Liberty in Christ

Liberty in Christ is no yoking matter. If you submit to any other kind of slavery, the yoke is on you. I could go on like this forever. And you would likely stop reading. Since my goal is thoughtful engagement let me get clearly to the point.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 ESV)

 It is so easy to forget what Jesus has done when there are other physical, present, persistent voices clambering for our attention and validation. As believers we are responsible for knowing the content of our faith and should be able to understand the basic elements of Christian Theology in the context of our broader human experience. Long before anyone had ever thought that “freedom” was a political category Paul reminded us that it is primarily a relational and spiritual category. We humans are fallen. Our fall into sin left us in bondage to sin. All of the other examples of bondage, from chattel slavery, political demagoguery, domestic abuse, and economic oppression are a consequence and outcome of our primary estrangement from God. Because sin has ruined our relationship with Him the rippling consequences overwhelm every other human instinct. The central blessing of the Gospel is that we are released from Sin. It is easy to forget that in the context of so many other secondary or even trivial uses of the word freedom.

For example—If you think Jesus suffered and died on the cross so that you can have a don’t tread on me I’m gonna do whatever I want attitude toward the world—you have missed the point of the Gospel. If you claim to be a Christian and have that attitude you need to repent and stop believing the lies of the culture. You were not freed by Christ to do whatever you want. You were not freed by Jesus to continue seeking to fulfill the desires of self-centeredness under the claim of personal rights and privileges. According to the Scriptures we all deserve to be punished for our rebellion. Jesus has freed us from that sentence of death to serve Him. We are freed for the sake of freedom and that freedom requires responsible Christian living. Jesus has done so much for us and in return, we often do little for Him. We claim the name and then continue under the sovereign lordship of self. That is the attitude which caused Adam to willfully reach for the fruit offered him by his deceived wife. 

Later in Galatians 5 Paul will lay out some minimal expectations for freedom in Christ. 

“Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Galatians 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:22–24 ESV)

Liberty in Christ means obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. That means love is  not an option. That means joy, peace, patience and kindness can be commanded. Paul states that goodness, faithfulness, and self-control are central to the liberty that Christians enjoy. Liberty in Christ means that we have surrendered to Him. Liberty in Christ means that the cross we are called to carry is smeared with the blood of our own flesh with its passions and desires. 

While it is nice to live in a country that has political freedoms; that privilege is nothing compared to the freedom we have in Christ. The freedom we have in Christ is wholly different in kind and substance than any rights that mere terrestrial citizenship might accord us. 

We should also keep in mind that the man called to write such penetrating words about our liberty in Christ spent much of his own ministry in prison for proclaiming that liberty in an environment that found it threatening. There is no message quite as compelling as that which tells men that the empires of earth are of minimal consequence compared to the eternal appeal of the Kingdom of God.