THE ONE TRUE GOSPEL
Meditations in the Epistle to the Galatians
Galatians 5:13-15
CHRISTIAN FREEDOM

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IN OUR last meditation we discussed together the freedom we have in Christ; the freedom that releases us from all effort of our own to gain acceptance with God, and gives us acceptance freely through the perfect and complete work of Christ for us which gained our acceptance before God. This work of Christ, worked at such infinite cost to God and the Lord Jesus, is imputed to us, so that we are accounted just before God forever, and made inheritors of the heavenly realm and enjoy fellowship with God. This tremendous blessing can never be lost because it is based on the perfection of the Saviour which has been worked once and for all, and is forever complete.

In these three verses before us now Paul points us to the great danger of this freedom which is that Christians may become careless concerning the way they live, and sin without caring. It has ever been an accusation against the one true Gospel that it encourages people to live sinful lives. The argument is put something like this. If our acceptance with God and title to heaven is fixed permanently and can never be lost, then there is no incentive to live pure lives, because however much we sin it will make no difference to our standing before God and our possession of eternal life.

Paul discusses this problem in another way in his letter to the Romans when at the start of chapter 6 of Romans he puts the question, "Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase". God's grace, his free unmerited favour to sinners, is seen in the greatness of his forgiveness and redemption in Christ. The greater the sin, the greater is the grace which forgives and restores to life. So, why not let us sin without compunction, for the more we sin, the greater will be seen the glory of God's grace in forgiveness. Paul's categorical answer to this suggestion is "by no means" or more literally "God forbid".

In these three verses before us Paul speaks to this danger and temptation when he says, "do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature". It is the purpose of this meditation to discuss this problem and seek to understand the true nature of Christian freedom.

UNDERSTANDING THE FACTS

Paul mentions two facts in our verses. He speaks of our calling, and also of our sinful nature. It is important to understand the nature of both.

1. The sinful nature.

Our condition as Christians in this life is often not properly understood. It is true that we are looked upon as one responsible person, and it is the whole person, body, soul and spirit, that acts, and we are responsible to God as a whole person, but the facts of the spiritual life are more complicated than this. For a proper understanding of life as a Christian we need to understand the fact about our person here on earth.

Before we were converted and born again, we existed as one person and in total corrupted state by the fall. As a person we were under the judgement of God. In our will and affections we had a bias towards evil and rebellion against God. All our faculties were in tune with this condition. Body and soul were in tune to be rebels against God. Then came our conversion. By God's grace we were united to Christ in his death. The fallen person that we were died in Christ, and ceased to be. Then we were also united to Christ in his resurrection. This means that a wholly new and holy person was created. We became new born. We became a new person in Christ, and had a spirit that was alive to God and the heavenly realm. This new person was created to be like God in his character of holiness. This new person is not defiled by sin, and is pure before God, and immediately created at conversion to be fit for heaven and the presence of God. Because of this, we are fit habitation for the Spirit of God to dwell in. We also have a holy horror of evil and sin. We have become a new creation.

This new person is real and alive. The old person we were is dead. This is the wonder of God's salvation. Salvation is not simply a forgiveness and a new start, it is nothing less than new and pure life. There can be no more defilement for us any more in our new self. The problem lies in the fact that redemption will not be complete until we leave this fallen world, and our physical bodies die, and we receive in the eternal realm the new bodies which are pure and fit for that realm. After conversion we go on living in this world, and so the new person that we are has to reside and express itself through our natural flesh. This flesh has not been changed in anyway by conversion. It is still full of sin and sinful desires. There is no renewal of this flesh in any way whatsoever. It has one desire and that is away from God, yet we have no other medium to express ourselves in this world but through this fallen body and mind.

It is the will of God that through the new person we are in spirit that we mortify our flesh and put to death the sinful desires of it. We can't change the flesh, but we are called to subdue its desires so that the sin in our flesh is not allowed to express itself. This is an on-going work in our lives, and consists in the sanctification of our living and the way we express ourselves. We are already totally sanctified in our spirits, but we need to so mortify the flesh that we also become progressively more holy in the way we live, think and feel. Paul, in the next verses to the ones we are considering, speaks of the conflict which we shall always know in this earthly life, which we long to be free from at physical death. Paul also expresses this conflict in his own life at the end of Romans seven, where he talks of the good he would do, he can't perform, and the evil that he does not want to do, he finds he commits. He tells us that it is not the new person that we are that does this, but the sin that dwells in our flesh.

Because of this problem of the sinful flesh, there are times when through bodily weakness, through troubles in our lives, through the action of Satan, and the stimulation of the world all around us, that the flesh gains ascendency over us. It is this that Paul is concerned with in our verses. There is a tendency at these times to give up, and let the flesh dominate for a time. Paul speaks of one area where this is particularly relevant, and that is in the realm of relationships, where we become hurt and angry at someone, or a group of people, and we find our flesh urging us to hit back, and quarrel and fight. The flesh finds it so easy to justify this sinful action, and the expulsion of love.

At these times we may well find the temptation of Satan overcoming the promptings of the Holy Spirit by saying we need not worry over our sin, because we are secure in God's love through Christ. We are eternally justified and loved, so we can indulge our sin with impunity. Paul tells us we must never succumb to this temptation.

2. Our calling.

This second fact concerning our calling is the great motivation for subduing the flesh. Long meditation upon our calling will fill our minds and hearts with the glory of that calling, and draw us to up to that calling.

Paul tells us here that we are called to be free. Our calling is that effectual work of God in our lives whereby we are called from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. It is the calling to salvation. By it we are enabled to repent from our sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. It is a calling that draws us to the Saviour, and opens our minds and hearts to all that he has done for us in living, dying and rising again for us.

This calling brings us into a state of freedom. There is two directions to this freedom. One direction looks back and the other looks forward. We considered the looking back last time when we were reminded that the freedom we have is freedom from slavery. Christ's work for us frees us from the law of God as the means whereby we are justified before God by keeping it. This was dire slavery because there is no way we can ever fulfill all its terms and so be justified. Christ sets us free by fulfilling the whole law, both in its precepts and its penalty, for us. By this freedom from the law we are also freed from Satan's rule and dominion. The hold Satan has upon us is that we have broken God's law and are thus condemned. Because in Christ we are justified completely before God, there is no sin against us in God's view, and so Satan has no more hold on us. So we are free from the principles of this world, all natural religion that binds a person under rules which crush us.

However there is also a forward direction to this freedom. Salvation is not simply a freeing from judgement and giving us a new start. It is much much more. Salvation involves restoring us to the position before God which Adam lost, and something greater than this. Adam was in fellowship with God, but on probation. We have completed our probation in Christ, who has fulfilled all the terms of that probation for us.

Thus we are free to draw near to God always without fear. We are free to come to God as our Father, and we are given the spirit of adoption so we feel and know this relationship, and cry Abba, Father. We are free from this temporal bondage and have entered the heavenly and eternal realm. We experience this now only spiritually, but we will experience it bodily and completely in the life to come. We are free to have fellowship with God and dwell in his love all the time, and know the welcome and embrace of our heavenly Father.

This freedom is our great joy. It is the gift of infinite love of God for us. God had nothing less in mind in our salvation than that we should dwell in his love and enjoy him forever. There is nothing to compare to the experience of the holy love of God for us. How can we then, knowing such freedom, live in a way that offends the lover of our souls. How can we sin against such love which has redeemed us at such cost and so completely by giving in to the flesh, and indulging its sinful desires without caring. In fact our experience generally is that we suffer pain continually because of all the times we know, through the weakness of the flesh, we have fallen short of the way that pleases our loving Father in heaven.

FACING THE FACTS

These two facts concerning the Christian, the fact that we still have to bear our sinful flesh which is just as sinful as it has always been, and will never be anything else, and the fact that we have been called to such a wonderful, high, holy, beautiful, lovely, loving calling, we need to understand and take to heart. We are better Christians the more we understand the truth about ourselves in Christ.

Firstly, if we are not to indulge the sinful flesh, then we must realise that it is not God's purpose that we should be stuck with our sinful flesh forever. It is only a necessity in this earthly life. God's purpose of redemption is not complete yet in this life. What we already have, in justification and new life and fellowship with God, is complete, but there is more still to come. God has purposed in redemption that we shall have a new pure body, like Christ's resurrection body, where there will be no sin dwelling, but will be filled with all the purity of God. This will be ours when we reach the heavenly realm. While in this earthly fallen world our bodies through which we express ourselves must still include this sinful flesh. But if God's purpose is that we should have a pure and sinless flesh one day, we must not succumb to the desires of this sinful flesh. Further if we feel the conflict with the flesh is too great, let us remember that the conflict will not be forever, and say with the apostle Paul at the end of Romans 7 - "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Secondly, we need to feel and realise the wonder of our calling. What a wonder is this calling. It is nothing less than to dwell with God. God's purpose in redemption is nothing less than bringing us into fellowship with himself, so that we may be with him forever in his eternal glory. It is so amazing that God so loved us in our sins and degradation that he wanted us for himself to love us and for us to love him forever. At the eternity of our election by God, God saw our sin, but much more he saw the glory of the loveliness into which he would bring us by redemption, and he loved us in this perfection as his holy bride. This purpose in his calling was so great, that he was prepared to go to the lengths and infinite cost of giving his Son to death and hell and degradation to achieve his purpose of bring many sons and daughters to glory.

In the face of such love, which has gone to such great lengths and paid such high cost to redeem us, how can we use our freedom to indulge the flesh. It is an offence against love.

THE FACT OF LOVE

Paul particularises the problem in Galatia concerning the flesh. It is another powerful argument against the false doctrine that had been brought into the life of the Church in Galatia. What had this works orientated religion brought to the life of the church there. It had brought discord so that people were fighting each other. Paul speaks strongly. He speaks of them devouring each other and biting. No doubt he spoke metaphorically, but the pain and suffering is none the less because it is not physical.

There is only one way that brings love, the love of God, into life, and it is the Gospel of the love of God which has redeemed us wholly by God taking upon himself all the cost that is required to make us whole and bring us into the experience of his love. Such love breeds love in us, by example, and much more by the seed of this new life created in the soul, so that we have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. With this seed we have love in our hearts, the love of God which we want to and must express. John speaks of this in his first letter in chapter 4 and verse 7 onwards. Verse 12 of this Scripture says "No one has ever seen God; but if we love each other, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us".

Just as God loved us sinners, the redeemed show the same love to all whatever their failings and sins. Just as Jesus' love does not reject, but loves and weeps for sinners, so the saint does also. Just as God's love went to infinite cost to claim us for himself, so the saint loves to the uttermost. So in the church where God is truly known, there is not judgement, and rejection, but acceptance and love. Where such love is, holiness and purity flourishes. Where there is judgement, criticism and condemning, purity and holiness flies out of the window, because there is no power in the law to make anyone good.

CONCLUSION

Where the true Gospel of God's free love flourishes, there will never be the giving in to the flesh or the indulging in the flesh. However, when works of any kind enter into the life of the church, then there will be rejection and condemning, and holiness and purity will be lost as the flesh takes over.