Truly Living Free: Sermon Galatians 5:1 and 13-25

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

About 175 years ago, a skinny young lawyer stood before a group of young men at a school hall in Springfield, Illinois. He was giving a speech to these young people and in his speech the young lawyer made a prophecy; or rather it was a warning not only to the young men present, but also as it turns out to the country as a whole. There were whispers from Washington D.C., Charleston, South Carolina, and Montgomery, Alabama. These whispers contained the ideas of succession, division over state’s rights and slavery. The young lawyer said to the group

“All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

The young, skinny lawyer’s warning may not have been noticed by those present, but it echoed from many a battlefield 25 years later in places like Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. The young lawyer would become intimately and inescapable aware of that prophecy that he made that day. He would later become president, his name was Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln tried to warn the people that a nation of free people, truly free people, will live forever and the only fatal wound that could be done to America would have to be self-inflicted. Freedom is not free. We see this saying on signs and on bumper stickers. These words echo true especially in times of war. Our freedom was bought at a price and it is a price we still pay for. Americans paid the price in places like Bunker Hill, Mass. and Yorktown, VA. It was paid in places like Chancellorsville, VA and Antietam, Maryland. It was paid in Amiens, France along many trenches. It was paid in places like Iwo Jima, Normandy, and Bastogne and it will continue to be paid.

There is a flip side to the saying as well. Freedom is not free in the sense that freedom is not something that we live with, but something that we live out. Freedom must be used and responded to. All too often we take our freedoms for granted. We must stop living with freedom and being to live out freedom. We have to cast our vote, many men died defending our right to vote in elections. We should pay our taxes that are due, we don’t like it, but it is our duty as citizens. We have to use our freedom of speech to speak out to our elected officials and to debate the issues of the day in order to make better decisions for tomorrow. Some make the ultimate commitment to freedom by serving in the Armed Forces and we thank all of those for their service. Freedom is something we should live out everyday and thank God for it everyday because as we know full well not all places in the world have the freedoms we enjoy. Freedom demands responsibility. Freedom does not mean we get to do whatever we want, we have to adhere to rules and laws and these do not hinder our freedoms, but give freedom to all people and help us to form a better nation.

We are a free people; we live in a nation founded on freedom. But we are also free as Christians. As follows of Christ we have been set free from sins. This is more than just forgiveness of sins. It is total freedom from our sins, not only are our sins forgiven, but they are also forgotten by God, just like they never even happened. We are set free from the bondage of a life apart from God. We have been made righteous which means that we have become children of God, we have been made holy in the eyes of God, by the grace of Christ. Also according to Paul we are set free from the Law, not that we are not to live by the law, but that we are set free from the judgment of the Law. This is an awesome gift from God, a gift that we cannot even fully understand or fathom. This gift of freedom demands a response from us. This is not a freedom that we can take from granted or stick in the closet for judgment day this is a freedom that we have to live in response to everyday. The question that Paul posed to the Galatians is the same that is before us today, how will you use this gift of freedom?

In our Scripture lesson, Paul is warning the Galatians not to take their new found freedom from granted. He says “do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence”. God does not give us a “get of jail free” card that can be used so that we can go out and commit more sins. This is not a license to party with immunity from the Law. Instead this freedom is to be used to become closer to God. That is the response that God wants from us to live our freedom in a relationship with him. . We are given freedom so that we can move away from ourselves and our past ways and toward a future with God. A movement toward God is also a movement toward holiness.

This movement toward God and toward holiness is called Sanctification. John Wesley also called it moving on to Christian perfection and he defined Christian perfection as perfect love of God and neighbor. That is our goal as Christians to have perfect love of God and neighbor, every action we make, every thought we have is for the glory of God and the betterment of God’s people that is Christian perfection. It is a life long process and although no one has ever reached perfection in this life it does not mean that we do not work toward it and strive for it. We are not in this work alone. God is always with us, guiding us with the Holy Spirit. This is a relational work, meaning that we are working toward a deeper and fuller relationship with God and as we do that our relationship with one another grows as well.

Paul continues his advice to the new church in Galatia by explaining the differences between the old life and the new life in Christ. Sanctification is a battle between the old life of the flesh and the new life in the Spirit. We are moving away from earthly desires and toward a holy life in the Spirit. Paul lists the works of the flesh, “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, and carousing”. The thing all these have in common is that they destroy relationships and community. These are individualistic, selfish pursuits. These are the things we did before Christ.

We work to rid ourselves of these things and work in the Spirit and as we work in the Spirit, as we become more holy in our life then we receive the fruits of our work, the fruits of the Spirit, Paul lists those as well, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”. What do all these have in common? The build relationships and community. They build up instead of destroying. These are selfless deeds instead of selfish desires. This is what we are living and working toward. Living in love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity with all our neighbors, all the people we encounter. When we do this a strange and wonderful thing happens? They want to know why we are acting so differently, they’ll want to hear your story.

What does it mean to live free? Despite the name it does not mean a free and easy lifestyle, it requires responsibility. It does not mean we can live out our selfish desires, but instead we are called to become more and more holy, selfless, more Christlike. Whether you call it Sanctification or not it is about living a Christian life in Christian freedom. It is about becoming closer to God and closer to one another. We strive for this life; we work toward being more holy. If we all work a little bit each day, how much can we change in a year, in ten years, in a lifetime? As Christians we must love out our freedom by loving one another as God loves us, as brothers and sisters of Christ, as children of God. Live out your freedom beginning today and reap the fruits of the Spirit.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.