Galatians 5

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Revelation 1:4-7
• Hymn — Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder (#172)
• Westminster Shorter Catechism — Questions 88 & 89
• Hymn — Brethren, We Have Met to Worship (#381)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Galatians 5:1-15
• Sermon
• Hymn — Not What My Hands Have Done (#461)
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: The Gospel Means Freedom

Scripture: Galatians 5:1-15

I. How Gospel Freedom Is Received

A. Christ accomplishes freedom

1. Paul has been building this theme throughout the letter: Galatians 1:4, 3:13, 3:23, 4:4-5, 4:7
2. Christ was born under the law, kept the whole law, and bore the curse of the law on behalf of his people
3. John 8:36 — "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed"
4. Freedom from self-working: no longer captive to the anxiety of maintaining one's own spiritual account; conscience is free and quiet, not fearing God's wrath (Luther)
5. Freedom from the tyranny of sin, Satan, and death — vanquished enemies (Calvin)

B. God calls to freedom

1. Paul mentions God's calling twice: verses 8 and 13
2. Effectual calling: God enlivens, convicts, renews the will, and persuades the sinner to believe on Christ
3. Freedom in Christ is received because God has personally called his people to it — as his word of creation accomplished what he intended, so his word of new creation brings his people to freedom

II. How Gospel Freedom Is Wrecked

A. The danger of other doctrines

1. Verse 1: the immediate command — "stand firm and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery"
2. Roman Catholic teaching: justification by checking off prescribed boxes, reducing one's eternal sentence through works
3. Broad evangelical teaching: christless moralism — what must I do? Give away wealth, move into poor neighborhoods, compromise on sin to show acceptance
4. Galatians 5:9 — "A little leaven leavens the whole lump"; even a small admixture of works-righteousness corrupts the whole

B. The outcome of other doctrines

1. Verse 4 — "You are severed from Christ": trusting in self-goodness declares Christ's work wasted, amounting to a life of spitting in the face of Jesus
2. Paul reserves his strongest condemnation for the false teachers who cut others off from the truth
3. Verse 12 — "Let them emasculate themselves": echoing the psalms of imprecation, this is not a wish that any be prevented from salvation, but a prayer that the wolf threatening the flock be fully and finally cut off for the sake of God's glory and the safety of the church (Calvin)

III. How Gospel Freedom Is Rightly Used

A. In hopeful waiting — Galatians 5:5

1. 2 Corinthians 3:17 — "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom"; the Spirit applies gospel freedom through faith, not law-keeping
2. "The hope of righteousness" has two interconnected meanings:
   • Believers are already declared righteous in Christ, yet await final, public vindication before all creation on the day of Christ
   • Daily, believers need to be reminded of their righteousness in Christ as a balm against despair and the temptation to trust in their own merits
3. The call: stand firm, keep believing the gospel, live in the hope of what is already yours and will one day be confirmed

B. In loving action — Galatians 5:13-15

1. Gospel freedom is not freedom to indulge the flesh or to use and abuse others for selfish ends
2. The animalistic imagery of "biting, devouring, consuming" pictures life under a false gospel — competing works, shoving for position
3. Gospel freedom is freedom to love: the whole law is fulfilled in one word — Galatians 5:14, quoting the second great commandment
4. John 13 — Christ's new commandment: "As I have loved you, so you are to love one another"; love within the body bears witness to the watching world
5. The question for the church: what is our love for the body proclaiming to the world?
6. Gospel freedom propels the believer to love God and neighbor, to serve others even at great cost — this is the transformation the gospel works