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"Christ Has Set Us Free" Galatians 5:1,13-25 Luke 9:51-62

by Clancy Nixon

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

July 1, 2007

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

"When Christ sets you free, you shall be free indeed." When Christ sets you free,

you shall be free indeed. When Christ sets you free, you shall be free indeed! Amen?

We're celebrating our freedom as Americans on July 4th this week. So today, I thought

we'd also look at the freedom we celebrate as followers of Jesus Christ. These 2 kinds of

freedom are not the same. Indeed, at some points they are flatly at war with each other.

Let's look more closely at some different meanings of the word "freedom."

One idea of freedom has an ancient provenance. Amir, please play the clip from

Braveheart, the speech of William Wallace to his men before the battle of Stirling.

William Wallace saw freedom for Scotland as freedom from the tyranny of an

English King, freedom from the murder of her sons, the rape of her daughters and the

burden of crushing taxation. At the battle of Stirling, which the Scots won though

overmatched against heavy cavalry, they learned anew that freedom isn't free, but it

comes at a price. The Hebrews and the Egyptians learned the same lesson millennia

before, when God liberated the Hebrews from slavery to Pharaoh.

The freedom that our nation on these shores stood for at its origin in 1776 was

also freedom from an English King freedom from political tyranny, from economic

tyranny, and from religious tyranny. The Bill of Rights, derived from George Mason's

work, holds up our most precious liberties as Americans. Look only at the First

Amendment, where we express our God-given freedom to worship God according to our

consciences; the freedom to express any political opinion, in speech or in the press; and

the freedom to peaceably assemble. These freedoms protect us from the overreach of

unelected government officials. This kind of freedom is "freedom for;" freedom for our

flourishing as individuals, as communities, and as a nation.

Unfortunately, throughout our history as a nation, this ideal of freedom has

morphed and devolved into a more individualistic notion of "freedom from"- freedom

from any type of restraints. Many Americans today see freedom as little more than

personal sovereignty, like teenagers going off to college or moving out of their parents'

home for the first time. To them, freedom means no more curfews; no more asking

permission about where to go or with whom; no more limits on what you choose to do.

The word freedom is being used more and more to mean autonomy, independence, and

choosing your own identity; the word is used less and less to limit any restraint on

individual action due to moral claims of the community. Unfortunately, the unelected

U.S. Supreme Court has abetted this understanding. For example, our highest Court has

found a constitutional right to privacy, not in the text of the Constitution, but, I kid you

not, in what they call emanations and penumbras from the text. From this reasoning

come notorious opinions like Roe v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas, finding as "rights"

what were previously considered crimes - abortion and sodomy. We are living in a time

like the Hebrew people at the time of the Judges, before they had a King, when "everyone

did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25)

As our culture drifts farther and farther away from Biblical moorings, I think it important

for us to go even farther back in history to the Biblical ideal of freedom, so that we can

recover our birthright as Christians and Americans. That birthright is this: Christ has set

us free! It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Paul's notion of freedom as expressed in his letter to the Galatians is radically

different than our modern notion. The central theme of his letter is freedom. Paul says

that Christians do not need to be circumcised as the Judiazers taught, because that would

mean that our salvation can be earned through our works. Christ has set us free from the

demands of the Mosaic law. The letter to the Galatians is about freedom from the curse of

the law through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; it's about freedom from being

slaves to the law, and freedom to approach God the Father as sons and daughters with full

rights of inheritance; it's about freedom from the dreadful struggle to keep the law in

order to win favor from God; and it's about the freedom to live our lives caught up in the

life of the Spirit of God. Christ has set us free! Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is

freedom. When the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Our own attempts at

freedom just bring more bondage.

Richard Burkey tells the story of a prisoner in Sydney, Australia who tried to

escape from prison by climbing underneath the hood of a van delivering bread to the

institution. When the van made its next stop, the prisoner sneaked out from under the

hood--hot and dirty. He found himself in the yard of another prison just 4 miles from the

first. Like that prisoner, our attempts at freedom often leave us dejected, dirty, and in

another prison down the road of life. This shouldn't surprise us. We cannot rescue

ourselves from the prison of our own sins. When it comes to our relationship with God,

salvation and freedom come from what Jesus has already done for you on the cross, not

what you or I can do for Him. We can't earn God's love; we are invited to enjoy it,

experience it, and to embrace it.

When I think about the truth that our salvation is by grace alone through faith

alone in Christ alone, I can't help but think of Martin Luther, rightly called the Father of

the Reformation, for it was Luther who first articulated this truth. Martin was a monk in

the Augustinian order who was bedeviled with an overly scrupulous conscience. Luther

would confess his sins every day to his Confessor, yet he could not find release from his

anxiety that because he would always sin anew every day, his salvation was therefore in

question. That was a result of the theology of the day that said that salvation was

dependent on both faith and works. It was while Luther was studying the book of

Galatians that he had his great insight that he could do nothing to add to his own

salvation by his works. We cannot purchase our salvation by what we do, because Christ

has already done it all. All we need to do is accept what he has done for us on our behalf.

We are free form the bondage of a religious treadmill where we can never do enough to

please God. Instead, we can rest, free from the burden of sin, knowing that we are heirs

of the Father through the promise of the Son, Jesus Christ, the only righteous One.

This freedom we have in Christ is not a license to sin. It's a costly freedom. Our

gospel readings today underline the cost of discipleship. In Luke 9, Jesus turns from the

security of Galilee and sets his face like flint toward Jerusalem and the Cross. When the

Samaritans do not welcome Jesus as he passes through, His disciples suggest to him that

they call fire down from heaven to consume them. Jesus rebukes the disciples as a lesson

for us all that religious opinions should never be forced in the New Covenant. That is a

sound basis for the First Amendment. Next, three different men desire to follow Jesus,

but the cost of following him is greater than they imagined. The first learns that faith

leaves the place of security and roofs overhead and goes to an exposed place. "Foxes

have holes, birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head." The

second and third learn that even obligations to family members must take second place to

following Christ. What a challenge to our "family values" evangelical sub-culture that

puts family first. God loves families, and God wants to bless your families, but he won't

do that unless we get our priorities in order and put God before our families. Some of you

have an instrumental view of God that is, you worship God because of what he can do

for you. Many sincere believers today use God to promote family happiness. Friends,

hear me: God is neither a resource for your self-actualization, nor for your family's

flourishing! Rather, we are resources for God. We are called to give our lives and our

families to God as resources for the flourishing of God's Kingdom and the glory of His

Name.

The freedom found in Christ isn't free. It was costly for Christ to win your

freedom from sin and death, and it is costly for you and me to participate in that victory.

Paul says in Galatians 5:24 that we are to crucify the sinful nature. Ouch that hurts!

There is a cross in all true freedom. To be free from sin, we must kill our self-will, and

flee from sin. We are not saved by works, but we are saved for works. So Paul warns us,

if we habitually indulge in any sin on the list of works of the sinful nature in verses 19

and 20, then our salvation is in doubt. I'm not talking about occasional lapses with

repentance. I'm talking about a pattern of repeated indulgence in a known pattern of

serious sin. Habitual sexual immorality, fits of rage, discord and envy all these are

evidence of an unregenerate heart. Now if this sounds like salvation through works, it is

not! Our works, our behavior is evidence of our faith and our heart. Faith saves, not

works; but behavior issues from the overflow of the heart.

Bondage to sin is real bondage. If you have ever been caught in the grip of an

addiction, you know that to be true. The good news is that the freedom in Christ is real

freedom. Followers of Jesus are free from a guilty conscience, because our sins have been

forgiven. We are free to love others and be loved. Love constrains us, so we are not free

to do whatever we please, nor to do whatever our sinful desires may urge us to do. In

Christ, we are free to be who God calls us to be, since where God calls, he equips. We

are free to overcome the power of sin. We are free from the bondage to sin that so easily

ensnares us. We are free to use the authority that God has given us to set the captives

free.

How about you? Has Christ set you free? Do you know the freedom that comes

from serving the King of Kings? Or are you seeking freedom from restraint to indulge

your sinful nature? It comes down to this: Are you born again? Have you trusted in

Christ, and Christ alone, for the forgiveness of your sins? Maybe you have already made

a commitment of your life to Christ, but find that you have not yet crucified your sinful

nature, because you are caught in a pattern of habitual sin? Think about that. When you

appear before the Lord to give an account at the end of your days, what will you say?

Will you say something like, "I've tried to be a good person?" Or will you throw your

whole trust on the finished work of Christ? Friends, there is freedom in not striving to be

saved by good works. There is freedom from bondage to the sinful nature. Christ has set

us free!

If you'd like to know the freedom from guilt that comes from trusting in Christ,

and Christ alone for your salvation, please pray this prayer with me...

Galatians 5:13 says that we "were called to be free. But do not use your freedom

to indulge your sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love." That is what two teams

of young people are doing this week serving in love. They could be spending the week

sitting by the poolside or hanging out with friends, but they have decided to serve. Just

after church today, Amir is leading a team of teenagers to Anacostia for a week to

minister to poor children there at the Southeast White House. And on Wednesday,

Charles and Kathy Strother will fly to Sao Paolo, Brazil with a team of youth to do street

evangelism, healing and deliverance ministry with Global Awakening. Taking the good

news of salvation to different ethnic groups is part of the cost of discipleship. Please

come forward so we can pray for you.