David Bahn – Reflections

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

² Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. ³ I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. ⁴ You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

⁷ You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? ⁸ This persuasion is not from him who calls you. ⁹ A little leaven leavens the whole lump. ¹⁰ I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. ¹¹ But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. ¹² I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

¹³ For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴ For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

If you could wave a magic wand and be freed from anything in the world, what would you choose? Financial freedom? Addiction? Fear? Despair? Lust? Disease? Heartache? Anxiety? Freedom from having to work?

All of those freedoms – good as they may be – are really temporary, until the temporary turns into eternity. In the life of the world to come, there is no despair, heartache, anxiety, addiction, fear, lust, or burdensome work. This is the freedom to which God calls us in Jesus Christ. Paul says, “It was for freedom that Christ has set us free.” We have been set free.

Paul is speaking primarily of freedom from the burdensome requirements of the Old Testament Law. In fact, Peter speaks of the Law in this way, “Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” He’s speaking of requiring the new gentile converts to follow the Old Testament laws. And he admits no one had been able to do it.

Except Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Law, the prophecies, promises, and was all that God had wanted Israel to have been. They had failed miserable time and again. But Jesus never failed. He never wavered. He never gave up – even in the face of terrible resistance and temptation, and suffering. He is our righteousness, and he has freed us from the curse of the Law, the curse of death, the curse of sin, and the power of the devil.

In him we are free.

There is, however, a caveat. Martin Luther put it this way in his treatise, The Freedom of a Christian (1520). “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” This is a paradox that, through faith in Christ, Christians are completely free from the demands of the Law and the need to earn salvation (justification by grace through faith). However, as recipients of God’s grace, we are also called to serve others in love, reflecting Christ’s example and love.

Once we get off of the treadmill of doing good so that we’re safe from harm, danger, or judgment, we will find great peace and true freedom. We’re free – not to do as we please in hedonistic pursuit of every distraction and sin, but to serve one another in love. We’re free to give the forgiveness we’ve received, for we don’t have to worry about running out. We’re free to serve one another freely for we’re not trying to gain anything by our acts of kindness and grace.

All this is because Christ has opened the way to everlasting life – a life of joyful freedom to thank, praise, serve and obey God. Without fear or the need to prove anything to anyone.