In view of the subject of freedom and liberty this morning, we are going to look at a greater freedom, our freedom in Christ. A freedom which knows no social or political boundaries. A freedom that crosses all cultural and geographical lines.
This freedom is the greatest freedom of all, given by God, purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross, and always safe and secure in the promises of God. That is the freedom that will have our attention today.
A position of freedom that Jesus Christ states to be “free indeed.”
Free indeed means free forever. For eternity; for all future time; for always; an endless time; without ever ending; eternally; for everlasting time. And, as Buzz Lightyear of Toy Story fame would proclaim, “Freedom to infinity and beyond.” Limitless freedom in Christ, boundless, never-ending, impossible to measure or calculate; having no boundaries or limits; immeasurably great or large.
Freedom from everything that constrains us on this Earth. In Christ we are free from our sin and everything that sin would blemish and stain in our lives, including our emotions, our intellect, our spirituality, our relationships. Freedom one day even from the physical restraints of this life: our bodily limitations, sickness, general frailties that go along with being a human who was born on a planet that is under the judgment of God because of our rebellion.
What Paul warns us about and exhorts us to stand firm against in our text this morning is not primarily concerning the cults, such as Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons, or the mystic religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism. He is not even speaking here primarily against Islam.
He would oppose all those religions, but here they are not his emphasis. In our text this morning he warns us about those groups who would call themselves Christian and even Bible-believing. The groups who believe in a gospel that is close to being scriptural, in fact, in some instances very close, but with one major, fatal error. They require some human work for your salvation to be complete.
Message Title: The Freedom of the Cross!
Message Text: Galatians 5:1-15
