Weekly Devotional
This devotional is part of a series of weekly devotionals posted each Wednesday that correlates to the Bible Reading Plan of the month. This month, the devotionals are all about Freedom.
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The verse we’re looking at in today’s devotional is Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ set us free. Stand firm then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Freedom From Sin
The beginning of Galatians 5 gives us insight into the freedom we have in Christ. According the MacArthur Bible Commentary, this freedom to which Paul is referring in Galatians 5:1 is our deliverance from the curse that the law pronounces on a sinner who has been striving unsuccessfully to achieve his own righteousness, but who has now embraced Christ and the salvation granted to him by grace.
Freedom From Earned Salvation
In the early church, the Jews still viewed the law as a means of salvation. When Gentiles started coming into the faith, the Israelite believers placed legalistic rules and traditions on them as necessary steps to being in the body of Christ, putting the “yoke of the law” on them.
Paul strongly warned the Galatians that it is not through human striving in keeping rules and regulations that we are saved and that Jesus came to set us free from such legalistic requirements.
This is a message we desperately need to be reminded of today. In a time when we have rules, requirements, and expectations placed on us from every place and person, we need to be reminded that Jesus is our only pathway to freedom.
We cannot earn Christ’s love and forgiveness by perfectly keeping all the rules, limitations, and expectations placed on us by others, our church, our society, or even ourselves. Christ came to set us free and completely liberate us from sin and from righteousness earned through our own efforts.
Freedom In Christ
He made us free so that we can have life abundantly and live under the grace He covers us with once we accept Christ into our lives as our Lord.
When we give up the futile attempt to save ourselves by our own righteousness, we are free to approach God with the holy standing we’ve been given by and through Christ, instead of approaching Him in fear over our inadequacies and failures. The grace of Christ has freed us from self-effort to be pure and acceptable in God’s eyes.
When we fully comprehend that we are righteous and good because of Christ and Christ alone, we are free from our efforts of trying endlessly and futilely to please God. And we can be free from self-tormenting and destructive thoughts when we ultimately fail to achieve perfection or fulfill all expectations we have for ourselves.
Living Freely
We have the freedom to live boldly and confidently in Christ, not shrinking back in fear because we’ve been unable to keep every Christian rule and command we’ve been taught makes us good. Not that we don’t want to please God by following His commands, but we should do it out of love for Him, not as a way for Him to love us and for us to earn our spot in heaven.
I’ve heard it said that we can’t purchase a free gift, and by living as slaves to legalistic requirements and trying to out-do the Christian next to us so we look more pleasing to God, we’re trying to buy God’s love and His acceptance, when really we already have it.
Living Under Grace
Below are a few things we have freedom from when we live under grace and right standing through Christ:
- Free from legalistic Christianity.
- Free to be who God made us to be.
- Free from fear.
- Free from the believing the wrong thoughts and lies Satan tells us.
- Free from fighting futilely for right standing with God.
- Free from self-imposed limitations and expectations.
- Free from the expectations placed on us by others.
- Free from trying to please people and earning their acceptance.
We Can’t Stand Until We Know Truth
Interestingly, Paul first gave the statement of truth about Christ and how He’s set us free before giving the two commands seen in the latter part of the verse to “stand firm” and not “allowing yourself to submit to slavery again”. We can’t stand firm and hold fast unless we first know the truth of freedom in Christ. This fact is the bedrock we stand on while we resist the temptation to put on the yoke of self-made righteousness and trying to be right with God through our own efforts.
Our Choice
The second command about not allowing ourselves to put on the yoke of slavery reveals that we have a choice in whether or not we live under the freedom provided us. Once we accept Christ, we instantly have the freedom He gives.
However, remaining and abiding in that freedom is up to us. When we allow fear to keep us from living in freedom, we fall into the pit of pleasing others, following expectations, and living within small, confining boundaries. It’s our choice whether we walk as free believers or slaves to self-made righteousness.
Regardless of how strong the pressure and temptation to follow human-made paths of righteousness, it is up to us to press into faith and actively choose to stand in Christ as our salvation.
Takeaway
Choose today to cease your striving to be good and right with God and rest in His love and the freedom He purchased for you on the cross.
For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit [be entangled, burdened, or oppressed by] again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1
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