Galatians - To The Churches In Galatia
Week 8 - More Important, More Complex, and More Liberating

Truth is a big deal in our culture, but the truth we adhere to is often personal truth based on what we feel, and not on what is objectively true. Christianity believes there is absolute truth and it is found in Jesus. That claim has caused a lot of people to shy away from Christianity, because we are often taught that if someone claims they have absolute truth, it undermines others’ freedom.

• How would you explain our culture’s relationship with truth?
• Have you been tempted to see absolute truth as the enemy of freedom?
• On a scale of 1-10, how important do you think truth is to your life on average?

There are two views of the truth that will affect how we live:
• Subjective Truth – Subjective truth is the opinion of one person; it cannot be evaluated apart from the opinions of other people. Subjective truth used to be called “my opinion”.
• Objective Truth – Objective truth is a factual statement regardless of how others feel about it. “Gravity is real,” is an example of objective truth. You may not believe in it, but if you trip and fall, you will experience the reality of gravity for yourself.

In recent years, there has been an attack on the concept of objective truth. We can see the damaging effects of taking things that were once deemed to be objective and calling them subjective.

• How do you explain what truth is to others?
• How has subjective opinion been elevated to objective truth?
• How can you know objective truth is truth? Have you tried explaining it to others?

Truth is more important than we think - Paul was fighting for the truth, because freedom comes from the truth. Timothy Keller wrote, “…truth claims can be used to destroy freedom, but there is no freedom without the truth.”

Jesus says in John 8:32 “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Truth doesn’t erode our freedom; we have to have the truth and be in touch with the truth to have freedom—only the truth will set us free.

• Do you believe in absolute truth? What truth is that?
• Does your personal story, full of subjective opinions, align with God’s objective Truth?
• Why was Paul fighting for the fact that freedom comes from the truth?

Freedom is more complex than we think - freedom in Christ doesn’t mean we get to live any way we want; we are free, but restricted. Freedom is not the absence of restriction or the presence of restrictions; freedom is the presence of the right restrictions, the ones that fit in with our nature. The more intimate you want a love relationship to be, the less independent you are; the only way to enjoy the true freedom of love is to surrender freedom.

• How does the Gospel gives us liberating restrictions to live in a richer, deeper freedom?
• What type of right restrictions does God give us? Which do you like the most? Which do you rebel against?
• How do these restrictions come out of the very core of how God made you to be?

Jesus is more liberating than we think - We don’t create our purpose. Our purpose has been given—we are image bearers of God; when we run from that purpose, our lives disintegrate. God doesn’t give us an abstract set of rules and say, “Obey and you will go to heaven,” God gives Himself in Jesus, who lives the life we should have lived and dies the death we should have died on the cross; He saves us by sheer grace. That is true liberation.

• Would you say your life has been liberated by Jesus?
• How do you glorify God? How do you enjoy Him?
• Discuss the fact that absolute truth is not a subjective ‘thing,’ but is a person--Jesus.

We need the truth, which leads to freedom, which can only lead us to Jesus.