2013 02 24 ASH AM FREEDOM IN FAITH
We have already spent sometime this morning looking at Freedom.
So let me ask some questions:
How much do you value your freedom?
What does your freedom allow you to do?
Are you free to do whatever you want?
Although we live in a country that promotes Freedom there are some limits to what we can and can not do.
You can’t walk into a crowded room and shout “fire” unless there actually is a fire.
You can’t ignore the speed limit and drive as fast as you feel like.
You can’t go across the road to the shop and take something from the shelves, pop it in your pocket and leave without paying.
We may have physical freedom - but we are not always free to do what we want to do or would like to do.
In the Bible the book of Galatians is all about Spiritual freedom, the freedom that is ours in Christ.
The freedom that we receive when we, by faith, enter into a real relationship with God.
Galatians speaks of the freedom we can have from sin’s bondage.
It also speaks of the freedom we have to receive God’s gifts in worship and the freedom we have to stand in God’s presence because of the Jesus sacrifice on our behalf.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia because there was a real threat to their spiritual freedom.
Some false teachers were saying, “Christ isn’t enough. You still have to submit to Moses, get circumcised, and follow the Old Testament dietary laws to be a true follower of God.”
But the Apostle Paul wouldn’t let that teaching stand.
He said, “No. It’s either all because of Christ, or His death was in vain, for nothing.”
That’s the foundation of our faith in Christ, and anything added to Christ destroys the foundation of our faith.
Anything added to the cross of Christ chisels away at the freedom we have in Christ.
In Galatians Chapter 5 Paul wrote these words
So Christ has truly set us free. But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. (NLT)
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. (NIV)
(Galatians 5:1&5).
Throughout Galatians Paul talks about how Christ’s death takes away fear, and how God provides lasting forgiveness and restoration in knowing that Jesus Christ has set us free not just for a day, but for eternity.
We are set free by Jesus.
We have freedom.
But freedom from what?
As the Apostle Paul says elsewhere, “Before this faith, we were kept under guard by the Law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed.
The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so we could be justified by faith.”
Before Christ came God kept us in something like house arrest for our own protection.
God gave us His Law to keep us from hurting others and to keep us from hurting ourselves.
If we are disobedient toward authority, the Law is there, threatening us with justice and even imprisonment.
If we’re tempted to kill, the Law is supposed to contain us and stop us before we do something harmful.
If we’re tempted to steal, the Law is supposed to restrain those outward behaviours.
The Law surrounds us with bricks and bars.
It blocks us in on every side.
It restricts us with rules and regulations.
It restrains us like an electric fence.
The Law also teaches, rebukes, and corrects us--if we are willing to learn and not think we know more than God.
The Law is our teacher and guardian; it teaches and prepares us.
The Law has one real purpose to teach us we can not please God with our works; nothing we do can earn God’s favour.
In Galatians 2:21 Paul wrote, “If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing” .
If you could earn forgiveness and eternal life by what you do or how you live, then Christ died for nothing.
Romans 10:4 says “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,” for where faith in Christ is alive, the Law has been silenced. That’s why “Christ is the end of the Law, that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes”
Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law.
The Law ends in Christ.
It’s that way for all who believe that His death is their death, that His obedience is their obedience, that His life is their life.
We still need to be obedient to God’s commandments, the Ten Commandments for example are something that still need to be obeyed.
But because of Jesus, by faith in Him, by trusting in Him as our Saviour, we are no longer condemned by the Law.
That is the real freedom we have through faith.
The freedom Christ purchased with His blood when He died on the cross for you and rose from the grave.
We have freedom from condemnation under God’s Law.
Where there is faith in Christ, the Law cannot hurt you; it cannot accuse you before God, and it cannot condemn you to hell.
For Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient for everyone that believes in Him.
For everyone that turns to Him.
For everyone that trusts Him as Lord and Saviour.
As the Apostle Paul also wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20-21).
If the Law were to condemn those who have faith in Christ, it would have to condemn Christ.
But in Christ, by faith, you are free.
When God looks at you, He doesn’t see your sin or what you’ve done in the past.
He sees His Son.
He sees Jesus covering you.
It’s like Christ is your clothing.
His righteousness is your cover. God doesn’t see your disobedience; He only sees Jesus’ perfect obedience. He doesn’t see your sin; He only sees Jesus’ holiness.
That’s why you can be forgiven of sin.
That’s why you can have eternal life.
That’s why you can be saved.
That’s why Jesus died on the cross.
That’s why God can forgive you.
That’s why you can live in freedom.
It’s yours in Christ Jesus--and you can’t add anything to what Jesus did to save you. That’s because “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:32).
That’s what you can have.
That is the freedom that by faith is possible.
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Yet when I look around me and observe the lives of many people in this world.
I see slavery and not freedom.
I see people burdened with guilt, bound by fear, enslaved to habits which are sinful, shackled with an attitude that is far from the living in the freedom of Christ.
In John Bunyan’s book Pilgrim’s Progress there is a point at which Christian’s burden, which he has been carrying all his life, falls off his back and rolls away.
Anyone remember where this happens?
It falls off at the foot of the cross and it rolls into an empty tomb.
He never again carries that burden on his back – the burden by the way is sin.
Friends Christ died to set us free from the burden of sin.
The constant refrain coming from the lips of Jesus to people was come to me and I will remove your burden of sin.
If you know Christ as your saviour this morning, then He has already done everything necessary to free you from the burden of sin.
So why continue to carry the burden yourself?
Paul tells the Galatians, and us, we are made right with God by grace through faith in Christ – our justification.
That frees us from the burden of sin, from a guilty conscience, from the fear of death.
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Let me ask you another question:
Is it a joy to you to be a Christian?
I do not mean are you always happy, top of the world form.
I mean is being a Christian a joy or a burden to you?
I think many people see it is a burden because they think being a Christian is
more about what we do not do
than what we do do.
Listen to me – if you are a Christian this morning,
God loves you unconditionally – you cannot make him love you anymore and there is nothing you can do which will make him love you any less.
Your salvation is in Christ – not your obedience.
But your sanctification is in your obedience.
Your holiness, your personal godliness, your witness before God and others depends on your obedience.
Your salvation is all of Christ.
Your sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit each day leading you to obey God’s Word and will so that you might become more like Christ each day.
The fruit of the Spirit in your life brings freedom – against such things Paul says there is no law, nothing to condemn, nothing to convict and therefore no guilt.
So we are free to be filled with the Spirit, which brings freedom and not bondage.
We are free to live without condemnation of the past or fear of the future.
God does not wipe away your sin, give you salvation and then put on handcuffs of past memories to hinder your Christian life.
You are free from your past – he has wiped it clean.
It no longer imprisons you – the debt has been paid.
Listen to these words spoken by Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 3 v19) ‘Repent, then, turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.’
He sets you free from your past – why would you go back and put on the burden he has removed.
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Maybe right now, some of you need to accept his forgiveness,
some of us need to repent
and some of us who have repented need to take off your self-imposed handcuffs of memories.
Friends you have freedom from your past.
And can I also say some of you need to take the memory handcuffs off other people – because you have put them there and you keep them there.
In Christ we have freedom, by faith, within the boundaries of God’s Word.
We are free from the punishment of sin,
from eternal death,
from the past,
from fear of the future,
but we are not autonomous.
We are not free to do our own thing.
We are not free from responsibility.
We are not free to sin.
We are not freed from love and concern for others.
We have freedom from the requirements of the Law in terms of our justification but we are required to obey the Law for our sanctification.
Galatians Chapter 5 verse 1 says this:
“it is for freedom that Christ has set us free”
