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by Katie Erickson

“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

I’m taking a quick break from writing through the book of Hebrews to write this post specifically requested by Jason DeZurik. If you’ve spent any time around Jason’s Facebook feed or read his recent blog post, you know he has one primary focus recently: liberty.

Back in 2014, I wrote this post that discussed the difference between liberty and freedom. As I summarized in that post, “Liberty is being able to do what you want to do, while freedom is the power to have that liberty.” We receive both liberty and freedom through Jesus Christ, and that’s what we’ll take a look at when digging into Galatians 5:1 in today’s post.

When looking at any passage of Scripture, it is always important to look at its context. What comes before it? What comes after it? By whom and to whom is its book of the Bible written?

The book of Galatians was a letter written by the apostle Paul to a group of churches in Galatia, as we see in Galatians 1:1-2. However, there are two main theories regarding this: the North Galatian and South Galatian. The North Galatian theory says that the audience for this letter was the northern churches in that area, and Paul would have written it between 53-57 A.D. The South Galatian theory says, not surprisingly, that the audience was churches in the southern part of that area that Paul would have founded on his first missionary journey. This would date the letter at likely 48-49 A.D. or possibly as late as 51-53 A.D.

The theological setting of this book is the conflict between Jewish Christians and Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians, specifically regarding the idea of “Judaizing” – making any Gentile believers adopt Jewish practices (especially circumcision) before they could be fully welcomed into the Church. This was significant in this historical context because many of the believers were converted from pagan religions and were not Jewish by ethnicity. The Jewish mindset of legalism and following the law would have been strong in the Jewish believers, and that is part of what Paul is writing this letter to go against.

After some introductory remarks, Paul shares his history and how he became an apostle of Jesus Christ, including his relationship to other apostles. Next, he explains and defends the gospel message. That goes to the end of chapter 4, which is where we see our verse of Galatians 5:1 comes in. The rest of the letter after this verse calls for believers to live Godly lives, warning them to not fall from grace but to live in the Spirit.

So, at this point in the letter, Paul has shown that he is worthy to be teaching them on these matters, as he is an apostle of Jesus. He has also explained the gospel message itself, including how we are saved by grace through faith and not through any works that we do. Before he gets into the next section on how to live the Christian life, Paul gives this verse that is both a summary of what came before it and an introduction to what comes after it. This verse is really the key that holds this letter together!

The verse itself is divided into two parts. First, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” This is why Jesus Christ did the work of saving us – to set us free! Then second, “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” This is what we are to do about Christ’s work for us.

The Greek word used here for “freedom” could be translated as either freedom or liberty. One Greek lexicon writes that this usage especially refers to freedom that is contrary to the law of Moses, which was looked at as slavery. Another lexicon says about this word, “In a number of languages the concept of freedom is expressed as a negation of control or domination, for example, where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is no longer domination or a person does not feel under constraint.” Yet another definition says that “It describes the state of a person who is no longer enslaved by an oppressive force.”

This is why Jesus Christ came to earth – to liberate us from the slavery and oppression of having to follow the Old Testament laws! God knows that no mere human could follow every law perfectly all of the time, so we were all in need of a savior. Only Jesus, as fully human and fully God, perfectly fulfilled the law so that His death would be a worthy sacrifice for us. Jesus Christ has set us free from the burden of our sins and the oppression that comes with being enslaved to sin. (For more on that, check out this blog post and this blog post.)

After having stated this fact, Paul then commands us what to do about it: stand firm! This is a command in Greek, not just a statement. Do not take up that yoke of slavery again! Paul is telling them that they should no longer be bound by the rules of the Old Testament law as their primary focus. Jesus didn’t give His life so we could continue to be slaves to our works and never measure up to God’s perfect standard; Jesus gave His life so we could have freedom in Him!

Today, we still have the daily choice to choose between being a slave to sin or a slave to Jesus Christ just as Paul wrote about in Romans 6. Being a slave to sin means we’re burdened by the impossible standards of keeping every one of God’s laws perfectly all of the time. Being a slave to Jesus Christ is to live in freedom!

We are no longer obligated to keep the entire law because Jesus did that for us. We desire to keep the law because that’s what brings God glory and honor in our lives, but that is not the means of our salvation. God has accomplished our salvation through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, and because of that, we desire to worship and honor Him through being obedient to Him rather than obeying the world and its sinful ways.

Are you living your life as one who is enslaved or as one who has chosen the liberty and freedom that only Jesus Christ can bring? Make the decision for freedom today!

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