For Freedom

“For freedom Christ has set us free…” says Galatians 5:1.

An interesting phrase: “for freedom.”

On the surface, it’s repetitive. If we rearrange the words of the verse, it could read,

“Christ has set us free for freedom.”

That’s a little anticlimactic, isn’t it? Of course we have freedom when we’re set free.

There’s got to be more than that.

For freedom He’s set me free?

Not for success?

Or peace?

Or happiness?

Not even for righteousness or obedience?

What good is freedom once I’ve already been freed?

Something inside us isn’t content with mere freedom. Of course we long for it- from the time we’re babies crawling out of our cribs to age 65 getting out of our jobs through retirement. But in order to experience real freedom we feel that we cannot just be freed from something; we must be freed for something as well. If we’re freed from a relationship, it’s so we can be single and look for other options. If we’re freed from work, it’s so we can either find a new job or retire. When we’re freed, we look to do the things we’ve been held back from doing.

And part of that is good. We are called to constantly strive toward excellence, working “heartily as for the Lord, and not for man,” no matter our phase of life. It’s founded in the American mindset that we must always be moving, progressing, advancing, and becoming more successful. To stop doing these things would be laziness, complacency, passivity.

So what does Paul mean when he declares that for freedom Christ has set us free? Surely he’s left something out.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

Ah. So there is something more. But maybe not exactly what we were expecting. Paul urges the Galatians to not only remember their freedom, but to stand firm in it. Not moving away from it or forgetting about it. If they do, Paul warns, they are in danger of falling back into bondage.

The bondage of which Paul speaks is the requirements of the Jewish Law, to which the Galatians were previously subject. For some reason, even after hearing the gospel of Christ and thus being liberated from the constraints of Jewish rules and regulations, they’re still having a hard time remaining in that freedom.

Crazy, right? Why would anyone ever want to be enslaved once they’ve already been set free?

But it seems the Galatians’ backslide toward slavery isn’t an isolated case.

Turn with me, if you will, to Numbers 13:25- 14:45.

This is a long passage, so I’ll try to summarize it concisely:

God, through Moses, has led Israel out of Egypt. He has freed them from slavery and rescued them from Pharaoh’s army using a variety of miracles, from a series of plagues to the parting of the Red Sea. Now, after following God through the wilderness, the people have finally arrived at Canaan: the Promised Land. The Lord commands Moses to send spies into the land to make sure it’s safe for the people to enter. At the end of forty days the spies return to the people of Israel. They report that the land is indeed good, flowing “with milk and honey.” (13:27) They even bring back a piece of fruit from the land.

“However,” the spies warn, “the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large.”

Caleb, a fellow spy and faithful servant of the Lord, objects, insisting that the people “are well able to overcome it.” (13:30)

But Israel will have nothing of it. They lash out in anger against Moses, Aaron and the Lord, saying, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? ... Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (14:1-3)

Pause.

Let’s backtrack a little bit. So Israel, who was oppressed and subjected to slavery under the Egyptians for years and years and years, who was led out of Egypt by the Creator of the universe by way of their own personal Red Sea walkway, who has been given manna from heaven and has been daily provided for and led by “a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night,” i.e. God Himself (Ex. 13:21), wants to go back?

After everything the Lord has done for them, all that they’ve been through, they want to go back into slavery? There they are, on the banks of the Jordan River, beholding the Land they’ve been waiting for for years. They’ve even seen for themselves the fruit this fertile land produces- something they probably haven’t seen since Egypt- and they would rather go back through the wilderness, only to end up in the wicked hands of the Egyptians?

How did they even think they were going to find their way back? Did they not notice that a PILLAR OF FIRE had been leading them ever since they left Egypt? Did they think they could make it on their own?

And what were they afraid of? Did they actually doubt that the God who parted the Red Sea for them couldn’t defeat their enemies? Did they really think He wasn’t faithful or strong enough to keep His promises?

To answer simply,

I guess so.

To summarize the conclusion of this story: the people of Israel, after hearing of God’s anger toward their disbelief, decide they will go to the Promised Land and strike down the enemies, just to prove that they do, in fact, trust the Lord.

But Moses warns them, “Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down among your enemies.” (14:42) The ever-stubborn Israelites, however, do not listen:
“They presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah.” (14:44-45)

Huh.

Isn’t that interesting?

The people ended up doing what the Lord had wanted them to do. They go to defeat the enemies in Canaan, just as the Lord commanded them to do in the first place. So why is it that He isn’t with them when they do?

Because they’ve forgotten.

They’ve forgotten about freedom.

The Israelites have freedom in the Lord to conquer their enemies without fear of failure. But while looking ahead in anxiety, they forget to look back. They fail to remember all the Lord has done. They ignore the miracles, the provision, and the liberty march on which God has faithfully led them. They instead live in fear.

First, they fear their enemies. So much so that they long to go back to the old enemy (Egypt) and be enslaved under them.

And secondly, they fear God. Not in the respectful, reverent way, but in the I’m-scared-of-you kind of way.

Both fears, we see, lead to death. The first fear would have led the Israelites on a trek back to Egypt that probably would have killed them. And if the journey didn’t bring death, the vengeful hands of the Egyptians would. The second, as the story tells us, brings defeat. Since they are acting out of fear and not out of faith in the Lord, they do not have His help. And without His help, they are easily overcome. So it’s apparent that, in both cases of fear, destruction is the fate that awaits them.

Maybe that’s why Paul urges us to remember, “For freedom Christ has set you free…”
Because for some reason, like the stubborn, disobedient Israelites, we forget about our freedom. We forget that Christ has broken our chains, both to unrighteousness and righteousness.

Like the Israelites, when we forget about our security in the Lord and what He’s done for us, we fall back into one of the two fears:

1) Disobedience: Running away from the Promised Land and back to Egypt (i.e. going back to our former, sinful ways of life.) or

2) Legalism: Trying to defeat our obstacles through our own efforts (i.e. being more, trying harder, doing better, all in hopes of earning His approval.)

And as it is with Israel, so it is with us.

Both these errs lead to slavery:

Slavery to ourselves, to the opinions of others, to success, to school, to hooking up, to alcohol, to drugs, to food, to exercise, to the numbers on a scale, to jealousy, to anger, to gossip,

To all the things we think will give us freedom but, in reality, lead to death:

Death of confidence, of satisfaction, of contentment, of wholeness, of love, of joy, of intimacy, of our God-given potential.  

Slavery brings death to the person God calls us to be.

Jesus came that we may have life. He died so that we may live through Him. His death and resurrection means that we are no longer slaves to the sin that used to constrain us or the “goodness” that used to drive us.

When we look to the Promised Land and the Enemy looks too strong for us, we no longer have to run back to the past. While the old life might look easier than taking up our cross and following Christ, its outcome isn’t worth it. The satisfaction, the good things found in the “land flowing with milk and honey” is well worth the ensuing battle. And this is a battle Christ, our mighty warrior, promises not only to fight for us, but to claim victory over.

Which is why fighting a battle alone is just as dangerous as not fighting it at all. With our own strength, we cannot defeat the Enemy. We can’t overcome temptation or earn God’s approval by just doing the right things. Going to church, being nice to people, even not drinking or not partying or not having sex, are not going to help us win any battles or make God love us more. Just as we cannot find satisfaction in being “bad,” we will also find no satisfaction in simply being “good.”

That’s why Paul has to remind us that it’s for freedom we’ve been set free! The simple knowledge of freedom leads to the love and joyful obedience that the Lord longs for. Because, once again, Jesus is concerned with our hearts, not just what we do or don’t do. And he wants our hearts to be free! “It is finished!” were the words of Jesus’ dying breath. The battle has been won, the Enemy is defeated, the Promised Land is ours to enter! We don’t have to turn to the world when things get tough, and we don’t have to try to be better when we mess up. Jesus has made it possible that in both cases, we can have perfect, unconditional freedom in Him. We have been called to freedom... because it is ours!