Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Galatians 1:1-10 Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me, Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
FREEDOM (3)
But what does it mean to be free, what is this freedom from sin? We still sin and we are still tempted by sin. Paul himself declares, "The good that I will to do, that I do not, the evil I will not to do that I do." So we thought that we were free from sin, but apparently we still serve it.
We are free from sin because it is no longer our master. When we were bound by sin, we were under its power. We were incapable of breaking away. We did what was its bidding. But now we are no longer under its power. Sin has no power over us. We are free to serve Christ. Remember we must always serve something. If we are not under the power of Christ, we are under sin. If we are not under sin, we are under Christ. But being a servant to Christ is being free from sin. Yes we still sin, but only because for various reasons we listen to and do the bidding of our old master, who no longer is our master.
When we mess up and follow the will of our old master we remember that he no longer has any power over us. We need not listen. We need not follow, and most especially, we need not accept his money. The most serious problem with being a slave to sin is the wages: "For the wages of sin is death." Yet he is no longer our master so that we are not paid death but life. Life which comes from our new master.
This is freedom, the freedom to serve the master that we are meant to serve; the freedom to receive the payment of life, not the payment of death. To serve the Master who loves us, and in turn serves us, this is freedom.
