Galatians 5: 1
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
We just went through the previous verses in this Epistle, settling the doctrine that the Covenant of Promise and the Covenant of Law are two separate Covenants, that don't cancel each other out.
The Promise came first, to Abraham, that his descendants would number more than the stars, and that his Seed would inherit the Land.
These Promises have not yet been fully fulfilled, so God still will remember His chosen people to elevate them as the head, instead of the tail, among the Nations.
Then, hundreds of years later, God gave the Law to Moses. This was to given them a specific road to walk, a culture and society separate from the rest of the Nations. It laid out all the specifics, like detailed directions to a child in school. When they followed these directions, things went well for them, they prospered. But when they forgot God and started to follow the ways of the World around them, they lost their prosperity and suffered.
So the whole body of Laws was like a road-map to teach God's people how to think like He thinks.
Now that Jesus was born a man, and died as the Lamb of God, fulfilling the sacrificial laws, and rose from the grave with a new Life; now we can be cleansed completely from sin by His Blood so that God could now come live inside our human spirit, making it alive.
And now that we are spiritually alive with God's Spirit living in us, God has written His Law in our hearts, so that we can know how to live. When we love God and make Him our first, highest priority, and love our neighbors as God has Loved us; then we will be fulfilling the purposes for which the Law was given, and we don't need to pay attention to the details. So we are free from the letter of the Law.
It's all based on Love. God is Love, He has Loved us beyond anything we can even imagine, and He wants us to love Him back, and love one another.
Then we will live super-naturally, following the Spirit's leading, and in His power. This is impossible to do without Him. In our flesh, we all have come short of the Glory of God, we can't be perfect. But now we can grow up in Christ, and be mature in the faith.
This freedom is not license, so we will never need to return to the old ways of trying to follow rules and regulations, and try to never make a mistake. We never need to go back under the yoke of the slavery of having to obey lined-out precepts. We are free to love one another and treat each other with the respect and worth God values each of us at.
We don't have to like each other to treat one another with worth and respect; to want what would be good for them, for their benefit. This is real love.
O my Father, thank You for freeing us from every yoke of slavery. Thank You for releasing me from the slavery of addiction when You found me. And thank You for saving all Your children from the power of the yoke of sin over us.
Please help us all to realize we have Your power to overcome sin and the deceiver. Teach us all to not return to any bondage from which we've been freed. We are free, in the liberty of being able to choose to do what is right and righteous, and not slip again into old patterns of sin.
You are making us new, Father, molding us into the very image of our Lord Jesus Christ, growing us up in Your family until we reach the end of our childhood and schooling, and graduate at His coming, to receive spirit bodies in place of these bodies of flesh. Then we will be prepared and ready to help You rule in Your Kingdom!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Lord God Almighty, King of the Universe, to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever, Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
