation that Jesus has 00:15:07.179 --> 00:15:15.899 secured for me freely at the cross. To go back to the language of verses 3 and 4, faith is freedom because 00:15:15.899 --> 00:15:24.239 it understands that Jesus has perfectly kept the law for me as my representative. That he has died in my place 00:15:24.239 --> 00:15:31.879 for my law-breaking. So my acceptance from God comes when I am in him, not when I'm trusting in myself. 00:15:31.879 --> 00:15:41.759 And then there's the faith language of verse 5. By faith, we eagerly await through the Spirit the 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:47.799 righteousness for which we hope. That's so important there. By faith, we wait, not work. We're not 00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:53.879 trusting and grafting and making effort by ourselves. We're waiting, we're trusting in the work of another. 00:15:53.879 --> 00:16:04.100 We're waiting for a righteousness that is gifted to us, not one that we earn. We have certain hope, 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:11.840 not vague, wishful thinking, because the verdict has already been passed. We have this certain hope of 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:20.940 an eternal welcome as a child of God, if we are in Christ, if our faith is in him. And then in verse 6, 00:16:20.940 --> 00:16:29.080 for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:35.880 counts is faith expressing itself through love. So true freedom is not an external thing. 00:16:36.660 --> 00:16:41.300 It's not whether we keep a set of rules or rituals. It's about Jesus setting our hearts free 00:16:41.300 --> 00:16:50.780 to love and serve others. So we enjoy freedom through Jesus, not through the law. 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:57.980 As Paul's point here, as he defends gospel freedom, he reminds us it's all about faith in Jesus. 00:16:59.400 --> 00:17:08.340 Now, I was reminded about a story that I came across last week of a medical student from Ghana. 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:16.640 His name was Emmanuel. Now, Emmanuel from Ghana had been offered a scholarship to go and study 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:22.900 medicine in a university in a university in Ghana, which is in South America. 00:17:23.980 --> 00:17:31.380 So Emmanuel bought himself a ticket, got on his plane, looking forward to this wonderful new 00:17:31.380 --> 00:17:39.259 opportunity that he was going to enjoy in Guyana, only to discover as he touched down that he'd actually 00:17:39.259 --> 00:17:47.660 bought a ticket for Guyana in Brazil. And he was 3,000 kilometers off course. Now, why do I tell you 00:17:47.660 --> 00:17:54.119 that? He had in his mind, my destination, it is over here, and it's going to give me all that I want. 00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:58.500 And he got on the plane thinking it would take him there, but he was wildly off course. 00:17:58.500 --> 00:18:05.400 Galatians is reminding us there are two different routes that people think about when it comes to 00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:10.900 salvation. Paul's way, which is the way of gospel, it's the way of trusting in Jesus, but there's also 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:17.339 the way of the law. There's the way of the gospel that says, I can't save myself, so I need to trust 00:18:17.339 --> 00:18:22.539 in Jesus completely. But then there's this other way of law which says, well, I can save myself, 00:18:22.539 --> 00:18:29.920 I can do something, so I don't need Jesus all that much at all. And we can come to this thing 00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:34.859 of salvation, we can have the destination of freedom in our mind. I really want to find true 00:18:34.859 --> 00:18:40.659 freedom, but it's only if we pick the right route that we're going to get there. It's only if we're 00:18:40.659 --> 00:18:47.899 trusting in Jesus. It's only if we're resting in God's grace that we will, as Jesus said, know the truth 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:55.600 that will set us free. So true freedom comes when our faith is in Jesus and not in our law keeping. 00:18:56.580 --> 00:19:01.860 And then he continues to defend the gospel in verses 7 to 10, and he starts talking about the 00:19:01.860 --> 00:19:09.259 message that we listen to, and it needs to be a message of Jesus saves and not save yourself. 00:19:10.580 --> 00:19:16.440 So in verse 7, we're given a picture in verse 7, you were running a good race. 00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:24.759 Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? So the Christian life being like a race, 00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:30.600 we can picture it like a marathon. Now how do we join that race? Well, the Bible says we're called 00:19:30.600 --> 00:19:37.600 into that race by God the Father. We run the race trusting in Jesus from start to finish, and all the 00:19:37.600 --> 00:19:44.380 way along we're empowered. We get the help of the Holy Spirit to run, to reach the finish, to enjoy 00:19:44.380 --> 00:19:50.360 life with God. And so they'd begun the race well. They were running a good race, but then someone has 00:19:50.360 --> 00:19:55.040 cut them up. You know, we can think about a racetrack and there's lanes. Well, somebody has cut in on their 00:19:55.040 --> 00:20:03.060 lane so they can't run freely. And in fact, somebody has actually sent them off course. They found this 00:20:03.060 --> 00:20:10.120 obstacle in their way, and they're going off course. They're not following the way of gospel truth. 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:18.479 Again, it made me think of the Venice Marathon, which made the news last year. It made the news 00:20:18.479 --> 00:20:24.079 partly because it was won by an Italian for the first time in decades, but mostly it made the news 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:30.039 because he should never have won the race at all. There was a group of leaders that were far ahead 00:20:30.039 --> 00:20:35.099 of him, and they were following. You know when you're watching a marathon, you see those motorbike riders up 00:20:35.099 --> 00:20:39.799 the front, and they're supposed to sort of clear a path, but also they're supposed to show the runners 00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:46.619 where the path the course actually is. Well, the motorbike guides had taken the front runners off 00:20:46.619 --> 00:20:53.639 course. So they'd gone 600 meters down some wrong streets. And after 600 meters, motorbike guy realized, 00:20:54.019 --> 00:21:00.379 turned them around back that 600 meters, by which point they'd been overtaken by a whole bunch of people. 00:21:00.380 --> 00:21:06.940 They trusted the guide, but the guide had led them off course. These Christians, 00:21:07.940 --> 00:21:14.360 they've wandered off. They've been diverted. They're not following the gospel of truth anymore. 00:21:14.800 --> 00:21:20.560 They've gone off course because they're listening to a message that in effect says to them, 00:21:21.040 --> 00:21:27.960 you must do something to save yourself. Trusting in Jesus is not enough. 00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:36.539 And this is a dangerous, dangerous diversion. So Paul wants to call that to their attention. So in 00:21:36.539 --> 00:21:43.200 verse 8, he says to them, that kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. Who 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:49.240 called them? God called them. So he's saying to them, this message you're listening to is not God's 00:21:49.240 --> 00:21:57.900 message. God doesn't switch his message. He doesn't say, well, you come into God's family by trusting in 00:21:57.900 --> 00:22:03.500 God's grace alone. And he doesn't say halfway along, well, now you need to make sure you stay in the 00:22:03.500 --> 00:22:10.420 family by your law keeping. He doesn't switch from saved by grace to live by the law. It's one consistent 00:22:10.420 --> 00:22:18.620 message of grace. So they've stopped listening to God. Verse 9, there's a well-known phrase from Paul's day, 00:22:18.619 --> 00:22:26.719 a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. So this false message is now infecting more 00:22:26.719 --> 00:22:35.879 and more people in the church. It's spreading like a virus. But yet in spite of the danger and in spite 00:22:35.879 --> 00:22:42.899 of the warning, we see in verse 10 that Paul is still confident. How can he be confident? Or rather, 00:22:42.900 --> 00:22:49.400 who is he confident in? He's not confident in the Galatians in and of themselves. He says, 00:22:49.540 --> 00:22:57.759 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. He's trusting in God's powerful grace. 00:22:58.280 --> 00:23:04.500 He's trusting that God had in verse 8 called them by grace. So he calls them brothers throughout the 00:23:04.500 --> 00:23:12.320 letter. And he trusts that as true believers who've been called by God, they will again come to rely on 00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:17.579 grace. Yes, they've hit this obstacle. They're beginning to listen to save yourself. But Paul 00:23:17.579 --> 00:23:22.480 is confident that they will see the error of their ways. And because they're true Christians, 00:23:22.639 --> 00:23:30.279 they will rely on grace. But the question then remains, why did they ever switch from Paul's 00:23:30.279 --> 00:23:36.779 message? Why did they switch from this message, this Jesus saves message? And it seems like, again, 00:23:36.779 --> 00:23:42.059 it's down to these false teachers. So look with me at verse 11 and let's follow the logic here. 00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:52.319 Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, 00:23:52.700 --> 00:23:56.159 the offense of the cross has been abolished. 00:23:58.379 --> 00:24:04.240 So it seems like these false teachers are going around saying, listen, that person Paul that you 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:12.400 you were listening to, he teaches circumcision. Paul is going around saying, trust in Jesus, but also 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:21.359 become Jewish and to the work of Jesus to be saved. And Paul rejects this as a complete falsehood, as 00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:28.980 fake news, as we would call it today. And the logic that he gives is this. He's saying, well, if I was still 00:24:28.980 --> 00:24:34.860 preaching circumcision, if I was saying to people, look, you have it within yourself to save yourself, 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:41.160 that's a message people would like to hear. They wouldn't persecute me if I was saying, basically, 00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:46.940 you're a good person, try a bit harder, and God will accept you. People like that kind of message. 00:24:47.860 --> 00:24:55.000 No, Paul is being persecuted because he's preaching, Jesus saves, and only Jesus saves. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:04.240 Paul is being persecuted because of the offense of the cross that he preaches. Therefore, he is 00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:12.940 persecuted. Now, why is the message of the cross offensive? Why does it lead to persecution in Paul's 00:25:12.940 --> 00:25:23.240 day? Well, because the message of the cross says to everybody that we are weak, that we are sinful, 00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:31.559 and that we need someone from outside of ourselves to come and rescue him. And that's a very different 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:38.259 message from the message of self-improvement that would say, do better, try harder, add some religion, 00:25:38.700 --> 00:25:45.059 and God will be pleased with you. It says we are spiritually dead. We are spiritually unable to do 00:25:45.059 --> 00:25:53.220 anything for us, for ourselves. And so there is offense because we must recognize in the cross that 00:25:53.220 --> 00:26:00.440 says you need Jesus as Savior, that Jesus is God's Savior. He is the only way to God. 00:26:01.539 --> 00:26:09.279 And that's offensive to pride. That's offensive to modern notions of tolerance and ideas that all 00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:16.440 roads lead to God. It's offensive to, again, a self-help kind of religion. 00:26:16.440 --> 00:26:26.580 And the message of the cross is offensive because it says here is a gift you must humbly receive by faith. 00:26:28.320 --> 00:26:35.580 It means that you must turn away from sin. You must repent and turn to put your faith in Jesus as 00:26:35.580 --> 00:26:44.080 Savior, rather than what we would all like to hear by nature, which is work hard, try really hard, 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:48.519 do better than others, and God will welcome you because you've earned a reward. 00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:56.319 But Paul says that's not the way it works. It's about grace and gift, not earning a reward. 00:26:57.679 --> 00:27:05.419 And this is what makes Christianity unique among every religion and worldview, because it's all about 00:27:05.419 --> 00:27:13.599 grace. It doesn't say to us you need to become a better person. You don't need to go on pilgrimage. 00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:19.019 You don't need to do this and that. The next thing, we need to trust in what Jesus has done for us. 00:27:19.959 --> 00:27:25.299 We need to trust that not that we can bring ourselves up to God, but that God in His grace has 00:27:25.299 --> 00:27:32.480 come down to us in Jesus to rescue us from this spiritual slavery leading to death. 00:27:34.199 --> 00:27:39.259 Christianity is unique in being totally realistic about what we're like as people, 00:27:39.259 --> 00:27:46.960 being realistic about sin and being realistic about the holiness of God, acknowledging that since God is 00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:56.240 holy and perfect and cannot stand sin, that by ourselves, the barrier between us and God is too 00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:03.000 great. The gulf is too wide because we are by nature sinful. And unless God deals with that sin, 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:13.019 we cannot know and enjoy relationship with God. Christianity tells us how God in His grace has 00:28:13.019 --> 00:28:19.140 acted to deal with that barrier, that separation, so that we might become friends of God. Therefore, 00:28:19.500 --> 00:28:26.940 it offers hope and freedom to anyone. The wonderful thing about Christianity is it's so open. Yes, 00:28:26.940 --> 00:28:33.960 there's that exclusive message, you must trust in Jesus alone, but it's open to anybody, regardless of 00:28:33.960 --> 00:28:44.059 culture or background or anything else, if we will trust in Jesus. So he spends some time defending 00:28:44.059 --> 00:28:51.620 gospel freedom. And then finally and briefly, let's look at verses 13 to 15 as he begins to define 00:28:51.619 --> 00:29:01.779 what gospel freedom. What gospel freedom looks like. What does it look like for us when we have true 00:29:01.779 --> 00:29:09.739 freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, according to Paul, it's certainly not, well, now Jesus has set 00:29:09.739 --> 00:29:16.519 you free. You're free to do whatever you want. You're free to enjoy life without any limits at all. Rather, 00:29:16.519 --> 00:29:26.000 we discover that the gospel sets good limits and boundaries for us. Living within God's design, 00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:34.059 living within God's limits is good for us. There is freedom because we know the boundaries, we know 00:29:34.059 --> 00:29:43.819 life as God intended it to be. So what does this true freedom look like? There's three aspects to it. 00:29:43.819 --> 00:29:54.899 First of all, in verse 13, we see how it relates to ourselves as individuals, and the emphasis is on 00:29:54.899 --> 00:30:05.960 self-control. So verse 13, you, my brothers, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:14.880 to indulge the sinful nature. So very clearly, we're called to self-control, not to do whatever, 00:30:15.279 --> 00:30:21.880 not to live however we want, not Jesus has saved me, so now I can live in sin, because Jesus will cover 00:30:21.880 --> 00:30:29.920 that. No, Jesus has acted to bring us out of enemy territory so that we might live a new way, that he gives 00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:37.039 us the spirit, he gives us a new heart, new desires, and a new identity as children of God, so that we have 00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:44.720 freedom to live more like him, to become more and more like Jesus. That's true freedom, to be self-controlled, 00:30:44.840 --> 00:30:49.060 to be able to do battle against sin, to be able to actually say, no, I don't want to do that sin, 00:30:49.240 --> 00:30:57.039 I want to live for God, I want to be obedient to him. And so freedom involves self-control, 00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:04.259 saying no to the sinful nature, so we can say yes to true righteousness, to living for the glory of God, 00:31:04.519 --> 00:31:12.740 to be more like Jesus. Freedom as it relates to others, Paul says, is about loving service. 00:31:13.899 --> 00:31:22.059 So again, in verse 13, do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another 00:31:22.059 --> 00:31:28.579 in love. And then in verse 15, he says, if you keep on biting and devouring each other, 00:31:28.899 --> 00:31:34.099 watch out or you'll be destroyed by each other. So it seems like within the church, as they've moved 00:31:34.099 --> 00:31:40.779 away from grace, they're beginning to fight and criticize and oppose. Things are turning ugly. It's 00:31:40.779 --> 00:31:50.179 not you before me, it's me before you. I come first. My priorities, my rights. Paul is saying that's 00:31:50.180 --> 00:31:57.980 not what gospel freedom looks like. When Jesus sets us free, he sets us free so we can love others, 00:31:58.519 --> 00:32:06.920 so we can serve others. And we can do that because in the gospel, we find this fundamental security. 00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:15.380 I know my identity. I am a child of God. I am loved, valued, welcomed, approved by him. Therefore, 00:32:15.380 --> 00:32:24.040 I don't need to be fighting for position. I can make myself low to raise others up high because I know 00:32:24.040 --> 00:32:30.200 God loves me. When we think it's about our abilities and us doing well, we will always tend to compete 00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:38.000 and compare and there'll be fighting and devouring. But gospel freedom means that we are free to give 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:46.119 ourselves gladly to serve others. And then what does gospel freedom look like in relation to God? 00:32:46.779 --> 00:32:54.059 And this one is perhaps surprising given all that Paul has said in Galatians. Verse 14, what does he go 00:32:54.059 --> 00:33:03.380 back to? He goes back to the law. The entire law is summed up in a single command, love your neighbor 00:33:03.380 --> 00:33:13.080 as yourself. So gospel freedom as it relates to God means we have freedom to obey. So we need to 00:33:13.080 --> 00:33:19.160 think about this. So he's been saying to people, you don't try and keep the law in order to earn God's 00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:27.360 favor. You don't keep the law so you might get into God's family. But he is saying you do keep the law 00:33:27.359 --> 00:33:36.000 when you're in God's family in order to express your gratitude because you want to share your father's 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:42.939 family values. We don't do it so we'll get into the family. We do it because we're in the family to say 00:33:42.939 --> 00:33:51.240 thank you to God, to express love and worship for him. And that's important and he's going to say more 00:33:51.240 --> 00:33:59.299 about that next week. So as Christians our relation to the law is we don't keep it in order to be in 00:33:59.299 --> 00:34:06.839 God's family but we do keep it because we're children who want to honor and love our father in heaven. 00:34:07.779 --> 00:34:16.219 So Paul says to us as Christians that we have true freedom. We're free to live as we want because 00:34:16.219 --> 00:34:23.799 when we're in Christ, when we're transformed by grace, our great desire will be to want to live for him. 00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:31.899 That's true freedom. So what he says to us, he says live in light of our gospel freedom.