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.” (Galatians 5:13,14)
Do you ever feel that freedom is misused and abused in this country? That it’s used as an excuse to do whatever we want? To say whatever we want? To allow anything and everything to be permissible, because you know, you can’t tread on anyone’s rights and freedom. What do you think Revolutionary soldiers who fought for our freedom would say of the state of our country today? I am guessing they would be appalled at many of the things they saw on television and the internet, revolted at the words and actions of people as they appeal to their rights and freedom. “This isn’t what I fought for at all!” they might exclaim.
And too, in our freedom as Christians, we are not free to go and do whatever we want and misuse and abuse the freedom Christ has won for us. Our freedom is not a license for us to sin and live for ourselves. The freedom from sin we have through Christ moves us to want to, with the Spirit’s power, fight sin and avoid it, so we don’t once again become enslaved by it.
The Emancipation Proclamation declared that all slaves were free. The Civil War resulted in that freedom, but yet the Jim Crow laws, the segregation laws in effect for nearly 90 years after the Civil War, literally enslaved them still. Freedom had been declared, but awfully, they weren’t able to live in freedom. And so we too, we have heard and believed that our freedom is declared and complete, so why would we continue to be harnessed by our sin, to live as if we were not free from that sinful flesh and the grips of Satan?
It’s only by the Spirit’s strength and counsel that we live in freedom, wanting to submit to God’s will, using his Word as a light for our path, to use the law as a guide for our daily living. Paul writes that “the entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” The freedom from sin we enjoy through Christ leads us to make ourselves servants of each other and to love one another, and in that way we show our love for God. In your freedom, your life shows the fruits of the Spirit as Paul lists, in “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22). This is the fruit that God looks for in our life of freedom, this is the fruit that the Spirit produces. As we daily drown our Old Man in the waters of our Baptism, and as we arise in our New Man, in our freedom to serve God and each other we seek to serve and glorify God.
We enjoy such wonderful blessings of God as citizens of the United States of America. Blessings we cannot take for granted. Blessings that have come with a huge price tag. Blessings we should cherish.
But the blessings of God that we have as citizens of Christ’s kingdom of grace are so much greater and so much more precious. Redeemed and freed from the tyranny of the devil, sin, and our sinful flesh. Freed and forgiven and declared holy in God’s sight. Blessings we cannot take for granted. Blessings that came with a huge price tag. Blessings we should cherish.
You are free, you are free indeed! Let that freedom ring in your lives!
Jesus promises you: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31)
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