Freedom
The apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians, says that it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Yet, he accuses these believers of submitting, again, to a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1). It is my experience that this is a problem for just as many Christians today as it was for that first century church. Paul had just made the argument that believers in Christ are free from the demands and the burden of the Law for their righteousness. Righteousness, he tells us, comes by faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Yet, there is something in our human nature that finds it difficult to rest in the truth and beauty of the cross. We may say in one breath that we are forgiven and stand before God in the righteousness of Christ, but in the next, we are lamenting our daily struggles and failures to live up to the ethic of the Scriptures. And, in one regard it is good to live in humility recognizing that we fallen creatures who fall short of the glory of God. God does not bless the proud, but he exalts the humble. Living with a contrite heart is one of the pathways to a deep, intimate communion with our Creator.
However, the gospel never demands a life of despair or drudgery. Jesus tells us that he came that we may have life and have it in full measure. In the letter to the Philippians, Paul doesn’t just exhort, but he commands these believers to live their lives with joy. There is a freedom and joy that comes from understanding the fullness of the gospel and the beauty of Jesus’s sacrifice for our sin. And the way to find that freedom and joy is to better understand the nature and purpose of the Law given to the people of God.
Paul teaches the Galatians that the Law was a guardian, or a tutor, (Galatians 3:24) that leads us to Christ. The Law shows us the perfection and holiness of God, and it reveals that in our sinful nature we will never live up to his standard. And when we see our inability to be who God created us to be, Paul teaches us that we are supposed to look through the Law to Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfilled the Law on our behalf, and he died on the cross so that he could pay the penalty for our shortcomings.
So, yes, we should feel the conviction of our sin when we continually fall short of God’s glory, but we are called to move on from there. We are called to look past our sin to the beauty and majesty of the cross. We are called to leave our sin there. And when we do, there is tremendous freedom. When we truly believe that we are forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ, there is great joy. The call of the gospel is to be people who understand the gravity of our sin, but rejoice that the reality of the cross is far greater than our sin. I know it can be difficult to live in the freedom of the cross. There is an enemy who constantly wants to remind us of our sinfulness and failure. But, when we put our faith into action and dare to believe that God means when what he says when he tells us “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21), we can feel the weight of our guilt and shame being lifted, and we can enjoy the freedom that comes with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s be people who rejoice in the glorious freedom of Jesus, and let’s be people who share this great news with the rest of the world.