(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Focus Question:
What does Christian freedom look like?
Intro:
Father in heaven, today I pray over each person listening to this right now. I pray for your holy power against the elements of darkness and that they’d see you more clearly, fall in love with you more deeply, and be transformed by the power of Your Word and Spirit.
Hey Hopeful Ones, today’s focus question — What does Christian freedom look like? — touches down in more than just an academic exercise (though we want to pursue truth). It also happens to be a place where spiritual warfare happens.
NEW TESTAMENT SEGMENT:
In our Galatians NT segment, we’ve been listening to Paul make multiple arguments about what the gospel is and isn’t. Today we wrap up that section, both hearing an extended allegory from the OT, and a twofold exposition of the consequences of getting it wrong by returning to the slavery of the law — exposing what would actually happen if the Galatians returned to the slavery of the law, and “confronting the Judaizers with the fruitlessness of their system.”(1)
Passage: Galatians 4:21-5:12
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 23
Words: ~479
So…their confidence in being part of the right family (descendants of Abraham) is misplaced. The risk of the “Jesus plus something else” gospel, both for the false teachers Paul’s arguing against and the Galatians who’ve apparently drunk the KoolAid, is losing their freedom in Christ.
OLD TESTAMENT SEGMENT:
Passage: Zechariah 4-6
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 40
Words: ~1008
…(a) lengthy vision sequence (1:7–6:15) dominates the first half of the book. It is punctuated by an oracle of restoration (2:6–13) after the third vision and concluded by the identification of the high priest Joshua as the pivotal agent of renewal (6:9–15)… …God is moving, and the whole of creation is affected. This awareness of heavenly realities now reflected in human affairs was to become the hallmark of later apocalyptic literature… (And tomorrow we’ll hear about) the ethical state of the community. The trauma and triumph of Zion’s restoration frame the whole (1:1–6; 8:1–23), as it also does in the second half of the book (cf. 9:9–13; 14:16–21).(2)
The bottom line:
The application of today’s focus question — What does Christian freedom look like? — is relevant today and, poignantly, a particular risk in our age of information.
The false teachers were adding something — a Jesus plus something else gospel. And Paul’s going, “Yo, you’re a slave to sin or a slave to Christ, and trying to follow any part of the law is total failure because it’s upside-down thinking…because trying to keep the law is no longer relying on God’s grace, “righteousness comes from God. It is a gift of his Spirit. Circumcision doesn’t matter. What counts is faith in Jesus expressed in a life of love. Circumcision is an attempt to get right with God by doing something ourselves. The cross of Jesus shows that we can’t do anything to save ourselves; we can only trust in what he has done for us.”(3)
Christian freedom, freedom in Christ, however, doesn’t mean freedom in the way contemporary culture often defines it — freedom to do anything you want. Rather, it means they’re “Free from sin. Free from guilt. Free from trying to be good. Free from fear. It’s not permission to do wrong, but liberty to do right.” (4)
And I think it’s one of the most powerful, most subtle forms of spiritual warfare — that something that tells you that you have to get it all right or do more or something that goes beyond grace. But it gets worse — it’s most insidious weapon is when you hear someone say Christianity isn’t about rule following or doctrine (as if you can believe wrong things and be ok). Jesus had a lot to say about ethics — what you should and shouldn’t do — so that’s clearly a lie.
The key is priority. The perversion is, “Get this right, and your sins are forgiven.”
The gospel, though, is “Your sins are forgiven, no go sin no more.”
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) Bruce Barton et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2001), 784.
(2) Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1753.
(3) Andrew Knowles, The Bible Guide, 1st Augsburg books ed. (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 2001), 610.
(4) Knowles, The Bible Guide, 610.