Part CV on Galatians Study

Galatians 5:1a
"Stand fast therefore (because of what he has just shown us) in the (what's the next word?) liberty..."
We Americans understand that more than any other people on earth, don't we? Now, liberty isn't license. It's turning into that, sad to say, but it was never intended for liberty to be license. But nevertheless we stand now as free men and women under Grace and never, never give in to the horrors of religions legalism (the customs of the Hebrews or Judaism, Islam and a host of others).

Remember Ishmael stood for the Law and legalism whereas Isaac was a picture of the freedom and liberty that we have in Grace because of the promises of God. Now that's what it all really boils down to. God has promised that if we will believe first for our our conversion into redemption and then unto salvation what Christ has done for us in the finished work of the Cross, then we are His for eternity. It's just like the Lord Jesus said, in John Chapter 17-

 
John 17:9
"I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine."
That was a different setting than the Church Age believers, but yes that holds for us as well. We are literally God's gift to the Son in response to His obedience to the work of the Cross. Then we become His heirs as we receive the discipline of the Holy Spirits teaching and training. For the illumination of the scriptures of the Old in the Light of the New and we by this revealing see our sinfulness and the utter sinfulness of sin. And then the revelation of what the Last Supper, garden cup and the death on the cross on through the Lord's ascension is to us. All right these next few verses are going to shock a lot of people - they have in the past and we're sure they will again in the future if we continue on. Where Paul writes now to us as well as to the Galatian believers -


Galatians 5:1
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty (or the freedom) wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."
Because the yoke of bondage has been done away with, but yet people will just go to all lengths and extremes it seems to pull that bondage back into their lifestyles. They think they have to have some kind of a works religion to satisfy the ego. It has to be the ego because when you're saved by Grace there's be no ego left. There is no pride because we deserve none of it, and we know that we have to ask the Lord constantly, "Why have you seen fit to give out such Grace on us?" You see dead men have no ego, or pride nor can the spirit of the world any longer harass them. We feel that the Lord has just blessed us so abundantly, but not because we deserve his Grace and blessing. We don't deserve a nickel's worth of it. But we've been crucified in Christ with Christ and that alone changes us. Because we've been translated into being a God-child from being a Satan-child.

But, oh, the liberty that we have in Christ because of what He's accomplished on our behalf. We need to look at a verse in Colossians Chapter 2. It's a verse that we use quite often and we love it because it just rings like a bell. 


Colossians 2:13-14
"And you, (believers as members of the Body of Christ) being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, (as Gentiles we were just as lost as anybody could be) hath he (Christ) quickened (made alive spiritually) together with him, having (already) forgiven you all trespasses; (how many? All of them from start to finish.) Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;"

Now isn't that a beautiful way of putting it? He took the Law and all of it's demands, and all of legalism with its penalty, and just literally jerked it away and nailed it to His Cross. Picture that in your mind. As He hung there and was crucified for the sins of the world, the Law was crucified with Him (the hidden meaning of the Lord's Supper) and as we've shown we were in Him there as well. And it is now a dead system, and oh, the human race is constantly pulling it back out of the grave. With every “Christmas” and every “Easter” ceremony of customs of man, they rehear His earthly walk. And thereby keeping Him in the flesh of man. Have you ever fooled with something that's been dead for a while? It's not pretty is it? Listen, that's the way we must feel about legalism, and this is what Paul is trying to hammer home with these Galatians and people today. "Why do you go back with that weak and beggarly stuff that's been done away with?" It's been crucified. That thought reminds us of Romans Chapter 7, and let's look at verse 4.