Sunday, July 6th 2025
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C (Proper 9C)
Text: Galatians 6:1–10, 14–18
Sermon Audio
As we gather… On this weekend we consider the many freedoms we have in this country. Certainly, devout and faithful rulers, good government and peace are the things in the laundry list of things for which we thank God in Luther’s explanation of give us this day our daily bread. But even more specifically, we thank the Lord for the freedoms we have in Christ. These freedoms are things all Christians enjoy, no matter what country they live in. Paul spends a large portion of his letter to the Galatians explaining to them the freedom in Christ that they have. However, near the end of the letter, he unpacks what it means to have freedom in Christ. We have freedom in Christ to serve our neighbor. This involves bearing one another’s burdens, sharing good things with our teachers, and never growing weary of doing good. In the freedom we have in Christ, we can serve others, proclaiming Christ as we do.
Freedom is on the minds of many Americans this weekend as we celebrated the 4th of July just a couple days ago. The foundational document is the Declaration of Independence signed 249 years ago. This document declares independence, or freedom, from the British rule. And you could say, the rest is history.
Paul’s Letter to the Church in Galatia, known simply to us as the book of Galatians talks at length about the meaning of freedom. Although no swords were drawn, there was a battle going on in the church in Galatia. Those Christians who had been freed from the legalism of Judaism were being tempted to return to it. Like Benedict Arnold betraying the Americans, returning to Judaism would be a stab in the back. Paul writes in this letter to stop them from betraying their Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we’re going to be talking about freedom in Christ. We learn: CHRIST HAS FREED US FROM SIN AND THE OLD WAYS TO SERVE OTHERS AS THE ISRAEL OF GOD. First, I. Christ has freed us from the old ways. At a certain point, our Founding Fathers found it necessary to depart from the old ways and sever ties with the British. The parting of ways in the New Testament was much more serious than this, and it was instituted by Christ Himself.
The Lord used many laws to help set apart a people holy to Himself. Sometimes you’ve heard the statistic that the pharisees, a legalistic group in the time of Jesus, had 613 laws they followed. To be clear, those 613 laws are all found in the first five books of the Bible. If that weren’t enough, the pharisees then added rules on top of those rules to prevent them from breaking one of those 613 commandments.
Many of these laws were ceremonial and only applied to God’s people for a certain time. These include things such as laws regarding animal sacrifices, what animals you could eat, what kind of clothing you could wear, and of course, circumcision.
But Paul sums up much of his argument throughout this book in verse 15, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” Christ has come to fulfill the law, and that the aspects of the ceremonial law are no longer applicable to Christians. In other words, to become a Christian means you don’t first have to become a Jew with all their rituals and ceremonies.
Elsewhere in the letter, Paul likened this system of laws to a schoolteacher. For those of you who have served as teachers, yeah, it’s teaching, but it’s also a fair amount of babysitting. But now that we are in Christ, we no longer need that teacher hovering over us.
We often read the first few paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, but we stop there. If you read on in the Declaration of Independence, you see a list of twenty-eight grievances against the King of Britian some of these include taxes without representation, making the colonist house troops, and dissolving the legal process.
But the abuses and tyranny humanity has faced due to our fallen condition is much worse than anything an earthly ruler has done in the past. Today we celebrate freedom. II. Christ has freed us from sin. Paul gives us warnings in this text. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” and “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
We think freedom means the ability to do anything. Like the Founding Fathers, we want life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In other words, if it makes me happy, I should be able to do it.
“Don’t tell me I can’t divorce my wife.” “Don’t tell me what substances I can or can’t put into my body.” “Don’t tell me what websites on the Internet I should or shouldn’t visit.” “Don’t tell me I have to attend worship.” “Don’t tell me what is or isn’t stealing.” Don’t you want me to be happy?!
But freedom to do whatever we want is its own kind of tyranny. We don’t commit sin, sin commits us. It commits us into a prison of addiction, pain, and isolation. Hell is a real place where people spend eternity without God, but talk to addicts, adulterers, thieves, and those trying to live life apart from God and you see them building a hell of their own making even in the here and now.
This is why Christ came to this earth. Better than Alexander Hamilton, Jesus Christ fought for your salvation not with a sword or spear, but by living a perfect life for your sake. He has given you room to look upon your own self and confess that you are a poor miserable sinner in need of salvation and forgiveness. He frees us who are caught in transgressions and sowing seeds of destruction. Paul writes, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Freedom in Christ isn’t just a freedom from sin to do whatever you want. Christ has freed us to make us His people. III. Christ has made us into the Israel of God. When the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they knew what they were doing. They were making a new nation, completely separate from the British Empire. Likewise, Christ came to this Earth to make for Himself a people. We read in 1 Peter, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
But what happens with Christ and His Church is kind of the opposite of what we see in the American Revolution. America broke off from Britain and eschewed all the trappings of British monarchy. Imagine for a minute, a different scenario.
Rather than throwing off monarchy, George Washington discovered a long lost heir to the British throne. If the Americans crowned this king, rather than a revolution, it would be the restoration of the rightful king.
This is what the Bible teaches about the Christian Church. When Christ came to this Earth He came as the rightful king to claim His throne. It wasn’t a revolution, but a return to the way things should be. He has made us subjects in His kingdom which spans all countries, all time zones, and all points of history. Everyone who worships Christ as king is part of this nation.
When Paul writes about the Israel of God, this isn’t a type-o made by a dyslexic translator. He is saying, as the Bible says elsewhere, that the true Israel is Christ’s Church. This means we don’t need to get tied up in knots about what’s happening in the modern country of Israel. The Church’s fate doesn’t rise or fall based on the latest headlines from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. What’s more, on this patriotic weekend, we are thankful for our freedoms as Americans, but we also should be careful not to think that the Lord uniquely loves us more than other nations and people groups.
Finally, IV. Christ has freed us to serve others. Throughout the letter to the Galatians, Paul is at pains to describe the freedoms we have from the law of Moses and from our sins, but he takes this last chapter as an opportunity to show us how we are to live.
As God’s Israel, we as the Church are freed to bear one another’s burdens. This could look like meal trains for those who have a sick loved one or just had a baby. This could look like using the Good Samaritan Fund to help a member who is going through a rough financial time. This could also look like walking alongside someone who is struggling with sin or addiction. As the Church, we share God’s Word that couples are not to live together before marriage. What would it look like if we offered up a guest room to a fiancé who wants to do the right thing in the months before the wedding by moving out from his wife to be?
In this passage we read, “One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches.” We are encouraged to support pastors and the work of the church out of a generous heart. Imagine the ministry that could be accomplished in this place if every member gave 10% of their income!
Paul encourages us writing, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Just as a farmer sows generously in the spring to reap an ample harvest in the fall, we are encouraged to use our freedom for good rather than ill, so that the body of Christ may be build up and supported to be a blessing to others.
As we celebrate our freedoms we have in this country, we give thanks for the freedoms we have in Christ from sin, death, and the devil and the freedoms we have to serve others.