FREEDOM OR LICENSE?

Galatians 5:1

July 2, 2006

Years ago, my older brother enjoyed his fifteen minutes of fame. There was a competition—I think it might have been sponsored by the Junior Chamber of Commerce (in Greendale, Wisconsin, they were just called the “JayCees”). My brother wrote a speech extolling freedom, and won the competition—as he delivered it numerous times—I remember him shaking Governor Knowles hand (for those of you with backgrounds in Wisconsin, you know how long ago this was.)

Because we heard it so many times, I remember the opening lines: Freedom is a small, seven-letter word, but, believe me, it means so much more. If you were his mother, wouldn’t you be proud? He went on to extol the many virtues of our American political system that is founded upon freedom. I’m sure that there will be many similar speeches delivered—maybe even some by twelve-year olds—between now and July 4.

Words like “freedom” remind us where we live. To be sure, they remind us that we live in America, but as Christians, these words serve to remind us that we live someplace else, too. You and live in two places. We live in the political world, where words like freedom have meanings rooted in human possibilities and you and I live in the spiritual realm, where words best find there definitions in God’s Word. Freedom is a word that is used in both places. Paul speaks of freedom as he writes to the Galatians. We can listed to Paul today and try and understand his meaning as if he were using definitions from the political—his words in our text could be easily so applied. However, we would lose Paul’s meaning if we would. We get into trouble, confusing human definitions with God’s—we can end up living in license and, therefore, sin instead of the freedom Christ has won for us.

What is freedom? Indeed, it is a seven-letter word, but what does it mean?

Politically, our American understanding of freedom finds its heritage in places like Ancient Greece and Rome. Citizens were free to act within the city-state. The role of the individual citizen was vital to the proper function of the system and the individual citizen was encouraged to participate for his/her own interests. These Classical understandings filtered through the Enlightenment in France and England and freedom came to include the ideas of self-determination and self-actualization. We remember self-determination from our American history. Colonists objected to being taxed without a voice in determining those taxes.

Still today, self-determination is important. Privacy rights, property rights—even taxes—flow from the idea that individuals have the right to determine their needs and get what they want. Together with self-determination, self-actualization allows each of us to be all that we want to be. You’ve heard it often enough, anyone can grow up to be President. The system allows each individual to realize his/her potential—or not. You can choose not to realize anything, if you like.

These virtues serve us well in the political realm. However, if we seek to claim them before God, face-to-face, we can find ourselves in trouble. Emphasizing our selves—what we want and desire—against God and His will and His desire for us leads to a collision. With our neighbors, our desires might collide with theirs, leading to conflict and cause sin against God’s commandments concerning our neighbors. Certainly, following only after our choices and desires leads to license—claiming for ourselves the right to do what we want before God. Adam and Eve claimed that right, and God called it sin. He still does.

License may feel like freedom, but all it does is trap us in ourselves. That’s what Paul is addressing when he urges the Galatians not to submit again to a yoke of slavery. When you and I are in charge of definitions, everything becomes turned in on us. We trapped in the circle of ourselves. We’re slaves to our own desires—sometimes that slavery is apparent, but it is always slavery. License leaves us slaves and you and I need to be set free from our own trap.

Paul offers a solution. He doesn’t define freedom in political—or human—terms. He roots the definition of freedom in God’s Word and in God’s promises. Very simply, freedom is life in God’s promise.

We see his argument in the previous chapter in his letter to the Galatians. He recalls a story very familiar to the Galatians—especially those who had been Jewish. For the Jew, everything begins with Abraham. Remember how God had promised Abraham that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the heavens or the sand on the seashore? Abraham trusted that promise, but time wore on and he got older without an heir.

His wife, Sarah, had a solution. She would help God along. She gave her maid, Hagar, to Abraham to provide an heir. Ishmael was born soon after. Now, according to all human definitions, Ishmael should have been counted as Abraham’s heir. According to human rules, Ishmael should have been the one to inherit. But the promise was God’s to enact, not Sarah’s

Isaac was born to Sarah as God kept His promise in His time according to His plan. God’s promise trumped human plans and expectations. Isaac was the heir to all that Abraham had, including the promise that through him, One would be born through Whom the families of the earth would be blessed. Jesus was born, centuries later—again, according to God’s time and plan—to Mary, to keep this promise.

Jesus came to bring that blessing. He brought it by His obedience to all of the rules—God’s Law—that we have ignored as we have run after our definitions of freedom. He defeated that which leads to license in our flesh by His obedience. He brought that blessing to us also as He paid the price to ransom us out of that trap we’ve gotten ourselves caught up in. He has paid the price for sin—His blood—offering Himself in our place, to buy our freedom. He let sin think it had trapped Him on the cross and then, broke its power to trap anyone, with His defeat of death with His resurrection.

Jesus defines freedom by His actions. God’s promise offered freedom and His Word made flesh keeps those promises. You and I are free before God.

Free from fear. Standing before God, we might wonder if we’ve done enough. God has expectations, have we done enough? God has plans and desires, have done enough? Jesus sets us free as we live in Him—by baptism and faith—and God says, YES.

Freed from judgment. We might wonder about God’s punishment. When the fallenness of the world intrudes into our lives with illness or unhappiness, we might wonder if God’s punishing us. Jesus has carried God’s punishment for sin to His cross for us. Jesus has won that blessing for us—forgiveness. Our sin is powerless to trap us and that sin has been forgiven, so it is powerless to keep us from God’s love.

Freed to trust. We are free from human definitions of self to live God’s plan for us. Yes that is scary, to put yourself into the hands of the living God. But we live there without fear, so it is also amazing. We put ourselves by faith into the hands of the One who raised Jairus’ daughter! Paul calls the Galatians—and you and me—to live this amazing life of freedom.

So, what does this freedom look like? We have an idea of what our American political freedom looks like, what does our Christian freedom look like—if it’s not the same?

Well, I will defer to Martin Luther. He, in words much better than mine, takes us this topic in one of his essays, “The Freedom (or Liberty) of the Christian (Man).” The variance in title will depend on the translator. The gist of what Luther says is that you and I are free—no tyrant may rule, no one can claim power over us—and stand with Christ. However, as we stand with Christ, we also live with Christ—in love. Love shapes freedom into service. We put ourselves into God’s hands to serve His plans and to serve our neighbors.

What does this look like? If I were to stand here and give you a bunch of rules and guidelines, I would undo the freedom for which Christ set you free. Better to let the Holy Spirit lead you into that service as you listen to God’s Word and let His love shape your life and lead you forward. It sounds a bit scary, but also amazing.

Yes, my brother was right. Freedom does mean so much more.