“It Is For Freedom That Christ Has Set Us Free.” Galatians 5:1

Jesus died to set us free from sin. Once free we are given a new life to live and the Spirit of God to empower us to live it.

Jesus set us free so that we could have the freedom to live by the power of the Spirit. As Galatian 5:1 says, “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.”

The entire background of the book of Galatians is about a group of people claiming to be believers (legalist) that had infiltrated the ranks of some believers that were born again (free) and were living in freedom (holy life produced by the Spirit of God, not human effort.) The legalist did not introduce wicked and worldly living to the believers. Instead, they had re-introduced the free believers to a form of religious like activities. They re-taught them a system of “holiness” attained by works. Christ set us free for “freedom” from this type of limited, hypocritical religious experience. We are free from having to experience God through human attainment. We are free to allow the Spirit of God to produce in us what the others only wish they could experience.

We all know that God expects us to live holy lives. So, those of us who desire to live lives that please the Lord will fall into one of two groups:
1) Those who are trying their best with their own efforts, but have no idea what it means to be set free for freedom.
2) Those who know they still have a sin nature, and so do not place themselves in bondage to that sin nature by trusting it to produce a form of holiness. Instead they look to the presence of the Spirit of God in their life for the power. In this freedom they produce true holiness in their lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.