July 4, 2015 - Church at Worship

  “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (Galatians 5:1a). As Americans, our freedom began with a Declaration of Independence. For slaves in America freedom came in an Emancipation Proclamation. The battle cry of the Protestant Reformation began with the writing of a commentary on the book of Galatians. This short letter is an Emancipation Declaration for all who take the name of Christ. It is a message of liberty. It is a message of freedom to a people who were seeking to protect the Law of God, but who had fallen into a deadly trap.

The church is always in need of this message. It is human nature to lose sight of the true Gospel and fall into a system of merit, achievement or reward. Paul, a Jew and once a Pharisee of Pharisees, knew this problem better than anyone. So, he writes this letter with fire in his belly, for the subject matter was intensely personal. He knew just what was at stake. In fact, to emphasize the seriousness of it, he took the pen from his scribe and wrote the end of the letter himself in large letters (Galatians 6:11). Freedom was at stake. And Galatians is all about freedom. 

Unfortunately, the false teachings brought to the Galatian churches by protectors of God’s Law afflict us even today. We must walk a fine line. On one hand, we do not want to fall into the legalism with which the Galatians struggled. On the other, we cannot just live as if anything goes. Our commitment to Christ is based on the free gift of grace through faith. But as Paul articulated at the end of Galatians, it also results in a life of walking by the Spirit. Too often we lose ourselves at the edges of extreme, ending in an obsession with rules, or a “compulsion of selfishness” (Galatians 5:16–26 MSG) that results in rebellion. May we find in Paul’s words in Galatians encouragement to pursue a life rooted in a relationship, in the freedom of God’s empowering grace in our lives.

Randy Speyer

Pastor for Care and Counseling