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Food for Thought: Freedom, Such a Precious Word

Memorial Day 2006

Dr. Mark Ruppert

Galatians 5:1

Whenever I hear the word “Freedom” my mind goes to one of the last scenes of the film, Bravehart, starring Mel Gibson.  Maybe you too remember that scene:  Mel Gibson, playing the great liberator of Scotland, William Wallace, is being tortured to death in London.  Wallace will not admit his guilt in front of the angry English mob, and as they, well, you watch the movie and even though the blood and guts are not actually shown, you know very well what is happening to him, as he dies a horrific death, his last word ever uttered was FREEDOM.  It was Wallace’s dying word that sent a message to the English, that though they have their eyes set on killing him in a barbaric fashion, they will not kill his spirit and the Freedom that the Scottish people so desperately fought for.  I still remember being in Scotland in the spring of ’98 with a group from our church and some of the other Middlebury churches and we were hearing about the historic event that would eventually occur on July 1, 1999.
For on that day, for the first time in 300 years, there was a return to Scotland of its own parliament as the new Scottish Parliament opened.  In a way the Scots have always been working for their freedom from the British and that day, July 1, 1999, was monumental for them.

Freedom is such a precious word.  All we need do is go back in history and ask what FREEDOM meant to the French, the Czechoslovakians, the Hungarians, the Jews and others at the end of World War II; or what FREEDOM meant to those who were oppressed in this country due to slavery or those who lived in South Africa under apartheid.  Freedom is such a precious word, especially when you do not have it.

It is sad to say but I don’t believe I really have a firm handle on what my freedom means.  I have an idea since I am able to live in a free land where people are not forcing me to do things that are against my will.  I have never had anyone tell me that I cannot worship in the manner I see fit.  I have never had a group of people telling me what ideologies I have to buy into.

Freedom is a word that is thrown around today and has been touted by our forefathers and foremothers who came to this great land seeking freedom of religion.  Why there are the four famous freedoms that came from the lips of President Roosevelt in 1941 when he talked about freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.  I really think it is only when freedom is stripped away from someone do they then understand what that word truly means.

This weekend is Memorial Day Weekend when we pause to remember and pay tribute to our nation’s military dead.  The origination of this U. S. holiday is debated as some have said it began on May 30, 1868 when a General John a. Logan, who was head of the Grand Army of the Republic, called on his men to spread flowers on the graves on their comrades who had fallen in the Civil War.

Others have insisted that the first Memorial Day took place in Waterloo, N.Y. on May 5, 1866, when village flags were flown at half-staff.  It was in 1966 when the U. S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution formally recognizing Waterloo’s claim to be the “birthplace of Memorial Day” and May 30 was chosen as the day for it’s celebration.

The Apostle Paul has something to say in our passage today concerning freedom.  He begins Galatians 5 by saying in verse 1, “For freedom Christ has set us free.”  What is the context that set up this statement in 5:1?  Well, look with me at Galatians 4:21-31.  In this passage Paul uses an allegory, which was a popular style of teaching among Jewish rabbis.  He even states in verse 24 that what he is about to say is an allegory.  Does he mean that this story is unhistorical?  No.  What he does mean is that in this allegory there is a religious meaning that goes beyond the literal account. 
It is the story of Abraham, his wife Sarah who was too old to bear children, and Sarah’s slave girl, Hagar, whom Sarah gave to Abraham for her to conceive a child for him since she is too old. Hagar bears a son, Ishmael.  But guess what?  Something miraculous happens.  Sarah, then over 90 years of age bears a son and his name is Isaac.  The point of telling this story is this.  Hagar is a slave.  Sarah is free.  There were two covenants that flowed from them: Hagar represents the Covenant of Law and corresponds to the present Jerusalem.  Sarah represents the Covenant of Promise and corresponds to the Jerusalem on high.  What Paul would argue was that the present or earthly Jerusalem was where the center of religion was found but it was a religion of bondage and God was found in the Temple, all shut up.  He saw worship as being dead; it had ceased to be spiritual and had become a religion of legalism and the law.  But those who would acknowledge Jesus Christ as Messiah, Savior and Lord and by faith, received His grace, would claim the Jerusalem from above. 
And that is what leads Paul to write in Galatians 5;1, “For freedom Christ has set us free.  Stand firm,, therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”  Paul wanted those Galatian Christians to accept the freedom that was there for the taking, the freedom that comes from Christ and to not be reshackled by the bondage of the law.  God, in His infinite wisdom sent His only Son so that we could have allegiance to Him and not a set of rules and regulations.  No longer is the Christian bound to the taskmasters like sin, the law and death.  We are set free.  Paul had a message of grace and that Christ is the source of that grace.  And as a result of the grace of Jesus Christ there freedom in our lives.

What is the nature of this freedom?  First, there is the freedom from.  From what?  From the law.  Paul says in verse 4, “You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ.”  God sent His Son to redeem those who were under the law.

So if they were tied to the law we would never understand and experience the freedom of Christ, freedom from sin and evil.  Paul knew that sin had not only had a terrific impact on human nature, which made us slaves to our passions, but sin had affected the entire universe.   And that is why God did something absolutely out of this world.  God sent His Son to die on a criminal’s cross and lay bare His suffering heart.  It is as if all of us, all of creation are in a bondage to sin until, by God’s gift of grace, which is His only Son, we receive him in faith and we are set free.  Set free….
         Second, there is a freedom to.  To what?  Freedom to belong to the family of God.  Turn with me to Galatians 4:7 where Paul tells us about this belonging.  Paul writes, “So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.  Look a little bit further back at what Paul says leading up to Galatians 4:7.  

Look with me beginning at Galatians 4:1-7.  Paul says, “My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father.  So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world.  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.  And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba!  Father!’  So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.”  People, if we are believers in Christ we are the adopted daughters and sons of God, we are heirs, there is the freedom of belonging to the family of God.

I know there are people in our church who are adopted.  There are people in our church who have adopted grandchildren, adopted nieces and nephews.  I have a nephew who is adopted.

My brother and sister-in-law went to Vietnam and adopted their first son, Jeremy.  I still remember the day I baptized him.  There he was all dressed up in a handsome Vietnamese traditional outfit that made him look more like a prince than a baby going to be baptized.  I still remember prior to when I baptized him I looked at little Jeremy in my arms and quoted John 15:16 where Jesus said to His disciples, “You did not choose me but I chose you.”  And Jesus says the same to you and to me.

The question for us to answer is do we belong to Christ?  Have we found the freedom, the unbelievable freedom that he brings to us?  Freedom to live a new life and knowing no matter what we have been like, what we have done in the past and most recent that His love is for the taking, His freedom has no cost other than His very own life involved.  Christ gives us a freedom that is out of this world because it is a freedom from sin and despair and destruction and hopelessness.

Jacques Ellul shares the following on Christian liberty when he writes in his book, The Ethics of Freedom, “The freedom which is given in Christ is radical insecurity from the human standpoint or from that of social structures and technical and political forces.  For our only security is Christ.  If, however, we seek and even accept some other protection or security, e. g., that of the state, or wealth, or social security, or socialism, or violence, or revolution, or justice, this will be a repudiation of our security in Christ and consequently it will be alienation of our freedom.  There can be no compromise here…. Freedom is both supreme insecurity and yet, as the whole of the OT reminds us, it is the only true security. (pp. 97-98).

Yes, Freedom is such a precious word.  I leave you with a picture of freedom that only portrays just how precious it is.  It was in the newspaper back in the mid-1950s during the height of the civil rights movement.  “A black man, who was said to be over a hundred years old, was being carried on the shoulders of a group of young men.  They were taking him up the steps of a courthouse in a Southern town to register to vote.  The caption beneath the picture said he was born a slave.  To a marked degree he had remained a slave, even after the Emancipation Proclamation.  Unable to vote, subjected to the rigid discriminatory demands and tests of others, he was kept in subjection.  But now he was free and the look on his face showed his joy.  He was going to express his freedom, his release from the humiliation of being a second-class citizen, by registering to vote.  That man could have understood Paul’s word.” (The Communicator’s Commentary, Galatians,…, Dunnman, p. 96) Friends, there were others just like him who sang during the days of the civil rights movement something that went like this, “Free at last, free at last!  Thank God Almighty I’m free at last.”  Paul was preaching freedom in Christ, there is nothing sweeter.  Amen. 

Key Points

Introduction: A scene from Braveheart, staring Mel Gibson

Do we really have a firm handle on what freedom means?

Memorial Day- the origination…

May 30, 1868
May 5, 1866

The Apostle Paul has something to say concerning freedom

Galatians 4:21-31, an allegory- Abraham, Sarah, Hagar

Hagar is a slave
Sarah is free

Galatians 5:1

What is the nature of this freedom?

First, there is the freedom ______               5:4

Second, there is freedom _____          Gal. 4:1-7

John 15:16

Do we belong to Christ?  Have we found the freedom that He brings to us?

Conclusion: a picture of freedom from the mid-1950s.  “Free at last, free at last!  Thank God Almighty I’m free at last.”

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)