Why are you a Christian?

(Galatians 5:1-4)

Why are you a Christian? Why did you come to Christ in the first place?

Was it because you were caught up in some form of bondage and needed a way of escape? Were you into drugs, booze, gambling, or some other weakness and it was having a negative effect on your life? Had you hit rock bottom and realised there was only one way up? Or did you just realise that you were a sinner in need of a saviour?

The possibilities why you, or anyone else became a Christian are virtually limitless. But all of them can be boiled down to one root cause, and that is what the Apostle Paul discusses in this scripture.

What is Freedom?

The primary reason people come to Christ is the search for freedom. They want to be released from whatever it is that has them enslaved, be it a physical, mental, psychological or spiritual bondage. Jesus is the answer to all of these things and it is He who provides victory over all things to give us the freedom we so desire.

But what is the freedom that He truly offers?

Yes we can receive release from any and all of the things mentioned above. But there is so much more to this freedom Christ Jesus offers to all of those who come to Him.

And if we look at the first words of this section, we gain an even deeper insight.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

We are not just set free for the sake of being free, but are set free so as to gain an even greater freedom. It is for total and complete freedom that we are set free. Jesus has given us the way to be set free from sin, to be set free from the law and to be set free from all of the passions of the flesh that lead us into sinfulness.

All of these freedoms and much, much more are possible and available to those who believe in Jesus Christ, but the challenge we all face is to take hold of the freedoms and not slide back into slavery.

Paul urges us also in this verse not to submit again to the bondage of slavery because slavery will take away all of the freedoms that Christ has given us.

Now Paul is being very specific about the type of slavery he was concerned about while writing to the Galatians, with good reason, because the particular bondage that the Galatians were falling into would take away all that Christ had given to them. The bondage of the law will separate a person from the freedoms in Jesus Christ.

2 Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. (Galatians 5:2-3)

The bondage that the Galatians were falling into was to again be bound under the laws of Moses. Jesus sets us free from the law, but if we take it back on ourselves, we put ourselves into slavery and we are separated from Jesus Christ.

Why are we set free from the law?

To be able to stand righteous before God we MUST be set free from the law.

No person can stand righteous before God or come into His presence while they are stained with sin. Sin is the chasm that stands between man and God, and it was because of sin that God rejected and gave up on mankind.

Consider the examples in the Bible. Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden and out of the presence of God because they sinned. Cain was cast away from God when he sinned by killing his brother Able. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because their sins had piled so high they were a blight on the face of earth. The whole world was destroyed in the times of Noah because it was such a sinful and evil place. All the children of Israel, (with the exception of Joshua and Caleb), who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses died in the wilderness and were not permitted to enter the Promised Land because of their sins. And we see in Romans chapter 1, three times where God gave up on man because of sin.

So if we are to stand right in the sight of God, sin must be removed. If there is no sin, then we are righteous and can stand in the presence of God once again, but no man could make himself righteous. Self-righteousness is not the path to God’s favour and grace. The only righteousness that has any value is the righteousness given by God.

Which brings us back to the law and the need to be set free from the law.

The law defines sin for what it is, and the breaking of the law is sin. So if we are to be set free from sin and maintain a life free from sin into the future, then we must also be set free from the law so that it cannot be broken again.

Added to this is that the way the law was approached by people was not through faith but through works. People think that they can be righteous by “being good” and keeping the works of the law. For example, some believe that if they go to church on Sunday, tithe all of their income, fast according to the scriptures, keep the religious feasts and holidays, and so on, that they will be acceptable in the sight of God.

Why is this form of religion a failure? Because it is based not on faith in God but on faith in yourself. It is self-righteousness and it has no validity in the sight of God.

This is how pursuit of the law as a means of righteousness separates us from Jesus Christ, because it is based on what WE DO rather than based on what we BELIEVE: that we are righteous by faith in Jesus Christ.

And if we are going to keep just ONE law, we are required to keep ALL of the laws. You can’t pick and choose which laws you want to be under, it’s all or nothing.

That’s why Paul was so concerned that the Galatians were considering circumcision. If they accepted that law, for circumcision was the sign and seal of the law, then they had to accept all of the laws (as seen in verse 3 quoted above), all six hundred and fifty plus laws!

Today, circumcision is not really an issue for the church. But there are other laws that many teachers in the broader church insist upon that likewise bind the congregations.

It is important to determine whether you are being put into the bondage of the law and to get out of it by accepting the teachings of faith and freedom in Jesus Christ, so that you are not severed from His grace.

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:4)

SO the next question that comes up is HOW do we receive the freedoms offered by Jesus Christ?

How do we become free?

The pathway to freedom in Jesus Christ is deceptively simple, but often overlooked in many churches today. They overlook it because they do not realise or understand the power of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Simply put, there are two things we need to do and then believe in what these things mean.

First and foremost is that we must be baptised into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We must be fully immersed in the waters of baptism and receive this baptism in water in the name of Jesus.

I am aware there are some churches who do not teach baptism at all, some say it is optional, some use it as an initiation into the church and others only “baptise” infants for which there is no scriptural evidence at all.

When Jesus gave the disciples the Great Commission, which has passed down to us through the generations, the second part of the Great Commission was to “baptise the new disciples.” It wasn’t an optional thing but a command of the Lord that people be baptised. And not just any old baptism, but to be baptised specifically into Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection as we see in Peter’s address to the people after Pentecost and in Paul’s address to the early Ephesian church.

And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

And;

1 While Apol’los was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. (Acts 19:1-6)

Baptism is critical to receiving the freedoms that are offered by Jesus Christ. What we believe in our baptism is that we have died with Christ and been raised with Him as a new creation. And scripture tells us that if we have died, then our sins are washed away because death is the only payment for the debt of sin, and also that if we have died then the law no longer has dominion over us because the law ceases to have any effect after death. (If you want to know these scriptures, email me as there are too many to include here).

What we must do after baptism is to believe that we are dead to sin, dead to the law and alive to God. We must believe that we are no longer under the power of sin and can no longer sin because Jesus has set us free from sin and the law. This is the faith we hold in our baptism in Jesus Christ. It is that simple.

But this isn’t the end of it because we still have the passions, lusts and desires of the flesh that lead us into sinfulness.

And this brings us to the second thing we must do, which is to seek and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell within us so as to overcome all these human failings.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ by giving us the victory over the flesh. We can use the power of the Holy Spirit every time that our flesh rises up in us to do evil, and crush the evil thoughts, feelings and desires by walking in the Spirit. As Paul writes later in Galatians 5,

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)

When we walk by the Spirit we do not gratify the desires of the flesh. In fact we dampen them and destroy them before they can overtake us and cause us to act in a sinful manner.

And I will add, the power of this walking in the Spirit is conveyed emphatically in this verse in Greek. In verse 16 here, the Geek does not just say you “do not gratify the desires of the flesh,” it actually uses a double negative to strengthen the power that the Spirit has in dealing with the passions of the flesh. It might be better translated as something like, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ‘no never will you’ gratify the desires of the flesh.”

When you walk by the Spirit you will never ever gratify the desires of the flesh. You will have victory over the flesh and with each victory the Holy Spirit will do the work of transformation in you from one degree of glory to another as it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18.

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

But to receive this power you must first be baptised so that you are set free from the law and from sin, and believe that you are truly free from these things through the death of Jesus Christ, because God will not work with a person who is a sinner. Then you must seek and receive the Holy Spirit so that you are able to walk in the Spirit and be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

In the mean time while we await the completion of this transformation work, God gives us His grace to overlook the failings we still have. He knows we are all “works in progress” and His grace covers all of the flaws that we still fold on to.

But if you want the freedoms that are offered in Jesus Christ, and I would guess you do since you have come to Christ seeking freedom from something, then this is the path you need to follow. And this is just the starting point. The walk continues and the growth into maturity must take place over time. But this cannot even begin until these first steps of freedom are taken.

This is why you are a Christian and also defines where you are going.

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The Baptism of Jesus and John the Baptists Ministry
One Important Reason To Receive The Holy Spirit
The Great Commission Part 2
John The Baptists Ministry
Ask And It Will Be Given You
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You Must Be Born Again
The Truth Will Make You Free
I Am The Door
You Are Clean
The Holy Spirit
Why Jesus Died
Just Ask
Speaking In Tongues
Receiving The Holy Spirit
Baptising The Ethiopian
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Christians And The Law
You Are Not A Sinner
You Are Not Under Law
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A New Creation
Curse Of The Law