Good News: You and God Both Want Your Freedom

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.
                                                            -Galatians 5:13
 
This week as we continue our “ On the Way with Jesus” series, we’re going to be looking at a portion of Scripture that’s been called the Magna Carta of Christianity.  Paul’s letter to the Galatian church runs one magnificent theme all throughout: freedom.
 
In brief, the church in Galatia had fallen for some teachers who told them that faith in Christ wasn’t enough. They had to obey the Old Testament law as well. These teachers basically said that the new Gentile believers had to become Jews and fully embrace Jewish practices in order to become Christ-followers.
 
Paul has argued throughout the letter to the Galatians that it is by faith in Christ alone that we’re brought into a relationship with God and into the family of God.  We don’t need to also keep kosher or become circumcised in order to be acceptable before God.  It’s not faith + works = right standing with God. It’s faith alone in the unique sacrifice of Jesus to wash away sin that reconciles us to God.  
 
Galatians is a charged and passionate letter, full of rigorous thinking and impassioned pleading. As we drop in towards the end of the letter, Paul is summarizing the argument that he’s been building throughout: Christ died to set people free. Free from the burdensome requirements of the law as well as free from spiritual death and darkness.
 
Paul has been defining what that freedom is supposed to look like and will again continue to flesh out what that freedom is and is not in the verses that we’ll look at over the course of this week.
 
But for today, know that the God who made you longs for freedom for you. Your hunger for freedom and God’s plans for you converge in Jesus Christ.  We were made for freedom, and Jesus is the one that secures it for us at great cost to himself.
 
Spend some time today giving thanks to God for purchasing your freedom for you! Spend a little time praying about what would you like to be freed from and what would you like to be freed for. Ask God to open you up to what his definition of freedom is as we go into this week.

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