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Living in Freedom

Galatians 4:21
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

In the last devotion entitled, Freedom, we considered how we have been set free from the consequence of our sin – separation from God, death, and eternal punishment – through God’s great mercy and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in His humble sacrifice of death on the cross in our place.

Now that we are free, how are we to live out our lives? St. Paul says we are to live in the truth of this freedom. Not always so easy! We still sin, that hasn’t gone away. We still fight with our neighbor, family and co-workers. We still envy others at times and want what does not belong to us, or what we have not worked for. We’re not always kind. We do not always serve willingly or give joyfully.

Yet, paradoxically we are still free. The freedom we have is in the forgiveness of our sin – past, present, and future – and the power of the Holy Spirit always at work in us, enabling us to walk in His love. So, we do not have to “be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galations 4:21) An example of this kind of slavery might be seen in the prisoner, set free from jail, who goes right out to commit another crime. It was this type of thing that Paul was thinking of when he wrote,

Galatians 5:21
"You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you."

No, this is not good enough for God! He does not want us to live a life full of sin! Instead he wants us to enjoy the freedom of living in His love.

Galatians 5: 13-14
"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself."

The Lord wants us to live a life of freedom, loving our neighbor, not because we are better than them, but simply because he grants it to us. We can see this clearly as we read more of Paul’s words describing various, and obvious, acts of the sinful nature as immoral, impure and contrary to the Spirit.

Galatians 5: 17b-182
"They are in conflict with each other, so that you not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature."

We can rejoice because here again, he is telling us we are free in Jesus Christ and the power of His Spirit!

Galatians 5:22-23
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires."

Heavenly Father,
Once more we come to give You thanks and praise for setting us free from the power of sin, through the death and resurrection of Your son Jesus, allowing us to be called Your children, and to walk, led by the Holy Spirit, in the power of Your love. Amen.