Real Hope: Finding Hope Through the Life of PaulSample

Your Freedom

When the believers in Galatia trusted in Christ, they lost the yoke of slavery to sin and put on the yoke of Christ (Matthew 11:28–30). Religion’s yoke is difficult, and the burdens are heavy; Christ’s yoke is ‘easy,’ and His burden is ‘light.’ So, the Christian who depends on God’s grace wears the liberating yoke of Christ. To go back into the law is to become entangled in a maze of ‘dos and don’ts’ and to abandon spiritual adulthood.

Christianity is a redemptive religion because it is the religion of truth; it is the truth about God, about man, and about human relationships. There is freedom through truth – the Christian religion makes people free because Christ is truth (John 8:31–32 NIV).

Paul was wanting his readers to know that knowledge of the divine truth comes by faith and sets men free. As man freely accepts the promises of God, he is able to follow the commands of God more faithfully. The more God-centred, the less self-centred; the more spiritual, the less a slave to the things of earth, the flesh, and time. So, ‘Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.’ This is the will of God for you: your uncompromising, unrelenting freedom. Christ’s desire for you is that you live free. Where you go to school, what job you have, where you live, and so on aren’t nearly as important as whether you stand firm in freedom.

For this, Christ died. For this, He rose. For this, He sent His Spirit. Paul knew that there is nothing Jesus wills with more intensity under the glory of His own name than this: your freedom.

Written by HEIDI WYSMAN