“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1
If you look-up the word “liberty” it means - the state of being free – here in verse 1 it means - freedom – but if you look deeper into the Greek you will see this Greek word (eleutheria) come from the Greek word (eleutheros) as you can see they are almost the same word and have basically the same meaning. However, the word (eleutheros) means – unrestrained (to go at pleasure) or not a slave. If you associate the two Greek words for the one English word, they paint a very beautiful image for us to see. Paul told us in Romans 6:18 “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” This is the liberty that a person who knows and trust Jesus Christ as their Saviour has, they are allowed to be unrestrained or no longer a slave to sin. The beauty here is that sin and its ugliness no longer has a hold on us. Paul told us that we were “made free from sin” and because of that he went on to tell us because of that we “became the servants of righteousness.”. I must shout here because is it wonderful to be able to serve God, but that service is only possible through the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ. Not just anyone can serve God, you must be saved or have freedom from sins bond through Jesus Christ. Paul went on to write in Romans 6:20 “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.” That if you are not saved then you are freed from righteousness and that means you are freed from serving God. God will not accept your good works anyway outside of Jesus Christ. This is a concluded fact, that lost people are not freed from sin therefore it is sin that they will serve. You cannot serve God and sin. Our text scripture concludes that “Christ hath made us free” and no other can make you free from sin. We should never tell a lost person to serve the Lord because they cannot, remember they are “free from righteousness”. If you believe that there is righteousness in any other form outside of Jesus Christ, you are simply fooling yourself. I love Romans 6:22 where Paul said “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Since we are freed in Christ the we are “servants to God” and the fruits of our labors are “fruit unto holiness” and the end of it all is “the end everlasting life”. So beloved, shout from the highest mountain top because you have liberty in Jesus Christ and everlasting life is its end. Where God is, only liberty exist; because sinfulness and death and eternal damnation are all outside of Jesus Christ. This is why they can continue their ungodliness, cursing, murdering through abortion and etc., because they will only be accountable in the final Great White Throne judgment of Jesus Christ. Paul concludes in Romans 6:23a "For the wages of sin is death..." death being the eternal damnation of hell’s hot fires. But today there is hope for everyone who is lost because Paul wrote on that same verse 23b “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Folks, freedom is not free, people have died for freedom, and Jesus Christ died for our freedom. Our Nation is free because that many men, women, and children have died acquiring the freedom. But as Christians we are freed because Jesus Christ died for ours. I praise all who have died for my freedom and thank them all, but my most thankfulness is to Jesus Christ for the punishing death He suffered to give me eternal freedom from sin, and the hold it had on me. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son...He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:11 – 12 Amen!
