Christ Has Set Us Free (Galatians 4:21-5:1)

[Read Galatians 4:21-5:1]

As you get to know me better, you will find out that I really enjoy studying World War II history. One of the reasons I enjoy studying this history is that I have a number of relatives that fought in WWII. My great-grandpa landed on Omaha Beach and fought his way halfway across Europe before he caught grenade shrapnel in his leg and was sent home. Both of his brothers fought in WWII as well. One of them also fought in the great D-Day invasion and was part of Patten’s Third Army that was the “point of the spear” that fought its way across Europe, broke through Germany’s lines, and basically ended the war. It’s a great story. We have a recording of him telling tales about this journey across Europe. 

Since he was part of this army, he was also part of liberating concentration camps. One of his jobs was to drive a munitions truck. So, after liberating the concentration camps, he would fill his truck full of people and drive them away toward freedom. And he would do it over and over and over again. He didn’t talk about this much because the sights he saw were so gruesome. 

Now, I want you to picture this in your head. Imagine my great-great-uncle fighting his way across Europe, fighting to liberate a concentration camp, loading people into his truck to bring them into freedom, but as he was driving away from the concentration camp, people started jumping out of the back of the truck, running back to the camp. That didn’t happen, but can you imagine if it had? All of that work and suffering, the lives lost and effort exerted, only to have the people you’ve freed try to return to slavery. It’s hard for us to even imagine this happening because it is so foolish. Yet, as Paul tells us in this passage, it happens all the time, just in a different way. 

The majority of this passage is Paul allegorizing a story from the Old Testament. That simply means that Paul is taking a story that happened in the Old Testament and using it as an illustration to make a point. The story of Hagar and Sarah—Isaac and Ishmael—isn’t meant to teach us these things, but Paul found it to be a helpful analogy to explain what is happening in the Galatian church. 

Remember, there were some people who snuck into the church and began teaching that Jesus’ life and death were not enough for salvation. You also needed to perform works of the law—you needed to be circumcised, you needed to observe certain days, you needed to follow the law. Then, you would be truly saved. Yet, as we’ve said repeatedly throughout this series, that is not the Gospel. The Gospel is that we are saved by grace, through faith, NOT by any work of our own—only by the life and death of Jesus Christ. That’s the Gospel. 

So, Paul looks back to this important event in the life of God’s people. Remember that Sarah had been barren and that both her and Abraham were very old when God promised them a child. When God made that promise, Sarah thought it was a joke and laughed, yet Abraham believed. However, it didn’t happen right away. They waited year after year after year and still no son. So, Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands. Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham to have as a wife so that Abraham could have a son through her. At first, it seemed like it worked. Hagar got pregnant and had a son named Ishmael. Yet, this son was not the son that God promised. God had promised that Sarah would have a son. Eventually, God delivers on his promise and Sarah has a son named Isaac. This is the child that was promised. But then there is tension in the family. Abraham now has two wives and two sons by each wife. Jealousy begins to form, persecution and mocking begins to happen. Eventually, Hagar and Ishmael are sent away and God promises to also make Ishmael into a great nation—just not a nation of God’s promise. 

In using this story to explain his point, Paul says that we have two children from two mothers. One mother and child represent man trying to fulfill God’s promises in their own strength. The other mother and child represent God’s promises. One mother is a slave who bears slave children. The other mother is free and bears free children. Then Paul says, “These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.” (Galatians 4:24–26, NIV). You see the Paul talking about the two covenants again—the Law Covenant and the Promise Covenant. He says that Hagar represents the Law Covenant and Sarah represents the Promise Covenant. 

Then he reminds the church of Galatia, “Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.” (Galatians 4:31, NIV). For those who have embraced God’s promise of salvation by grace through faith, they are no longer children of the slave woman but the free woman. You are no longer slaves but are free—you are now children of God. You’ve been adopted into his family. The Father sent His Son into the world, to struggle to live a perfect life, to suffer and die—to fight his way across Europe—to gain our freedom. Now you are no longer slaves—trapped and tortured in the concentration camp of this world—but are free, children of God. 

Yet, even though this truth is glorious and unimaginable at times, God’s people still find themselves jumping out of the back of the truck, trying to run back to the concentration camp—running back to slavery. Isn’t that amazing? How foolish! Just think about after God’s people had been delivered from Egypt. They had been enslaved for 450 years. Their workload steadily increasing throughout that time so that it was unbearable for them, eventually being forced to make bricks without straw. God comes in and powerfully delivers them through ten powerful plagues and brings them out of their slavery into freedom in the dessert. It wasn’t long before they started saying things like, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers 11:4–6, NIV). “Don’t you remember the good old days when we were enslaved, our fingers worked to the bone, lashes across our back, and we had garlic and melons?” Sheesh. They were wanting to jump out of the back of the truck and run back to the concentration camp because they missed having garlic.

We still do this today. The Lord Jesus Christ has delivered us from slavery, he lived a perfect life and died a perfect death to set us free from the power of sin, death, and Satan. At first we rejoice in the freedom. We celebrate and dance around. We feel jubilation in our hearts and minds. Yet, eventually we find ourselves longing to go back into slavery. We find ourselves looking at those who are still in slavery with jealousy. “Wow, they have more money that we do. I wish I could go back and have more money.” “Wow, they still get wild and crazy at parties, drinking and sleeping around. I wish I could let loose every once in a while.” “They have so much time to do whatever they want and focus their time and energy on themselves. I have to spend time going to church, helping out at church, etc… I wish I had more time for myself.” All the while we find ourselves trying to jump out of the back of the truck and run back into the concentration camp—running from freedom back into slavery. It’s foolish. 

You see, the point of Christ’s work is freedom. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1, NIV). This is why Christ set us free—FREEDOM. Picture Mel Gibson in Braveheart screaming, “FREEEEEDOOOOOM!” That’s what Christ has done for us. He has set us free. To connect this with my last sermon, that’s what it means to be Christlike—to be free. For your life to become more and more like Jesus Christ is to become more and more free. If you think that becoming more like Christ feels like becoming more like a slave—that you aren’t truly seeing the beauty of the Christian life. It is a life of freedom, not slavery. 

The main way that Christ has set us free is from the wrath of God and the power of sin. Before we turned to Christ in faith, we were enslaved to sin and under the wrath of God (If you haven’t turned to Christ in faith, that is still where you are). Sin had it’s way over you and controlled your every move. Yet, when you turned to Christ in faith, your sin was wiped clean, His perfect life was credited to your account, and the sin that so easily entangles you was severed and wounded so that it doesn’t have control over you anymore. You were also given the Holy Spirit to wage war against this sin and overcome it more and more—fighting for more and more freedom, fighting be become more like Christ. It’s it an amazing thing to be able to say, “Sin no longer has any power over me! Guilt no longer has any power over me! Death no longer has any power over me! Satan no longer has any power over me! Christ has set me free!!!!” 

This freedom works itself out in the entirety of our lives. Let me give you one example that I thought about this week. One of the ways our current culture is enslaved is by popular opinion. We are regularly enslaved by people’s opinions of us. We worry about what they will think. We fear that we have offended them. We fear that speaking the truth will have result in us being condemned. Yet, Jesus Christ, through the Gospel, frees us from this slavery. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:33–34, NIV). You see, because God has looked at us and said, “No condemnation,” we don’t need to worry about anybody else placing condemnation upon us. Since God is the one who has looked at us and said, “Not guilty,” we are freed from those who want to declare us “guilty.” Tim Keller says, “The gospel frees us from the need for people’s approval and adoration…” (114). Take a moment to let that sink in. It is SLAVERY to be controlled by people’s approval and adoration. It’s a miserable life. Yet, Christ has freed us from that slavery. We have been fully accepted and received by God, let us no longer be controlled by people’s approval and adoration. Let’s not jump out of the truck and run back into that concentration camp. 

It is the same with all of those other temptations I mentioned. We’ve been freed from living a life focused on money, power, and influence because we KNOW that we have been adopted into God’s family. We now have a loving, all-powerful Father who is taking care of our every need. We no longer need to jockey for position or worry about the future. He is in control. We’ve also been freed from a life focused on ourselves. We don’t need to worry about ourselves. Once again, our Father cares for us. He will meet our needs. He will give us rest. He will give us strength. So, again, we’ve been freed from the slavery of focusing on ourselves because we know that we have a Father who cares deeply for us. 

So, Paul says, “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1, NIV). Stand firm in this freedom that Christ has purchased for you. Stand firm. Don’t be tempted to jump out of the truck and run back to the concentration camp of this world. You’ve been delivered from the burden and slavery that this world brings. Stay on the road toward Jesus. Keep looking toward Him, trusting in the freedom He has earned for you. Don’t listen to the world when it tries to tell you that following Christ is a “burden” or “slavery.” Listen to Christ because it is for FREEDOM that He has set us FREE. Let us live in the joy of that freedom.