Scroll down to see and play Audio.
Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
This week we’re going to look deeply into a remarkable concept. . . FREEDOM. In this election year in America, it’s a major topic of debate, as freedom of speech, and freedom of protest, and freedom of the press, and freedom to own and bear arms, and other freedoms are conflicting with each other, at a boiling point in America, and other places around our world.
Did you know God is passionate about our freedom as human beings? Did you know God grieves deeply when He watches humans enslaving themselves, or others, in efforts to earn God’s approval? One of the unique things about humans, as compared to all other created things, is that we are made in God’s image, and that includes FREEDOM. God has given us the FREEDOM to think, to love, to reason, to understand moral right and wrong, and especially a Free Will to choose, and act on those choices. Of course with that freedom comes accountability to Holy God who gave us those human, inborn, freedoms.
Over these past several weeks I’ve been trying to help us dig deeply into the concept of how you, one person, can make a difference in our world. When we become a follower of Jesus, God wants to impact our world, through us, in significant ways. We’ve looked at 1 Peter 2:9-12 and Matthew 5:8-16 and Ezekiel 36:16-23 and Malachi 3:6-10 and this week, let’s look at this concept of using our God given FREEDOM for the purpose of Engaging our World with HOPE.
Galatians 5:1 says “It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slvaery.”
Have you ever watched oxen yoked together for heavy labor, or a team of horses harnessed together? So what does the Apostle Paul mean when he warns us with the phrase ‘burdened again by a yoke of slavery’? Slavery to whom or to what? Paul had in mind two specific harnesses: first the harness we are all born with, our human nature, which is fundamentally selfish and sinful. It’s killing us, like a cancer.
No matter how hard we try, we simply cannot separate ourselves from our natural tendency to think, say, do evil things, and be consumed by evil attitudes. That’s our human sin nature inherited from our parents, grandparents all the way back to Adam. And sin is cumulative! The wrong things we will think, do or say today, are piled on top of all the wrong we’ve already done every previous day of our lives!! That is an inescapable and condemning burden of evil, resulting in terminal guilt and shame.
The second ‘yoke of slavery’ Paul was speaking about was the hundreds of rules, laws, commands, which Jewish people tried to obey in order to earn the approval of God and the religious leaders. These were suffocating.
But FREEDOM from the enslavement is possible, Paul writes. And of course everyone says… ‘what must I do to be set free?” Do you remember the Philippian jailor asking Paul and Silas that question in the middle of the night when he thought all the prisoners that he was responsible for, had fled in the earthquake? Acts 16:25-31 has that story and their response was… “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
But how, we ask, can Jesus set us FREE from these two ‘yokes of slavery’? We’re going to explore that today and this week, because FREEDOM in the power of JESUS is real, and tangible, and life changing, and is available to you, and me, and every living person. May I invite you to read all of Galatians chapter 5 today, and take note of some remarkable descriptions of enslavement to our sin nature, contrasted with living FREE from the yoke, the bondage of our sin nature! It’s powerful stuff, and I urge you to make some notes in your “WWJ” journal. I hope you have one by now where you can make notes of what God says to you as you are in His Word with us each day. This personal journal may become your most prized possession, containing your notes from your conversations with GOD!!
You’ll see Paul explaining that circumcision can become a ‘yoke of slavery’! Circumcision was a privileged, irreversible, surgical procedure applied by parents to the penis of their 8 day old Jewish sons. It was a sign of the covenant of God with Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17). Years later medical science has helped us to see several remarkable health advantages to circumcision as well as the amazing blood coagulation in baby boys on the 8th day after birth! But in his letter we know as “Galatians”, Paul was dealing with the sad reality that many Gentiles who had trusted in Jesus for their salvation, were enslaving themselves to Jewish laws and traditions, including circumcision, believing that by doing so their Jesus earned salvation would somehow be more secure, more legitimate, more significant in God’s sight! Do you see how they were ‘letting themselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.’?
Here is a fundamental and hugely significant truth my friends:
Our salvation from our sin bondage and sin condemnation is ENTIRELY accomplished in our lives by God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
It’s like medical surgery. You agree with your surgeon that you have a cancerous tumor which needs to be surgically removed or you will die. But you can’t do the surgery to yourself. You can invite the surgeon to do it. You then crawl up on the table, and submit to the surgeon’s procedure, and when the anesthesia wears off, the surgeon tells you the surgery is complete, the tumor is removed, you are free from the cancer, and now you will work on healing and recovery. Your role in the surgery is agreeing that you have cancer and you can’t fix it. Also, you invite the surgeon to do the surgery only He can do, and you submit yourself to His surgical procedure! Can you make the application to God’s saving work in you, my friends?
I admit to God that I have a sin nature problem and I have sinned many times, and it’s a cancer that’s killing me, but I can’t do much about it. Furthermore, I agree with God that I deserve to spend eternity separated from Holy God in hell, because of my cancer of sin! I invite God to do the surgery… Jesus died on the cross to pay my sin debt price, so God the Father can pardon me of my sin against Him by accepting Jesus’ death payment on my behalf! God the Father then declares me forgiven (Eph. 1:7) and justified (just as if I had never sinned), and He adopts me as His son (Romans 8:14-17).
Jesus’ death and resurrection make it possible for Jesus to reconcile me, now forgiven, back into relationship with Holy God (Colossians 1:21,22). The Holy Spirit of God then cleanses me from my sin damage (1 John 1:9) and creates in me a new spiritual nature (John 3:3-7) and He takes up residence in me (John 14:17) and HE will enable and empower me to live FREE from my cancerous sin bondage and my sin condemnation!
Now my friends, just like the medical surgery, do you see what your role is in your salvation miracle, and what God’s roles are? That’s why Paul was so strong in his language that the Galatian Christians NOT defile all the great work God had done in their salvation by re-enslaving themselves to bondage, yokes, harnesses of laws, regulations, even circumcision, in an effort to add to what Jesus had accomplished for their FREEDOM from their sin bondage!
“It is for FREEDOM that Jesus Christ has set you free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (to sin)…By faith we eagerly await through the Spirit, the righteousness (holiness) for which we hope.” (Gal. 5:1,5)
“Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore since we have been justified (we are given God’s righteousness) through faith, we have peace (FREEDOM from sin) with God our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace (God’s unearned favor to us) in which we now stand (firm and immovable).” (Romans 4:25-5:2)
Do you see, my friends, how those two powerful truths fit together? So may I ask you, boldly and straightforward… are you FREE from the yoke of sin slavery? Has God accomplished the life transforming, eternal destiny defining, sin cancer removing work, in you? Are you sure? Why not be sure right now, by talking with Jesus about your sin cancer problem and ask Him to confirm in your heart and mind the certainty of your salvation. Did you know this is why John wrote his little letter 1 John? Listen: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13)
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.