If It Ain't Broke - Don't Fix It!

5:1Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and donÕt get tied up again in slavery to the law. 2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ cannot help you. 3 IÕll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey all of the regulations in the whole law of Moses.

4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from GodÕs grace. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive everything promised to us who are right with God through faith. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, it makes no difference to God whether we are circumcised or not circumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

7 You were getting along so well. Who has interfered with you to hold you back from following the truth? 8 It certainly isnÕt God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. 9 But it takes only one wrong person among you to infect all the others--a little yeast spreads quickly through the whole batch of dough! 10 I am trusting the Lord to bring you back to believing as I do about these things. God will judge that person, whoever it is, who has been troubling and confusing you.

11 Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised--as some say I do--why would the Jews persecute me? The fact that I am still being persecuted proves that I am still preaching salvation through the cross of Christ alone. 12 I only wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.

13 For you have been called to live in freedom--not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ÒLove your neighbor as yourself.Ó 15 But if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. Gal 5:1-15 (NLT)

We have freedom in Christ, yet often in our striving for a greater degree of Christ-likeness, we in fact lose our freedom. Paul rebuked the Galatians for, after having received freedom, they then attempted to supplant it with the law.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines freedom as follows: Liberty is defined as being free from captivity,  imprisonment, or slavery.

Paraphrased Gal 5:1 would read something like ÒIt is so that we may receive the benefits of His death that Jesus Christ has freed us from the slavery of sin.Ó

The Galatians did not seem content to live with the benefits that were imputed to all believers - they wanted to add to the deal. Whether these additions were all in the form of rules & regulations, or some in an attempt to live Godlier lives, they added to the privileges of membership, but with an increased cost.

Jesus Christ is our freedom - we cannot follow any method or program to enhance or increase our freedom. The cross gave us our freedom and anything we add to the cross in an attempt to establish a greater level of freedom or depth of relationship, is in reality, a bondage.

In John 14: 6 Jesus declared that He was the Way, the Truth & the Life. He alone is everything we need in order to live. He has everything we need to live, but more importantly, He is everything we need.

Jesus Christ is all we need. To use the title of a Watchman Nee book, Jesus is the Sum of all Spiritual Things.

Jesus came to give us life, yet often we want to supplant His gift of life with our attempts at work.

Eight of the consequences of being in Jesus are: (These are already paid for in the Cross!)

1.       Forgiveness –

32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for ChristÕs sake hath forgiven you. Eph 4:32 (KJV)

2.      Reconciliation -

13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: Eph 2:13-16 (KJV)

3.      Justification –

1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Rom 5:1-2 (KJV)

16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Gal 2:16 (KJV)

4.     Sanctification –

9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Heb 10:9-10 (KJV)

5.      Resurrection –

23 Jesus told her, ÒYour brother will rise again.Ó 24 ÒYes,Ó Martha said, Òwhen everyone else rises, on resurrection day.Ó 25 Jesus told her, ÒI am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again.  John 11:23-25 (KJV)      

6.      Peace –

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27 (KJV)

7.      Joy –

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Jn 15:11 (KJV)

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Jn 16:24 (KJV)

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Rom 14:17 (KJV)

8.      Salvation –

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12 (KJV)

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Rom 10:13 (KJV)

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 1Tim 2:4-6 (KJV)

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Pet 3:9 (KJV)

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Jn 3:16-18 (KJV)

None of these things can be attained initially or enhanced by our individual effort - they come as part of the package of surrendering your life to Christ!

Paul rebuked the Galatians for trying to be justified by the law, (works) [In Gal 5:4 Òfallen away from graceÓ.]

We have the ability to live in the freedom that has been given to all that have gone personally to the cross.

Our freedom is for a purpose - to serve another in love. Let us be a blessing to our Lord, but also to all that we come into contact with - ministering from the freedom of the cross.

In Jesus Christ, He is the Sum of All Spiritual Things