The Heart Of Paul’s Theology: Paul And The GalatiansSample

Freedom in Christ: Galatians 5:1-15

In 5:1-15 Paul called on the Galatians to remain true to their freedom in Christ. His position is carefully balanced. In the first place, he stressed the need to maintain Christian freedom. Consider his words in 5:1:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1).

During his first missionary journey, Paul had brought Gentiles into the Christian faith free from burdens, and he wanted them to remain free because the burdens of legalism are so dangerous. As he wrote in Galatians 5:2-3:

If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law (Galatians 5:2-3).

The false teachers in Galatia had introduced a legalistic system of righteousness. They had taught Christians to rely on their obedience to the law rather than on Christ. But in so doing, they actually obligated these Gentile Christians to a standard that was impossible to keep, obedience to the whole law. Their choice was between freedom in Christ and bondage to the law. The one led to salvation, the other to judgment.

Even so, in the second place, Paul balanced his defense of Christian freedom with an affirmation of Christian moral responsibility. He warned the Galatians not to use their Christian freedom from Jewish traditions as a license for disregarding God’s moral law. In 5:13 he wrote: 

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature (Galatians 5:13).

Christ had released the Galatian Christians from bondage to the law as the means to justification and power for righteous living, but he still demanded that they follow the commands of God. Paul did not want the Galatians to think that their freedom from circumcision included freedom to violate God’s holy character, which was the very foundation of the law.