"Freedom in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:1-21)

Introduction

“For freedom Christ has set us free” (verse 1). Freedom is a good word. Freedom is liberty and self-determination. We want freedom, especially as opposed to slavery. We want freedom from fear and worry. Sadly, many people don’t have freedom, as they live under oppression – either due to corrupt governments, or to criminal activity like human trafficking, or to racial prejudice, or to their own various addictions, or just to poverty. And we mourn this. Most of us here in Australia could only begin to imagine the extent of this in other countries; yet some of our friends from Burma would know much more about this. The ending of injustice around the world is a vital issue for all people of goodwill and good faith, and we would try … as certain causes come across our path … to help to bring justice (around the world).

Today, however, with the Apostle Paul, we are talking about a particular type of freedom – spiritual freedom. This is separate, but not unrelated to the wider areas of freedom (as we’ll see in a moment). So, today, we’re not talking about political freedom, or religious freedom, but rather … freedom of the spirit … the freedom in our soul that no one can take away. This is freedom from guilt and shame, and a freedom to live with joy and purpose. We can respond to this offer of freedom every single day, in how we develop and grow as people of the Holy Spirit. And, spiritual freedom operates in the context of whatever life throws up at us! And then, in simply being the people of God in community, our lives should stand in contrast to any incidence of injustice and slavery, bringing light into the darkness. And we may, in this way, do more good than we could actually imagine!

The Cross

It is of course Jesus who has paved the way for our freedom on the cross. There … he took all of our sin, brokenness, guilt and shame … upon himself … and died our death! Whatever it was that held people captive, this is what Jesus sought to deal with. With that all done with, we can rise again with Jesus into new life, and this is a life of freedom – where we are a very different person. Jesus has effectively liberated us from everything that would have held us back from experiencing life in its fullness; and we can now embrace the total potential created within us. We can now live at peace with ourselves, with others, with life in the world, and with God. With this level of acceptance and forgiveness, we can gain healing from the past – those things we regret, and also the hurtful things done to us. As we have been forgiven, we also forgive, and thus receive freedom from any hostility or bitterness.

Pentecost

Today is Pentecost Sunday, seven weeks on from Resurrection Sunday, where we celebrate the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the first community of disciples, and the birth of the church amongst them. This was certainly a day of spiritual freedom, as once frightened and unsure followers of Jesus became bold and courageous witnesses. This was the day when limitations around communication and cultural difference were stripped away, everyone present hearing the Gospel in ways and forms they could easily understand.

Oh, for an outpouring like that again! Well, why not! But it will take an openness and readiness, which often seems to allude us. Paul, in our Galatians 5 reading, tells us of one way in which the Gospel was hindered (which we will come to). We must continually think about how the Gospel is being hindered. We often have to look within ourselves – what do we possibly consider to be more important than the Gospel?

Following Pentecost (Acts 2), the disciples, having experienced the Holy Spirit, seemed to know intuitively what to do, how to live and what to teach. They naturally found their way into house churches, where they spontaneously shared what they had with each other and the poor, worshipped, prayed and had communion together – teaching one another (in Word and action) how to be better disciples. This was the dawn of a new spiritual freedom!

Spiritual Freedom

Spiritual freedom is aligned with the salvation we have received and are receiving. When we are trying to communicate (to others) what this salvation from sin is about, or what our liberation from guilt means, we can reflect on our journey out of slavery into freedom (and the specific ways this is happening for us). We once lived like this, but now we live differently! And this is because of, as the song goes, “what the Lord has done in me”!

Considering our level of freedom … also helps us to monitor our ongoing development as disciples, and guards us against regressing … going backwards … towards becoming once again enslaved to anything that has the potential of becoming destructive to us. “Stand firm”, Jesus says (v 1b), “and do NOT submit again to a yoke of slavery”.

We might here pause to consider those things that could possibly have enslaved us. They may still do – because we haven’t yet accepted Jesus’ gift of freedom, or enacted the Holy Spirit’s power to defeat them. Let me invite you then to do just that! If you ask Jesus for forgiveness, you will receive healing for your brokenness. If you then open yourself to God, the Holy Spirit will give you what you need to be rebuilt. You can have freedom today (as never before)!

These things can enslave us:

• the past – not being able to let go … unwilling to accept forgiveness, unwilling to give forgiveness, thus retaining guilt or retaining bitterness or both – where God through Jesus has provided a way through all this into a better future, at no cost to us – where “our weaknesses need not drag us down, [and] our past no longer cripples us” (L Richards);
• addictions – trying to soothe our pain out of a packet or a bottle, or with sex, or on the internet – where only God can fill the void in our lives;
• perfectionism – trying to gain approval by trying to be better than we need to be, or different than we really are (thus developing a ‘false identity’), or by working harder than anyone else; which tends to lead to ever-increasing self-condemnation (and also the condemning of others) – when God just values us anyway and is willing to accept us as we are;
• wanting control – we try to deal with the chaos around us by tightening the screws on others, manipulating situations, having black and white solutions to everything, preferring ‘law’ over ‘grace’, being autocratic and judgmental – where God wants to promote humility, honesty and harmony {this is the area Paul had to address in Galatia};
• possessions – where we try to acquire and keep all the things that we think will make us happy, until this search and these things actually own us – when God tells us that real meaning in life is discovered on the inside and within relationships.

So, spiritual freedom IS about leaving behind negative behaviour patterns and joining a new movement. Let us all embrace freedom!!

Let’s go over to verses 16 & 17. The negative and rebellious human impulses within us – Paul refers to as the “flesh”. We have at times indulged the “flesh” and followed more worldly patterns of living. The sort of behaviours listed in verses 19 – 21 have NO place in the Kingdom of God – these behaviours have to be strongly critiqued because they are so destructive, especially to relationships. Acts of the “flesh” are diametrically opposed to the Godly “Spirit”, and thus shouldn’t be allowed to co-habit within us. Trying to have a foot in each camp will always be uncomfortable and self-defeating!

“Those who do such things will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God” (v 21b). This is NOT a punishment, but rather the reality that comes out of this situation – the ones with behaviour patterns like this … have been exposed to the light! On the one hand, we shouldn’t be worried about the exclusion mentioned here, because all people have been offered a free ticket into a better future, complete with the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, we shouldn’t be pleased about this fate either, but rather take up the Gospel call for the lost to return – where they will be received with open arms.

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, coming into our lives … makes it possible to counteract the negative tendencies listed here nearly entirely. The Spirit is opposed to the “flesh”. Ideally, apart from the occasional lapse, being led by the Holy Spirit means you hardly have to think about right or wrong, because ‘right’ is always our objective (v 5, 18). It is through the Holy Spirit that we find ultimate freedom to live in the way in which God has created us to!

Spiritual freedom, IS, through our teaching and the fruit of our lives, also about lifting community standards – we no longer “bite and devour” one another (refer v 15), so we in effect promote a far more harmonious and collaborative way of living. This lifestyle may not always be appreciated, but it will always work for ultimate community good. As we shall see next, we also do NOT place undue burdens on others (v 8-12), thereby modelling open and welcoming access to God. In a nutshell, spiritual freedom IS about the joy and purpose of being led by the Holy Spirit.

The Issue in Paul’s Day (verses 2-12)

Gentile peoples were responding positively, in great numbers, to the Gospel and becoming followers of Jesus. However, originally, “The Way”, as Christianity was then known, was seen by many as an offshoot of Judaism. So many Christian Jews felt that these Gentile converts should adopt Jewish practices if they wanted to be accepted as a follower of Jesus, including dietary rules, but especially circumcision. Paul rightly believed this was unnecessary; and more than unnecessary – because this could deter people from accepting the Gospel; and even if they did, they could come to regard themselves as being somehow second-class.

Paul had already clearly stated the equality of all the believers within this new movement: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (3:28). Even though Jesus lived within culture, he reigns above culture. People were free to come to Jesus from whatever walk of life, and were NOT bound by any Jewish cultural norms, or any other prerequisites. Now (as this view promoting circumcision to Gentile converts persisted around the Galatian churches), Paul was strongly pressing the point, and directly challenging anyone who would put up barriers to people responding to the Gospel of Jesus (and thereby gaining faith) – refer verse 10b and particularly the sarcasm of verse 12 (that being an extreme circumcision).

If anyone unnecessarily regressed from their spiritual freedom to embrace circumcision, they were actually denying the grace of Christ in their life. This would be like us unnecessarily taking on side issues of (legalistic) religiosity and then giving them undue importance. In so doing, we would eventually lose our way. Legalistic ‘believers’ think they are free, but they are actually in the worst kind of bondage. As the Good News of Jesus is shared across the various cultures in the world, it should NOT be wrapped up in Western, or any other, culture, but rather presented simply with the mindset of extraordinary grace and spiritual freedom. We should hear Paul loud and clear (v 6b): “the only thing that counts is faith working through love”!! Whenever we bemoan the unbelief of others, we should be sure to consider what the barriers there might be … stopping them embracing faith.

The Attributes of Spiritual Freedom 

1. A new perspective – the simplicity of “faith working through love” (v 6). The Christian life can be complicated by a lot of things. Even church life can seem complicated and busy. But if we can just break it back to “faith working through love”, then this can give great perspective to many things, especially those things that seem onerous or repetitive. We are NOT so much fulfilling a roster, but rather bringing a ministry. We are NOT so much overburdened with responsibility, but rather blessed with giftedness. When we sense the high expectations of others, we know that we are serving Jesus the best way we can. Our gift is NOT lesser than another’s, but rather complimentary to the whole. We are NOT on our own (even when working alone), but part of a team. Freedom brings a different perspective!

2. Mutual service – ironically … becoming ‘slaves’ to one another (v 13). This ‘spiritual freedom’ is NOT about doing whatever we like; and spiritual freedom in NOT about thinking and acting as an individual. [No person’s freedom is greater than any other’s!] Spiritual freedom IS about leaving behind negative behaviour patterns and joining a new movement (which in other places Paul calls the ‘Body of Christ’ – Jesus’ ongoing physical body on earth). We are joined together and seek to address each other’s needs. Sometimes this becomes unbalanced (some with extra needs, some feeling overworked, others feeling left out); sometimes this is manipulated; and sometimes boundaries are needed; but we should hang in working with this principle of bearing one another’s burdens.

3. Loving our neighbour (v 14). Because we have become free from more self-focussed concerns, we have therefore been released to love our neighbours; even when they are very different from us, and even when they have offended us. We are no longer so focussed on our rights, but more so on our responsibilities. And we become more naturally aware of good opportunities through which to bring some level of service. In a way, in modern parlance, we get over ourselves; and, we accept that others may have had a tough journey (largely that we are unaware of), and we make the decision to show them grace. When we neglect to love our neighbour, this is where intolerance can creep in. Whether we look around the Old Testament … and in the New Testament – whether it’s Jesus, James or Paul, we read that the most central response to God’s love in God’s Word … is … “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”!

In Conclusion – Releasing our Freedom (v 1, 16)

And so we return to the first verse, and to verse 16, and ask how!? “For freedom Christ has set us free”! “Live by the Spirit”!! How?? In each of the group of verses that follow these verses, we read about taming the desires that are contrary to the Holy Spirit, lest we are trapped by them. For me, the best way of avoiding this trap is to fall in love with Jesus, and then fall in love with his mission in the world – then our attitudes, disciplines and priorities tend to head in the right direction. We release our freedom through our relationship with Jesus, and his empowering through the Holy Spirit.

So this is a matter of delving into God’s Word especially Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, and prayerfully considering, individually and in groups, what the Holy Spirit is saying to us through the life of Jesus. Just as the Holy Spirit opened up the paths of clear communication on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit also allows us to correctly and helpfully interpret God’s Word for our times right now!

In this knowledge, we are free to live our lives knowing that we are being transformed before the public gaze, and we can ably deal with all the challenges life throws up. So we can be active, more often doing the right thing than the wrong thing, being alert, expectant and observant … for the Spirit’s leading into new ventures and relationships. And we can help each other be the church that God so much desires to inhabit.

The commitment to full unity and cooperation among all the Lord's disciples is like a radiant light in a dark night (Pope Francis).