Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
It is difficult to imagine a more radical or extreme definition of authentic humanity. God’s purpose in setting us free in Christ is not first of all to go into all the world and preach the Gospel; or become a missionary; or serve the local Church; or find our destiny – He set us free, first and foremost, for freedom itself.
Christ set us free to be authentically who we were created to be.
Many people have difficulty with this concept because it is not what is taught by religious teachers. They effectively preach (but would never express it this way!) that you come out of the bondage of sin and rebellion straight into the bondage of religion. The devil wins both ways – the effect is the same – we are robbed of our God-given freedom. The devil’s plan is to keep us away from Christ and he doesn’t mind how that happens … in Church or out of Church … either way is OK with him.
In fact, I believe it’s easier for Satan to keep people away from Christ in Church! Religion is much more subtle than full-on rebellion because the modern-day Pharisees do not recognise how far from Christ they have strayed.
The Westminster confession of 1646 states: “The chief end of man is to worship God and enjoy Him forever.” That sounds great but think if you had asked Paul what was the chief end of man when he was writing to the Galatians, I think he’d say: “To get free and stay free, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Paul doesn’t want to see Jesus’ die in vain for anyone. Or rather than set these two statements against each other, perhaps we could combine them:
In order to worship God and enjoy Him forever, we need to get free and stay free, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Why did Christ die to set us free if we were not meant to be free? If He wanted us to be enslaved to religion He could have stopped with the Sermon on the Mount. In the beginning, we were made in the image of God, and one major aspect of that is our freedom. God is free and we are meant to be free also. Freedom is our native environment.
That is where we function best. That is where we are fully alive and fully human in all its God-given glory! The Christian Church will realise her full potential when believers live abundant lives totally free in the presence of God – free from manipulation, expectation and control by others … even God Himself! God never wanted to control us and He still doesn’t. Why can’t we see that? Why do we still run to Him like little kids and long for him to call all the shots in our life in a way that He never intended?
It is often observed that people set free from some bondage over their lives will return to it. Many people have a concept of freedom and consider it to be one of the basic human rights, but don’t really know how to live in that freedom every day. God has set a very high value on human freedom – Jesus gave His life to purchase it for us.
Paul took it very seriously when the Church gave its freedom away. There are many reasons why we return to the confines of religious life, but they are all rooted in one thing – we don’t trust God to keep us and work in us and through us. We keep returning to our own efforts to find security.
Our security, our significance, our purpose and our destiny are all found in Christ. That is the truth which will set us gloriously and permanently free – the freedom for which Christ has set us free.