Introduction
Do you remember William Wallace from Braveheart fame? Three weeks ago we left him on the executioner's table screaming "FREEDOM!" as loud as he could. Why did we talk about him besides the fact that it is fun to say FREEDOM? We talked about him because the call for freedom or liberty resonates with every culture and it has a special place in American culture. The very foundation of the United States of America includes the principle that freedom (liberty) is a God-given right that no other person can remove (unalienable). Wars have been fought to secure freedom at home and abroad. The refrain of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's was "Let freedom ring." (Not to mention the inscription on the Liberty Bell). So, American culture is all about freedom. As we saw three weeks ago, the freedom that Americans want is the freedom to be left alone
That is not the freedom that Christ brings to our lives. In Jesus Christ, through faith in him, we receive true, real, glorious freedom.
Jn. 8:36 – Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Gal. 5:1 (ESV) – For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
There is often confusion, though, as to what it means to be free in Christ. What exactly are we free from and what are we free to do? In the letter to the Galatians churches, Paul deals with two misconceptions of the result of what Christ has done for us: legalism and license. As we will see, both of these misconceptions are great enemies of the liberty we have in Christ.
I. First, a Definition of Legalism and License.
A. Legalism is the belief that following a particular set of rules will make you acceptable in God's sight.
1. Usually the set of rules is something designed by man.
2. Legalism's premise is that there is something that we can do that in and of itself gains approval with God.
3. Legalism can be boiled down to this: trust in anything else other than Christ as the reason for God to accept you.
4. Contrary to general belief, legalism has a very low view of law in general because it views any law as completely obeyable, including the law of God.
B. License is complete disregard for the law of God.
1. License says that God places no claims upon the way you should live.
2. License is freedom with no responsibility.
3. A good example of license is the teaching that Jesus can be a person's Savior without ever being the person's Lord or Master.
C. Paul has spent most of this letter dealing with the dangerous, life-robbing, joy-destroying doctrine of legalism; now he turns his guns to the equally damning doctrine of freedom without responsibility: license.
"Whereas legalism demands responsibility without freedom, license grants freedom without responsibility." Philip Ryken
II. What Are We Freed from When We Come to Faith in Jesus Christ?
A. Christ has freed us from sin, death, and the devil.
B. He freed us from the guilt of sin and the curse of the law.
C. Paul urges the church to remain free in the liberty that Christ has given her.
Gal. 5:1 (ESV) – For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
III. Both Legalism and License Enslave Those Who Practice Them.
A. It is easy to see how legalism enslaves those who practice it.
1. Having to follow a strict set of rules in order to be accepted by God.
2. The constant wondering if one is failing or not.
3. Christ has freed us from all of that!
B. But the unbridled indulging in everything human nature desires also enslaves those who practice it.
1. In the 1960's, the concept of "free love" was preached by a generation who thought that freedom was the same as living without responsibility.
2. They found themselves enslaved to a false doctrine that taught that love does not require commitment.
3. This is not liberty, just license.
C. License (liberty without responsibility) is the result of the work of the Spirit in the Christian, but the result of living out the lust (desire) of the flesh, 16, 13.
1. The flesh is the part of us that doesn't want what God wants, our corrupt human nature in all its weakness and depravity.
2. The flesh is the leftover of the old nature.
D. Christ did not die for us so that we could indulge the desires of our sinful nature, 13.
1. Paul says that this is not where liberty is.
2. So, Paul simply says, "Don't do it!"
a. The word opportunity comes from the military term for a base of operation.
b. The idea is that we must not allow sin to use our freedom in Christ as a base of operation to launch a spiritual attack against us.
1) When some people hear about God's free grace, they hope it means that they can sin as much as they please.
2) If God has already accepted me in Jesus Christ, then who cares how much I sin?
a) The truth is that anyone who uses freedom to indulge the flesh is not really free at all.
b) Real liberty comes when Christ frees us from sin, not to sin.
Jn. 8:34 – Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin."
Rom. 6:1-4 – What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
E. License is not only self-enslaving, it is also self-destroying, 15.
1. Paul was worried that the Galatians were eating each other alive!
2. This is invariably the result of misusing our freedom in Christ to indulge in the desires of the flesh.
a. License is fundamentally self-centered.
b. License has no concern for anyone else around us.
c. License is only concern in meeting every demand of a sinful heart even if one has to devour and destroy others around him/her.
d. Sin is at its core selfish and enslaving.
3. License is not alone in being self-enslaving and self-destroying, legalism does the same thing.
a. Why? Because legalism is also fundamentally self-centered.
1) I keep the rules.
2) I gain approval by what I do.
3) I get to judge those who don't meet MY standards.
b. At the center of the gospel of law-keeping is self.
c. This self-focus leads to self-righteousness, which in turn has no issues with devouring and destroying those around you.
d. Focus on self will invariably lead to dissention in the Body of Christ.
John Calvin urges us to remember that "when the devil tempts us to disputes, that disagreement of members with the Church can lead to nothing but the ruin and consumption of the whole body. How unhappy, how mad it is, that we who are members of the same body should voluntarily conspire together for mutual destruction."
F. The road that goes between the ditches of legalism on one side and license on the other is the road of grace-based love, 13b-14.
1. God has called us to freedom, that is, in Jesus Christ, he freed us from the power of sin and from the power of self.
2. But this calling to freedom in our lives is not an end in itself – we are freed in order to do something: loving service of one another, 13b
a. This is a paradox of the Christian faith (a seeming contradiction that is not a contradiction at all).
b. God frees us from the involuntary slavery to sin and self that we are conceived in and born into so that we may voluntarily submit ourselves to the loving slavery to each other – the word translated serve is actually the word to be a slave.
c. The kind of love of selfless love that leads to serving another is the love that comes from falling in love with Jesus.
d. It is the kind of love that flows from faith in Jesus, 5:6.
e. To love in this way is to enjoy real liberty.
3. This voluntary submission to one another as a display of love that is generated by faith in Jesus Christ is fulfillment of the law of God, 14.
a. Notice that as the ultimate proof that what he is saying in true, Paul quotes Lev. 19:18 – a quote from a book that some of you disregard right off the bat because it is in the "wrong" side of the Bible.
b. Perhaps the first thought that comes to our minds is that Paul quoted the wrong command – shouldn't he have quoted the "love the Lord your God" command? Isn't that one more important? Let me offer two reasons why by quoting the neighbor command he is also referring to the God command.
1) The reason we are to love our neighbor is because our neighbor bears God's imagine – by loving him/her we are loving God.
2) Even more specifically, our neighbors in the church are part of the Body of Christ – by loving them we are loving Christ.
3) The concrete test of our love for God is our love for his people, real people who are around us.
1 Jn. 4:20-21 – If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
4. What does it mean, in practical terms, to serve one another in love?
a. Martin Luther says it means:
"performing unimportant works such as the following: teaching the erring; comforting the afflicted; encouraging the weak; helping the neighbor in whatever way one can; bearing with his rude manners and impoliteness; putting up with annoyances, labors, and the ingratitude and contempt of men in both church and state; obeying the magistrates; treating one's parents with respect; being patient in the home with a cranky wife and an unmanageable family, and the like."
b. Passages like Romans 12 with all the one anothers give us many more practical ways to lovingly serve our neighbor.
c. The example of Christ in John 13 (feet wash) and particular in becoming like us is the supreme model for us to follow.
Phil 2:1-8 – Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
IV. This Is Easier Said than Done! How Do We Do That?
A. The answer to that question is in v. 16.
B. That is the subject of next week's sermon.
C. But as a quick preview of it, we do it by relying completely in what God has done for us in Jesus Christ – we must keep Gal. 2:20 always in mind.
Application & Conclusion
God in Christ has freed us from sin, guilt, death, and eternal judgment. In freeing us from sin, he freed us from living from self in a life of license and indulgence. God set us free to love and to serve one another. That's the way of faith. That's the way of grace. That's the way we walk on.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2014/12/liberty-without-license-gal-513-15.html
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