Galatians 5: Christ Frees

Galatians 5:16–25

Does what you trust know how to free you?

Because whatever frees you always leads you

Whatever makes promises to free us will be what we will ultimately have to answer to. So whatever frees us is what leads us. So we want to be careful about who we give that kind of leadership to.

Galatians 5:1–6 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

God has done a particular job, unrepeatable, enough to set us free. That there is nothing that gets in the way. nothing that can keep us down. If you have been freed by Christ then there is nothing in this world that has to get in the way.

Galatians 5:13–15 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Galatians 5:19–21 ESV

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Christ Frees Us From the Bondage of Sin

Galatians 5:16 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Galatians 5:22–24 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

The Restorative Work of the Spirit

Galatians 5:23 ESV

against such things there is no law.

The thing you have to answer in life is “good for who?” If it’s just good for you, you will likely live a very isolated life, fracturing relationships along the way. But if you live by the SPirits prompting and leadership, you will live free, you will see the goodness you seek anyway and will expand the definition of “good for who?”

We act in ways that build and construct and hold up and support. We build in ways that are peace bringing. That are faithful.

The Christian is called to live on the cutting edge of restoration. Placing back together by the expression of the fruit of the Spirit that circumstances and situations attempt to fracture.