Liberty in Christ
By: Josh Clevenger
Galatians 5:1 New Living Translation (NLT)
So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
You have been set free from the bondage that stemmed from the Law of Moses and its inability to make us righteousness through good works alone. The law was flawed because it only exposed the weaknesses in man. When Jesus died on the cross, He died to the obligation of what man could not accomplish through good works and sacrifices.
You have been given righteousness through Jesus Christ. This means you have the ability to be at rest with God. The struggle for God’s approval has been satisfied once and for all in Christ. You do not have to offer anything to God to be received as worthy. The process was simplified to one basic element, and that element is Christ alone.
You do not have to add to the equation anything at all. We have to believe that He is, and when that is established salvation is given freely. It is a free gift that has no blind spots in the contract. You are not required to give anything, because the debt was too great for us to pay. God saw our inability to be righteous apart from His intervention. His intervention was His Son, and His Son was the bridge between us and the Lord. All we have to do is receive this incredible gift from the great source of perfect love.
The Law created a bondage to guilt and a slavery to good works. We have been set free from that bondage. You do not have to earn anything from the Lord. The mindset of trying to earn God’s approval is from an underestimation of what Christ did on the Cross. We live in a society where the term “free” is associate with cheap. Salvation was not cheap, because it cost the Son of God His obedience to death and life. The price was too great for us to pay, so Christ paid our debt before the Lord.
Our gratitude for this great gift is immense. We can express this gratitude to the Lord by loving others in the same way we were loved by Him. The Lord does not require payment. He just wants us to spread this great love to those around us. Do not be yoked again to fear or shame in your walk with the Lord. Be set free from false obligation and be united in the Lord to truly know your freedom in Christ.
