UnchainedSample

Freedom

Full disclosure time.

The reason I am writing this book is because I have heard variations of the same question time and again, from the church lobby to the hotel bar: “If Jesus has set us free, why aren’t we?”

At the risk of sounding condescending, have you read the verse I keep quoting? Really read it? Slowly? Every single word?

“For freedom Christ has set us free.” (Gal. 5:1)

In this short verse, the apostle Paul is arguing that Jesus Christ has set us free and the whole point of our freedom is … wait for it … freedom! If this is true (and it is), freedom ought to be one of the defining marks of a follower of Jesus. Just like my wedding ring tells the world I am married, freedom should tell the world I am Christian.

When Paul wrote these words, he was writing to Christians who were facing a specific false teaching. They were being told that the way you could identify a true Christian was the same way you could identify a Jew: they were circumcised. The false teachers’ argument was simple: “No circumcision? No Jesus.” Paul took these guys to task (too late for some of his readers who had rushed out to get a quick snip) and taught emphatically that a Christian’s marking was not a physical one but a spiritual one. The way you could identify a Christian was that he was free!

Freedom was the reason Jesus came to earth (Matt. 1:23-25), lived a sinless life (1 Pet. 2:22), died on the cross (Luke 23:46), was buried (vv. 52-53), rose again (24:6), and ascended into heaven (v. 51). He did it all to set the captives free (4:18). Even more astonishing was that the reason Jesus set us free was so we would actually be free!

No freedom? No Jesus!

Paul’s entire argument in Galatians is that freedom is both the means and the end of the Christian life. It’s what we get and what we become. It’s who we are because of Jesus. We are free!