“Freedom from What?”

Sunday, June 04, 2023

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

(Galatians 5.13)

Freedom in Christ is tough to pin down.  Paul mentioned it in Galatians as if it were one of the defining features of the covenant with Christ, and yet acknowledged that it could be easily misunderstood and used as an excuse for bad behavior.  James told us to “act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty” (2.12).  He used the same Greek word behind Paul’s “freedom,” ἐλευθερία-eleutheria.  But confusingly, James uses it to describe a “law.”  Aren’t laws generally concerned with restricting our behavior, or saddling us with obligations?  It’s odd to see these two concepts married together! 

On top of that confusion, earlier in Galatians Paul spoke of

false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery…

(Galatians 2.4)

This problem was the whole reason for the letter!  Jewish Christians, or pseudo-Christians, to paraphrase Paul, were trying to bind the Law of Moses on all Christians, and while most of the Jewish Christians at the time already did keep that law out of habit, Paul refused to tolerate those who tried to push it on Gentile converts!  That tells us Paul had in mind freedom from the Law of Moses, which seems like a satisfying answer; but we still haven’t seen the whole story!

Though a Jew, Paul exercised his freedom from the Law of Moses, and especially from the Jews’ traditions, which served to bolster the Law.  For example, he associated with Gentiles, which an uncomfortable Peter described as an “unlawful” act when God told him to do the same (Ac 10.28).  Yet it doesn’t quite stop there, for Paul.  On another occasion, Paul wrote,

why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

(1 Corinthians 10.29-30)

We could easily mistake this for the same old problem, because the main reason it was considered outright unlawful for a Jew to associate with a Gentile was that the Gentiles didn’t keep the Jews’ dietary laws at all.  Consequently, any meat acquired from Gentiles would very likely be unclean by the Jews’ standard.  But that’s not actually the issue, here.  What did Paul say, just prior?

But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—I do not mean your conscience, but his.

(1 Corinthians 10.28-29)

This is about food that had been used in idol worship, regardless of whether it was otherwise kosher!  This concern would overlap somewhat with the Jews’ normal dietary restrictions; however, Paul wasn’t afraid of offending Jews, but Gentiles:

But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

(1 Corinthians 8.7)

It’s a long way to get there, but it’s clear that Paul’s talk of liberty isn’t just about the Law of Moses.  In fact, he clues us in even further, in the next letter he wrote.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

(Romans 6.16-18)

Notwithstanding all of our confusion over what doesn’t bind us, we can rest assured, we’ll always be bound to something or someone!  In the quest to learn just from what Jesus wants to free us, we’ve amassed a bit of a list: from the Law of Moses; from man’s judgment; from sin; and from death.  But while we were distracted, looking for these answers, we passed right over the real problem, which is that we were asking the wrong question in the first place!  It’s not only freedom from, but also freedom to! 

Our appetite for freedom is primarily driven by the desire to do whatever we want.  But all the way back where we started, Paul told us, “do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (Ga 5.13).  Instead of the freedom from restrictions on doing what we want, Jesus offers us the liberty to freely choose what we ought.  If you attempt to secure freedom from any and all restrictions, you’ll soon find yourself a slave to your own desires, a slave “to those that by nature are not gods,” to “the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world” (Ga 4.9).  But if, instead, you put your trust in Jesus Christ, surrender your will to his, crucify yourself, bury the old man, and rise as a new creation, living “by faith in the Son of God,” you can be freed from slavery to sin and death, and joined to a new master instead—God!  Now, if the highest good were freedom from another’s rule, this might not be a worthwhile trade; but far from it!  With God as your master, “the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Ro 6.22).  It starts with accepting his will and his rules, in order to live in his household.  But it isn’t purely an exchange of one master for another; Jesus also came to pave the way for our adoption.  Soon, you’ll find yourself “no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Ga 4.7).

Jeremy Nettles

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