Free From What?

Life Church, 20/1/13.

We have a cat, Zoe.  Now Zoe is a champagne tabby.  She’s quite common but seems to think that she is a princess.  That said, when we got her from the Cats Protection League we had to promise not to allow her to have a litter of kittens and have her spayed when she was old enough.  We kept our promise. 

After the operation they put on what is called a buster collar, a plastic cone that goes around her neck and stops her licking the wound so it would heal properly.  Have you ever tried to put something like this on a cat?  When we got her home she just went berserk.  She walked backwards, scratched at it, meowed, bashed into things.  We got so worried we phoned the vet and they said, “She just has to get used to it.”  We after about 24 hours she did.  She wore this thing for 10 days until the vet said it’s OK to take it off.  The day came and Barbie and I placed her on the bad, took it off, threw it out of the room with a big ‘hurrah,’  and waited to see what would happen.  Well Zoe spent the next hour just cleaning herself – I mean she had not been able to do this for 10 days and a cat is constantly cleaning itself.  After this she got off the bed and left the room.  A few minutes later Sam called us, “Hey, I thought you were taking the buster collar off?”  “We did,” we replied.  “So how come she is wearing it?”  I turns out that she had found it, put her head back through it (the right way) and was merrily wonderingly around with this thing on!  We took it off and hid it from her.

What had Zoe done? 

•  Firstly, she had objected to that which felt unnatural.  She wanted it off.  It is really hard to begin to commit sins.  There is something inbuilt within us that says we should not do something.  But there was something unnatural about this for Zoe – she fought against it!

•  Secondly, she became accustomed to the restrictions.  She got to a point where she could not recall living any other way.  She is a cat after all!  It did not take long.

•   Thirdly, when the collar was removed she did not think she could live without it, so went back to it.

•   But today, if we needed to put her in a buster collar again, she would not accept it.  She’d object again!  She enjoys her freedom.

One of the most quoted but sometimes most misunderstood verse in the Bible is Galatians 5:1.  This is because we don’t take the care to read the context and understand what is going on.

Galatians 5:1: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery.

There are two opposing views of Christian freedom today; legalism and licence, but both are skewed views.

1.   The Problem of Legalism:

We get this term from the idea that we are more pleasing to God if we keep a rules and regulations.  Often we’re just more pleasing to those who are pleased with themselves and who want to clone us.

When Paul wrote these words there was a growing problem in the church of those becoming Christians but being led to believe that they still had to keep every rule of the Jewish law.  Now the Ten Commandments were helpful (Ex 20) and deal with behaviour in which we should conduct ourselves.  Christians today are still obedient to these because most of them are enshrined in our legal system and, secondly, because we find ourselves desiring to please God through our relationship with Him.

Then there are also a total of 613 commandments (mitzvoth) in the Torah –the Law given to Moses from God and recorded in the Pentateuch (first five books in the Bible)..  There are 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments.

That’s a lot of religious observation to be done.  It was designed to keep the people pure and holy. 

Between the Old and New Testaments we have 400 years of silence, where there is no revelation given and no Scriptures recorded, but the birth of Jesus is waited for and anticipated.

Enter the Pharisees.  They were a group of mainly middle class Jews who began to codify and explain the law.  They did not add new laws but began a process of debating ‘what if’ scenarios aimed at keeping the purity of Judaism and, vicariously, the purity of the people through the obedience of the law.  These debates become recorded in the Mishnah.  In the end they were living the Law to the nth degree

What was the law and the Mishnah designed to do?  Basically to reach up to God with our own efforts to be pure and holy.

We begin to see this influence hitting the early Church, particularly through a group known as the Judaizers, those who believed that to be saved one had to be circumcised.

Galatians 1:6: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Galatians 3:1: You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

Galatians 4:11: I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Galatians 4:20-21: How I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!  Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?

Galatians 5:7: You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?

There’s something comfortable about reducing Christianity to a list of do’s and don’ts: you always know where you stand, and this helps reduce anxiety.  Do’s-and-don’ts-ism has the advantage that you don’t need wisdom.  You don’t have to think subtly or make hard choices.  You don’t have to relate personally to a demanding and loving Lord.  (Robert C. Roberts - Christianity Today, Vol. 31, no. 9).

Accusation of the unbeliever: “I am not good enough to go to church?”  Why?  Because they sense a legalism in some places that actually should not be there!

That is why Paul warns the Galatians not to put the yoke of the Law back on themselves again.  What Paul says is this – if you believe that circumcision is necessary then you do not believe that Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient to save you from your sins.  In fact you have rejected the gospel of grace and you have gone back to the ‘good works’ path.

James 2:10: For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

Friends we are never going to be ''good enough.''

2.  The Problem of Licence

On the other extreme we have those who take this verse to mean that anything goes.  After all we are under grace not the law!

This kind of thinking is basically faith with the absence of fruit of a changed life.

Many believe that freedom means license to do whatever we want, whenever we want.

Someone has said that license, is the abuse of grace to serve oneself selfishly and sinfully.  It is an unrestrained life that mocks God’s commands whilst still saying that God is with them.

The Christian who falls into license may reason that they can indulge in sin because their eternal salvation can’t be lost, or because they’re forgiven already, or at least, they rationalizes, "God will forgive me when I sin."

But this is immature.  Paul points out:

Romans 6:1: Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted

“License” is a Biblical term.

Jude 1:4: For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord

The word "licence" in this context means "without restraint."

Paul warns about these kinds of people:

2 Timothy 3:1-5: But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Part of the problem of the lack of discipline and the overabundance of self-indulgence on the part of believers is that feelings have become more important to us than finding God.

Accusation of the unbeliever: why should I become a Christian, I am more moral than them!

The person who practices license is not living by grace, they are falling into the trap of they are Antinomianism – the idea that we do not have to produce any work as evidence of salvation.

3.  The Answer: Liberty!

Liberty – Faith demonstrated by works

Galatians 2:19: For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

Galatians 5:13: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Liberty does not mean the absence of laws

As Christians, we are to maintain proper standards of conduct because of the Lord’s admonition to be holy for I am holy (1Peter 1:16).

1 Corinthians 10:23: “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.

Liberty always comes with conditions – you must treasure it, defend it, use it responsibly – license is achieved by nothing more complicated than putting your selfish desires at the centre of your life.

1 Corinthians 8:9: Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak

The fruit of the Spirit includes self-control.

In early 1988 Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales, and some friends took a skiing trip to Switzerland. The shocking news came one afternoon of a terrible accident caused by an avalanche in which one of the prince’s lifelong friends was killed and another seriously injured.

How did it happen?  A day or two later the press reported that the prince’s group had chosen to ski out on slopes that were closed to the public.  One of them observed, that’s where the optimum fun and excitement were to be found.  But it went beyond the margins of what was wise and prudent. 

What am I free to do?

If God has freed me from the burden, the punishment of sin but I am not free to sin then what am I free to do?

•  Freedom to enjoy a relationship with God that was once denied to me because of my sin.

Salvation is in Christ – not our obedience.  But our sanctification is in your obedience.

Our holiness, our personal godliness, our witness before God and others depends on our obedience.

I am free to be obedient which leads to godliness, holiness and Christlikeness. 

•   I have freedom to serve.

Paul says in verses 13-15 that I have been freed to serve others, not exploit them.

A mark of freedom is service.  Sounds strange but as we are told we are no longer our own but have been bought with the blood of Christ.

We are freed from the slavery of sin and become servants of Christ.  I display my freedom in Christ by serving others in the name of Christ.  It is out of my freedom that I serve. It is an expression of my love towards Christ who has set me free that I serve others in his name.

•  I am freed from self-indulgence and from the slavery of my sinful nature.

If we read on to 5:22 we read of what is replacing the sinful nature in our life.  We are being freed from the power of sin in our life and in its place comes the fruit of the Spirit.

Empty glass: How can I get all the air out of this glass? Suction – I can seal the top, get a vacuum pump and suck all the air out but eventually the glass will shatter.

Or I can do this – fill it with water.

Freedom in the Christian life is not sucking a sin out here and there but being filled by the Holy Spirit so that there is no room in my life for sin.

The presence of God in our life brings freedom – against such things Paul says there is no law, nothing to condemn, nothing to convict and therefore no guilt. So I am free to be filled with the Spirit, which brings freedom and not bondage.

Wrapping it up:

We are free!

Free from trying to reach God through our own abilities.

Free from trying to live a dual life.

Free from living without Godly boundaries.

Free to enjoy a real relationship with God.