"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1)
"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Galatians 5:13-14)
"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. " (Galatians 6:2)
I’ve shared some of the verses that stood out to me this morning in my reading, and I hope to share what they have revealed to me. If you didn’t know, Galatians is the book of Christian liberty. The instructions in this book are well summarized in chapter 5, verse 1:
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."
The church at Galatia had embraced a false teaching that was being popularized by certain Jewish Christians. They mixed their Jewish culture, their interpretation of the Mosaic Law, and the tenets of the New Covenant. They agreed that salvation was by faith through grace, but they insisted that a few more things needed to take place—ceremonial things, outward things, such as circumcision and other practices.
Paul combats this idea by showing how Christ fulfilled the law—both the moral aspects and the ceremonial “shadowy” aspects. The law had served its purpose: to reveal sin through its "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots" and to demonstrate how sin must be dealt with—through a substitutionary, sacrificial atonement. This was the law’s way of bringing us to Christ. That is to say, the law had proven the whole world guilty—except Christ—and had pointed to Him as the substitutionary, sacrificial atonement for all mankind. Since Christ has come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster but have been delivered into the hands of the One whom the law was teaching us to look for.
In light of this, why should we return to the ceremonies of the law when the Christ of the law has come—the One who fulfilled all the law? Why get tangled up in the shadowy ordinances that were meant to point us to Christ when Christ Himself has already come? Don't come to circumcision, or baptism, or confirmation, or church membership—come to Christ Himself and be saved! Perhaps I have labored this point a little too much, but it is clear that Paul, by the Holy Ghost, wants Christians free from the yoke of ceremony and shadows and standing fast in the full light of Jesus’ finished work.
Liberty Is Not a License
This is where most Christians' understanding of liberty stops. We are free, thank God! But what is this freedom for? Is it just for our own personal enjoyment? No, it isn’t.
"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Galatians 5:13-14)
One person said the difference between liberty and freedom is this: Liberty is unto right doing, and freedom is unto anything. How many times have we seen Christian liberty interpreted as "I can do what I want!"? That is not the liberty we have in Christ. We are set free from sin, not to sin.
We are not free to serve ourselves—that is what we have been freed from: a self-first mentality. We have been set free from the bonds of the law and yoked with Christ by His Spirit to fulfill the very spirit of the law: "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
So, we have been freed from the schoolmaster whom we could never emulate and yoked to the Savior who lived out the law, fulfilled its shadows, and now lives within us, empowering us to love God and love others.
Liberty Has Its Bonds
Christian liberty is not just for the individual believer; it is for the whole body of Christ. Perhaps a better way to say it is: we are free, but not to offend.
Peter says it best:
"As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God." (1 Peter 2:16)
If your "liberty" offends the body of Christ and you insist on exercising this "liberty" as your right—no matter how it affects others—then this is a total misuse of the liberty God has given you, and it is malicious.
Paul says:
"But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak." (1 Corinthians 8:9)
And again:
"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." (Romans 14:19-22)
So even liberty has its bonds. We are bound to Christ. We are bound to service. We have been bound to a new law, the Law of Christ, and He would have us prefer others above ourselves, using our liberty as an instrument of love—not as a weapon of mass destruction. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. " (Galatians 6:2)
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