“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” (Galatians 5:1 NLT).
In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul described the way of liberty that is only found by faith in Christ Jesus. The letter is primarily a warning against adding the law to the gospel of grace. For to do so would be to “submit again to a yoke of slavery.” For the law is something to do, but the gospel is something to believe.
Imagine a road called Liberty with two ditches on either side. On one side there is the ditch called Legalism and on the other side License. The only way to travel on the Liberty Road is to walk by faith in Jesus. Yet, an error in either direction of understanding the true gospel, will cause one to end up in the ditch.
As the early church father, Tertullian wrote, “Just as Christ was crucified between two thieves,” so the gospel “is ever crucified between two opposite errors.”
Misunderstanding the gospel of grace, we either fall into legalism, thinking that our human performance must be added to Christ’s work of salvation. Or we fall into license, taking for granted the grace of God by willfully continuing in sin. Although Paul’s primary concern for the Galatians was to keep them from the ditch of legalism, he also warned against the ditch of license in his letter to the Romans, saying, “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:1-2).
So, let’s stand firm in walking by faith in Christ Jesus. In so doing, we are able to live in true freedom and liberty.
PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You that we are truly set free by faith in Your Son, Christ Jesus. For He has set us free from the law, which we could not keep. And He has set us free from slavery to sin, which leads to death. Strengthen us to walk in the way of liberty by walking in the Spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.