Freedom!!!!

Reflection:  When I see the word “freedom”, I often reflect on the movie “Braveheart”, where Mel Gibson plays William Wallace, a Scottish warrior trying bring freedom to the Scots from English rule.  When he is before the King being tried for treason, he is given a last chance to recant before the English magistrate lest he be beheaded.  But instead William Wallace cries out, “Freedom”.  A few years later, a new Scottish king leads them to defeat the English and bring the freedom Wallace yearned for. 

In Galatians 5, the apostle Paul cries out “freedom”, will equal passion, but for a different reason.  After having receiving freedom through what Jesus did on the cross, the Galatians were returning to the slavery of the Law.  They were saying that the adult men who became Christians had to be circumcised, which was one of the stipulations of the Old Testament Law that had now been abolished by the New Covenant through Christ.  Jesus had brought a circumcision of the heart, which led internal change not just an external physical change. 

Paul says you can’t have it both ways.  You are either under “grace”, or under the “law”.  If you go back to the Law your only chance for justification is to keep all of it, which of course is impossible.  The Good News of the Gospel is that we are set free from the Law by what Jesus did on the cross, thus fulfilling the demands of the Law for perfect righteousness.  As we trust in what Jesus did for us by faith we are made right with God forever and never have to go back to an obedience led by slavery.  Our “new obedience” is led by gratitude for Jesus has done for us and the work He is doing in our hearts and lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Paul summarizes in one sentence what this new life in Christ looks like when he says, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”  Meaning the heart of the Christian life is loving others because of the great love and mercy God has shown you.  I would like to challenge you to think about your own life today.  Are you walking in freedom in Christ?  Where are you tempted to go back to the burden of trying to measure up to the law and justify yourself? 

Take a moment and shout “freedom” in your heart and let that freedom express itself in love for those you meet today! 

Psalm 78:56-64

⁵⁶ But they put God to the test
    and rebelled against the Most High;
    they did not keep his statutes.
⁵⁷ Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
    as unreliable as a faulty bow.
⁵⁸ They angered him with their high places;
    they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God heard them, he was furious;
    he rejected Israel completely.
⁶⁰ He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
    the tent he had set up among humans.
⁶¹ He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
    his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
⁶² He gave his people over to the sword;
    he was furious with his inheritance.
⁶³ Fire consumed their young men,
    and their young women had no wedding songs;
⁶⁴ their priests were put to the sword,
    and their widows could not weep.

Isaiah 8:1-9:7

Isaiah and His Children as Signs

8 The Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.” ² So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. ³ Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. ⁴ For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

⁵ The Lord spoke to me again:

⁶ “Because this people has rejected
    the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
and rejoices over Rezin
    and the son of Remaliah,
⁷ therefore the Lord is about to bring against them
    the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—
    the king of Assyria with all his pomp.
It will overflow all its channels,
    run over all its banks
⁸ and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it,
    passing through it and reaching up to the neck.
Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land,
    Immanuel!”

⁹ Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered!
    Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
    Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
¹⁰ Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
    propose your plan, but it will not stand,
    for God is with us.

¹¹ This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:

¹² “Do not call conspiracy
    everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,
    and do not dread it.
¹³ The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
    he is the one you are to fear,
    he is the one you are to dread.
¹⁴ He will be a holy place;
    for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
    a trap and a snare.
¹⁵ Many of them will stumble;
    they will fall and be broken,
    they will be snared and captured.”

¹⁶ Bind up this testimony of warning
    and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.
¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord,
    who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my trust in him.

¹⁸ Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.

The Darkness Turns to Light

¹⁹ When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. ²¹ Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. ²² Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

9 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—

² The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
³ You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
    when dividing the plunder.
⁴ For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
    you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.
⁵ Every warrior’s boot used in battle
    and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
    will be fuel for the fire.
⁶ For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

Galatians 4:28-5:6

²⁸ Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹ At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. ³⁰ But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” ³¹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Freedom in Christ

5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. ² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

The Lord said to Moses, “You have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Exodus 33:17

God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his.” 2 Timothy 2:19

Omnipotent God, you know us and love us, in spite of our frailties and sin. We bow humbly before you in thanksgiving and bask in your grace always. Amen.