Freedom, freedom is coming…

Week 11

Galatians 5:1-15 NLT
1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? 8 It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. 9 This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! 10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.
11 Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. 12 I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.
13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.

So Christ has truly set us free! This is the key verse of the book of Galatians. It contains in one sentence the message Paul has spoken over and over again: “Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” (Galatians 5:1)

As I read this first verse, I immediately want to start singing a great African spiritual, “Freedom is Coming.” It is part of “Siyahamba,” a famous piece arranged by Anders Nyberg, which is often sung by church and school choirs. I happen to live at a boarding school and have been able to hear this piece performed a dozen or more times, which always produces hair-raising goose bumps all over my body. (Take just a minute to listen to a version of this song from Youtube.com, and I’m sure you’ll see what I mean.)

Nyberg arranged this music from out of his heart’s cry during the Anti Apartheid Movement. Freedom is Coming was literally sung by school children in his class in Sweden as a cry for Mandela to be set free. The lyrics are not very complicated, but the ways in which they are repeated bring momentum and power. It is a song that allows the deep emotion within the soul to build up and spread out among all who listen.

Freedom is Coming was written for a specific time in a specific place, but the lyrics echo Paul’s message to the Galatians in both style and content. Over and over again, Paul passionately declares that the law is done, that Christ has come to set the captives free. He hones in on a very specific point of law-keeping with great concern, bringing up the matter of circumcision, which was one of the practices that the Judaizers were requiring the Gentile Galatians to adhere to. Paul challenged the Galatians that if they are going to be circumcised to make themselves right with God, then they should also keep all the law and realize that by doing so they will cut themselves off from Christ (v. 2-4). Paul’s point was this: You can’t be a slave and free at the same time. You can’t follow the law for the sake of righteousness with God, and also say that you are free from the law because of the grace of God. It has to be one or the other. Paul was drawing a line in the sand and challenging them to pick a side and stick to it.

We need to pick a side, too. Paul notes that it only takes a little yeast to spread throughout the whole batch of dough (v. 9) and that false teaching often leads us astray (v. 10). We don’t have to deal with the Judaizers, so what exactly is the little yeast that is spreading through our batch of dough? In other words, what false teaching have we accepted? Paul gives us a clue by suggesting that it might be something we’d avoid doing out of fear of persecution. He admits that no one would bother persecuting him if he wasn’t standing up for the truth (v. 11).

Are you unsure about what this means for you, personally? Well, we’ll find some answers in next week’s Scripture and devotional. In the meantime, go before the Lord in prayer asking Him to uncover the yoke of slavery and reveal the false teachings you’ve allowed to take hold of your life. Be bold and ask God to show you how freedom is coming, oh yes it is.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word and the instruction it contains for our very benefit. I pray, Lord, that you would unleash the Holy Spirit in all of our hearts this week and begin to show us where we’ve fallen into believing false teaching and have taken on the yoke of slavery. Lord Jesus, you have come to set us free. Help us to live in that freedom. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Faith Walking

• What would freedom in Christ look like to you?
• What false teachings do you think you currently believe?
• What ways to do you feel like you are in bondage? Can you find verse that proves Christ has set you free from this?

The Next Step

Read all of Galatians 5. Write down any verses that you are struggling with. Pray for God to reveal His wisdom.

Faith Walking Challengers…
This is going to be a week of prayer! Tell us how to pray for you and give praise for what God has done in your life through this series!

Galatians Devotional 11 in Word

Galatians Devotional 11 in PDF

© 2007 All rights reserved by Elisa Pulliam.

This devotional is downloadable and printable for your personal use. However, it may not be reprinted for distribution with out permission from Elisa Pulliam. You may contact her at extragrace (at) gmail (.) com.

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