“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).
This exhortation from the apostle Paul stresses our deliverance in Christ from legalistic bondage to dead works of religious ritualism. There once had been a divine purpose for all the dietary rules, animal sacrifices, and miscellaneous regulations under the Mosaic laws, but the Jews had lost sight of the spiritual meaning and value of these laws. Their leaders had even expanded them into a great host of special applications which had become a heavy burden to the people, with little spiritual benefit.
But “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13), having “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26), not that we may have license to live as selfishly and sinfully as we please, but that we might be free to “walk in the Spirit” and “live unto God” (Galatians 5:16; 2:19). This “liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” is a priceless gift from God, to be defended—not compromised or abused.
Our Christian forefathers originally settled this country and later established our nation primarily to be able to exercise this liberty of serving God according to His word. But now, just as the Galatians had been in grave danger of losing their freedom in Christ to the Judaizers, so we today are in even greater danger of losing our religious liberties to the secularizers. Our humanist-dominated educational and judicial systems have been able to establish evolutionary humanism as our unofficial state religion, with many legalistic encumbrances to our exercise of true freedom in Christ. How urgently we need today, to “stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.” HMM
