Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage –Gal. 5:1.
There is much ado in our land about freedom. It has been a central and foundational theme for centuries. America is touted as the land of the free and the home of the brave, and many have shed their blood in the pursuit and defense of it. We all deeply appreciate the freedom we possess. Most of us can walk outside without fear of being molested. We are free to worship at the place of our preference and in the manner we choose. We can speak and publish what we will without repercussion. This is legislated freedom at its finest and we can hardly comprehend life without it.
Countless hardships have been endured in the quest for freedom. Miracles have been occasioned by the scores as souls have risked their lives in pursuit of it. From Jesus walking through the midst of His assailants and Peter’s angelic deliverance from prison, to the escape of Paul being let down over the wall in a basket, we are all enraptured by the accounts of successful deliverance from evil men. This century has, perhaps, produced more books than ever, published concerning the freeing of Christians from tyranny. In spite of the supernatural involvement of angels and divine intervention, this type of emancipation has nothing to do with the freedom we have in Christ.
A recent exchange in a hospital room with an elderly Ukrainian man who came to America after spending time in a communist concentration camp reveals the truth. As he waited for the life-support machine to be turned off on his dying grandson, great lament filled his soul. Upon landing on the shores of a free nation, he witnessed the ebbing away of faith in the lives of his offspring, and now his grandson has embarked upon a Christ-less eternity. “I wish that I hadn’t come,” escaped from the lips of the tear-stained face. As he stands upon the vantage of hindsight, the freedom he once valued paled in the light of the yoke of bondage that has since gripped his offspring.
Perhaps Lot shared the same regret when his former decision toward lifestyle and financial freedom now danced before his mind in maddening mockery. Yesterday it was his godless, heathen neighbors in Sodom that had vexed his righteous soul, but now in his final years, he must face the fact that it was his own ill-advised pursuit of freedom that birthed the heathen nations of Moab and Ammon.
The book of Galatians has been likened to the Christian’s Declaration of Independence and was known as the battle cry of the Reformation. A brief study of the letter will reveal that Paul was adamant that these Galatians should stand fast in the liberty of Christ. This is one of the few epistles that has no commendation but only pointed correction. He bears no qualms about calling their current understanding …another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. –Gal 1:6-7. Christianity is not just another Jewish sect, and the Galatian letter distinctly unties the reader from any of the Jewish ordinances. Galatians speaks of important issues: the law, grace, works, the gospel, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, our Lord’s death, His resurrection, salvation, and sanctification. These critical realities are all on board in Paul’s agenda, but the primary message portrayed throughout its verses is freedom. About twenty times in these six chapters we will come across some form of the word “bondage” or “freedom”. But freedom can represent many facets. Freedom from hell, spiritual bondage, judgment, or the Jewish law all rise to the surface of our interpretation. Whatever our persuasion, the believer must duly recognize that the freedom offered by Christ is of spiritual dimension rather than physical. While this freedom is very personal, Scripture gives us no claim to our own agenda and no roots to hold title to this world’s charms.
People have grown accustomed to thinking, saying, hearing, and doing whatever they want. This is freedom, but not that which is offered by Christ. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage –2Pe 2:19. In a land largely free of human coercion, we still find that a vast majority of its citizens are enslaved in spiritual bondage. They are free to select the master of their choice, yet they remain chained to their sin.
The Judaizers were legalistic and believed that freedom was wrought by keeping the Sabbath laws, circumcision, and such like. Others say freedom is found in being bound by no law at all. Even works are accounted evil under this paradigm. Still others insist that rigorous asceticism and self-denial is the key to real freedom.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed –Joh 8:32-36. The truth will not allow you to say whatever you may feel like, or to live independently of the feelings of others. Nor will it exempt you from circumstances that distress, trouble, or frighten you. That is the ministration of this world’s freedom. There is no slave that cannot own the full inner liberty offered by Christ. Thus, we are not bound by what others do to us or what offends our personal rights, but rather how we respond in our hearts. Christian freedom enables us to relate to our dire situations via mature faith. Christian faith interprets life according to the Scriptures. A person must simply look at their situations in life and receive both the positive and negative experiences in the light of Christ, who is the essence of true freedom.
If true freedom is available to reach within the recesses of each and every heart, then it must be secured by inner operations. If we have failed to secure it, the fault lies solely within our own confused reasoning. We are the problem, and we will never be free until we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. -Romans 12:2 While there are external yokes that can steal our inner freedom, the vast majority of them have pitched their baleful tents within our hearts and have driven their stakes pretty deep. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man… –Mat 15:19-20. Evil thoughts seem to be the engine that drags these sin-laden boxcars down the tracks of life. It is the presence of these same evil thoughts in our minds that many have very little concern about. We know a murderous thought is wrong, but frustration seems acceptable. Theft may not be tolerated but coveting is normal. Fornication is evil, but discontentment is expected at times. No, the mind is the seedbed for all kinds of evil, and until it is fully converted, we will continually be plagued with the effects of bondage. But Christ has no intention to leave our cognitive thoughts untouched, and thus the Great Emancipator offers freedom from the yokes of bondage unto slavery.
These yokes of bondage arise as the cruel taskmasters of our minds in the form of…
…Exaggeration
When we think something will “always happen that way” or “never happen” we begin to form patterns of belief in our mind. We recognize that lying is wrong, yet it begins as a much more palatable thought pattern. No matter that the thought bears some truth and is “user friendly”—it still tends to bondage. To meditate upon the phrase …The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies –Tit 1:12, will leave us handicapped and uncharitable when we meet an honest Cretian. Elisha meditated long and complete upon the atrocities performed by Ahab and Jezebel, to the point that he believed that he was the only godly one left. Apart from the 7,000 souls he overlooked and slighted, the major damage was done to his own spirit.
…Evil Surmising
People about us have enough evil attached to their character without the need for us to add more to their account: … Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor… –Zec 8:16-17. There is a subtle carnality that arrives on the doorstep of those who give themselves over to negative thoughts about others. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? …they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly –Psa 62:3-4. Here, again, is the bondage wrought to the negative mindset. Ahab hated Micaiah. But this hatred rode in on the thought that …he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil… –1Ki 22:8.
…Worry
Take therefore no thought for the morrow… –Mat 6:34. Worry is akin to fortune telling, yet seers predict both good and evil. Those given to worrisome thoughts predict the worst possible outcome to a situation. These troublesome thoughts are driven by feelings, sometimes becoming a trail of self-fulfilled prophecy. Feelings are very complex and are often based upon memories of the past. When an unpleasant occurrence has not been properly placed under God’s sovereignty in our minds, we become watch dogs (or worry warts) to ascertain that it never happens again. But we, by taking thought (anxiety), can never add one cubit to our stature. (see Luke 12:25) In fact, those given to much worry shorten their life span drastically. And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind –Luk 12:29. The doubting mind is a glaring emblem of unbelief.
…Fear
We speak not of reverential fear, but of “phobos”: alarm or fright -Strongs. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love –1Jo 4:18. Phobia is not a helpful emotion. Fear walks hand in hand with failure and causes us to respond in ways we do not want to. The children of Israel feared to enter the promised land and viewed themselves as grasshoppers in comparison to the inhabitants thereof. So, the future looms quite formidable in the view of those who entertain fearful thoughts. In the last days, men’s hearts shall fail …them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken –Luk 21:26.
…Condemnation
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved –Joh 3:17. Perhaps condemnation has its purpose in the life of an unbeliever so that he may be moved to repentance, but some continue to attach every innocuous event to their own fault. For some, the event is long over and finished, yet they continue to lament what they could have done differently. Others can hardly ever admit a mistake of their own making. To recognize our errors is noble; however, there are many who live under the cloud of what they should do or should have done. The guilt connected with such thoughts often creates an inner turbulence that further cripples us to accomplish a noble agenda.
…Blame
Blame is the opposite ditch from condemnation. Negative thoughts heap mental blame upon others. The basis for such thinking is that God is an austere man and is on constant vigil to reprimand every disobedient act. If something ill happens, a scapegoat must be found to attach it to. Christ’s …disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him –Joh 9:2-3. When we attach blame for our troubles to something or someone, we become a victim of circumstances and are disabled from changing the situation. Many relationships experience ruin. Not by the tragedy of the situation, but by the blame cast at others. Whenever we believe that someone else is the source of our problem, we become powerless to reciprocate anything good and the grace in our own hearts is staunched.
…Judgment
It is our pride and our prejudice that loves to affix a label to every person or situation we don’t fully understand: …certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts –Mat 9:3-4. Most of us judge with our feelings. We may piously attach some scripture to our conclusion, but most of our discernment is because we are …partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts –Jam 2:4. Even if we recognize this mind-reading error and only judge that which was spoken, we are further instructed to …take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee: For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others –Ecc 7:21-22. An honest appraisal of self will go a long way to stop negative judgments. David was guilty of murder and thus declared the death sentence against the man who killed his neighbor’s lamb. Unfortunately, much of our inner judgment is likewise tainted by our preferences rather than true, honest concern.
…Ingratitude
Unthankfulness has successfully driven many men to despair. It inevitably drove the prodigal son from his home, occasioned the death of Naboth, and led David into lusting for the wife of Uriah. These had been given much …and if that had been too little, I [God] would moreover have given unto thee such and such things –2Sa 12:8. Ungrateful thoughts do not meditate upon what we have, but on that from which we feel deprived. No matter how good we have it, the expectation in our minds lifts the standard of happiness yet higher. The farmer must have bigger barns, the businessman pursues more money, the married man lusts for another woman, the married woman is wanton for better surroundings. Each believes that happiness lies just over the next horizon and lives in bondage to their never-ending desires. But those whom Christ has set free have before them a continual feast regardless of their circumstances. They are free indeed.
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