Sermon Cloud

The Big idea of the passage: Meaningful change is not possible without the liberation of the Gospel.

My goal for this message: To change the way we think about and attempt to change. To see that before any change can take place, we must first be free.

INTRODUCTION

The two things we prize so dearly in our culture are freedom and change. Our country is unique in that we bank everything upon our freedom (even if it is not defined for us). And, our country assumes that by sheer hard work you can change your life, even if the type of change that is admired is only superficial-success, health, material possessions, family, etc.

These two commodities are rare, precious, and incredibly valuable. Countries wage war to be free to do what they want the most. Lives are lost and billions of dollars are spent on the idea of freedom. Also, to find the key to change-real, lasting, meaningful change-is what drives psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and authors who write book after book on how to change. Each is offering their opinion to teach you the key to change. To find the key to change is worth billions.

Talk about the scene in Braveheart where William Wallace rallies the troops: "They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!"

I. What does it mean to be free?

Verse 1b: "For freedom Christ has set us free"

A. Paul says that it is for freedom that Christ freed us.

a. Paul is saying that entire point for us to be freed by Christ is so that we will be a free people.

Jesus' mission to come to this world was to come on a quest to liberate a people. This isn't just something He wanted to accomplish, He accomplished it! The verse teaches us that Christ "has set us free!" This means it is a completed act that happened in the past. This is why Paul can say to the Pagans that they've been set free through the victory of Christ over that which would enslave us.

B. How do we define freedom?

a. Some define freedom as being able to do whatever you want whenever you want. Paul says that if your heart is not changed, your impulses and desire will always lead to the slavery of sin. Does the man who began experimenting with heroin to prove his freedom now feel free as an addict?

b. Some define freedom as the ability to be left alone. This is a popular American idea. To be able to do what you want without interference. The goal is rugged individualism.

C. Gospel freedom is being able to do what you want most.

a. Paul teaches us that only in the Gospel do pleasing and obeying God become that which we most desire.

Gospel irony

Gospel freedom is not what we expect (the Pagan's past was filled with what appeared to be sexual and moral freedom, yet Paul says it was slavery). We must ask the "what?" "why?" and "how?" questions which uncover our motivation. What is freedom? Why do you want freedom? How do you get your freedom? How do you keep your freedom?

Gospel change is not the change we expect (now, the false teachers were attempting to take on a strict moral and religious code which appeared to be change, yet Paul says this amounts to nothing more than slavery). What is meaningful change? Why do you want to change? How are you going to change?

II. Why do we need to be free in order to change?

Verse 1c: "...do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

A. Paul teaches us that any change without freedom will only lead to more slavery.

B. Those who attempt to change by either ignoring the law or keeping the law will never have a certainty of righteousness and the liberation of freedom.

a. Those who attempt to change by ignoring the law or pretending that change is unnecessary will never be sure they are free because they constantly fail. They have a standard that they have chosen which has become their own "law" unto themselves. The problem with this is that they fail to live up to even their own laws and therefore become incredibly insecure and riddled with the guilt of their own failure.

This attempt seems affirming on the outside because it assumes a kind of freedom, but is inwardly offensive and devastating since it piles up the shame of our failed attempts. This leads to a life of great insecurity because we can never really be sure that we are free.

Of course, this assumes that a person is honest about their failures to live up to their own standards. Most of us attempt to hide our shame of failing our standards by simply working harder.

b. Those who attempt to change by keeping the law as a way to find favor with God find that they...

If you obey God for the wrong reasons, it's as bad as if you're disobeying God. The motive is everything. You'll be obeying the rules but you won't be obeying the truth. The word "truth" is deliberately chosen. He doesn't say law.

Formal obedience to a law or rule with a malicious intent is just as immoral as disobeying the law. Many years ago in London there was pressure from the government to create certain safety and organizational standards for the railways. They really put pressure on those that ran the trains to conform to these new rules. The employees and operators of the trains protested against these new rules because they said they were inefficient and would only exasperate the problems they faced. One of the ways in which they pushed back against the government was by obeying these rules in every respect so that they did not break even one of the now standards. This brought the railways to a halt and forced the government into talks with the operators and employees to reach a compromise. Now, the result was that the employees got what they wanted, but they did it through malicious obedience.

Obeying a rule, even a good rule, with bad motives is considered malicious. Paul is making his case that the motive is everything. The reason you do what you do makes all the difference in the world. Formal morality with an ill intent only leads to slavery.

Paul is teaching us that obeying the law with impure motives is actually disobeying the law because you're not listening to the weight and demands of the law.

When someone says, "I don't really need Jesus Christ since I follow the golden rule. I've never cheated on my wife and since I'm faithful, why do I need Jesus?" the response to this objection isn't to say, "I know you're obeying the laws, but you still need to add belief in Jesus." This is nothing more than what the Judaizers are saying-belief in Jesus plus obeying the laws will bring us into favor with God. Paul shows us that if someone says such a thing, they really haven't listened to the law. If you really listen to the weight of the laws, you'll realize that there can be no deviation from it and that even though the laws are right and just and we should follow them, if we're honest we'd realize we never can!

Anyone who says, "I'm following the rules so I don't need a savior," is not following the law because the law is intended to show us our need for a savior. The very thing we think we're obeying we're actually disobeying because the intention of the law is to create in us a motivation to seek after the only One who kept the whole law without failing-Jesus.

The motivation is crucial; it's everything.

III. How can we be set free to change?

Verse 1b,c: "stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

If we fail to seek after Christ as our source for freedom and change, we will turn to our own efforts to change and therefore we will lose our freedom. This doesn't mean we will lose our salvation, it means that we will live a life of positional freedom but not experiential freedom. In World War II and Vietnam, prisoners of war would be kept in camps as slaves to their captors. Their freedom was taken from them. Yet when the war was declared over, it took some time to reach all the camps. The captors didn't realize they were defeated and the prisoners didn't realize they were free. It wasn't until the good news traveled deep into the jungles and small towns of these countries that they began to experience the reality of their freedom.

In many ways, some of us are like prisoners of a spiritual war. We've been held so long in slavery and bondage that it isn't until the good news travels deep into our hearts that we began to experience the freedom which this incredible news brings.

It is more than just the declaration of victory that will change our status from prisoners or slaves to free men and women; we must see that the doors have been broken open by One who is victorious. When we see through the Gospel that our hero, Christ, has broken through the gates of our own prison and has come to us to remove the chains that bound us in slavery, even though our outward strength makes us frail, we begin to rejoice and our hearts are warmed and strengthened.

Paul sees the false teachers as those who are putting a burden and yoke around the neck of those who have already been set free. They were enslaving people with the law. These Pagan converts in Galatia were under the threat of becoming enslaved by keeping the law as a way to find freedom and change. Paul is saying that if these converts attempt to "live up" to standards, it will be no different than the slavery they experienced when they were in open sin. They will be just as proud, just as self-seeking and rude, just as defensive, just as insecure and guilt-ridden as before.

(Christ is our firm foundation, our Rock)

A new motivation

Verse 5: "For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness."

This means that we know and are certain that righteousness is ours. It is both that which we are today and that which we'll experience in full to come.

Hope doesn't mean that we wish it were true, it means that we are sure it's true or going to happen.

Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

See? Faith is the assurance of things hoped for!

This is the absolute conviction that the beauty of God, the righteousness of God, and the glory of God will be realized.

Paul is saying a Christian is absolutely certain, like no other, that there is a beauty and glory awaiting you in the future. We are strengthened by what's to come.

If you are a secular person, you have no idea with any certainty where you're going to be a billion years from now. And if you come from any other religion, you also have no guarantee or certainty of where you're going to be when you die because only Christianity guarantees our future and gives a sure confidence of what's to come. If you're from another religion, you're on the hook to perform and meet standards. You might feel right now you're living up and might make it, but you don't know what's to come 20 years from now.

Only a Christian can say that we "eagerly wait" through the Spirit, by faith in what we hope for or are certain will happen. Christians are strengthened by the sure truth that we have a promise of what's to come and it brings liberation and change.

Fear is not the motivation, certainty is. No longer are you trying out of fear to make it, but resting in Christ who already made it on your behalf. By faith you receive the life, the record of the perfect Son of God so you too can be sons and daughters now and forever.

Verse 6: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love."

Faith working through love is freedom. You might say, "how does freedom bring change?"

Every time you do something for the purpose of getting something for yourself, you're not doing it out of a motivation of love, but of a selfish drive to get something you don't already have.

When I was a boy scout, I had to do certain good deeds to get my badges and my merits I could pin on my uniform. I was very proud of my accomplishments and could show them off to all my friends in my troop. I was performing good deeds to win an award, not out of a changed heart.

When you begin to sense the love you have through the faith in Christ that works in you, you'll no longer need to work to get something, you'll work because you already have it. Therefore your motivation to change, your motivation to be a person that looks like Christ will not be out of selfishness but out of the overflow of a heart that is already accepted by the Father.

Through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the certainty of righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.

Only faith working through love counts for anything. Faith in Christ always works its way out in love and is more valuable than anything.

There is a need to obey the truth (not the Law!), and the truth is the Gospel. Christ is the truth incarnate and His Gospel liberates us and changes us.

Only the Christian can truly be free, and only the Christian can truly change in any meaningful way. Christ has set us free (and if the Son sets you free....), and our God has given us His grace which changes us at the core of our identity. This change starts from the inside by transforming us within, which will cause us to be conformed more and more into the image God's Son. In other words, to the degree that we believe that we are truly God's sons and daughters, we will be changed into the image of the perfect Son: Jesus. This was the point of Paul's message in chapter 4 regarding the children of the promise through the example of Sarah and the children of the slave through the example of Hagar.