NEW TESTAMENT

– A narrative on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3:23-4:7; 5  

We all remember the day we left school. Freedom! No more petty rules; you felt grown-up. Paul says that the person who trusts Christ is like someone who has left school. (“Put in charge”, 3:24, means literally a schoolteacher, or guardian.)

He also says it’s like a Jewish boy who’s come of age. There were no teenagers in the ancient world. You were either a child or a member of the adult Jewish community at the age of 13. Through faith in Christ, we have become spiritual adults. We can make God-honouring decisions without the discipline of the nursery.

Faith in Christ frees us from the prison of legalism (3:22,23), the impossible attempt to please (or bribe) God by keeping rules and regulations. John Wesley said of his conversion that he exchanged the faith of a slave for that of a son. He could serve God out of love, not out of fear.

The Galatian legalism had specific Jewish connotations, but we can become slaves too: to superstitions, fear of failure, and specific sins. Faith in Christ offers freedom and the dynamic to live wholeheartedly for God.

But there’s another side to it. “Freedom” was a watchword of the hippie sixties, when people tuned in and dropped out, abandoned taboos, and did their own thing. Echoes of that lifestyle remain. While the pull back to “slavery” is strong, so is the pull towards “lawlessness”.

Freedom in Christ does not give us the right to please ourselves and ignore the wishes of God and other people (5:13-15). We should not impose our “freedom” in such a way that makes others slaves to our whims and desires.

The message of Galatians is clear for today: we should let the Bible be our guide, we should trust Christ and not any of our own works for salvation, and we should live by allowing the Spirit to make us “fruitful”. Paul’s letter also encourages Christians to use their freedom in Christ responsibly.