1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5:1–6, ESV)

This is a critical and fresh passage because it answers some lingering questions about what the gospel of grace will inevitably produce. If I gain a good standing before God based entirely on trust in the work of Christ, then doesn't that mean I can go on living however I'd like to live? If God adopts me through Christ's merit and not my own, doesn't that give me the license to live as I want? Doesn't the Bible say something about holy and righteous living after trusting Christ? Isn't God a holy God who wants holy people? So isn't the freedom found in the gospel of grace radically impractical and permissive?

Paul wrote the last third of his letter to the Galatians to answer these objections. At this point, he has dealt fully with their personal attacks against and theological objections to the gospel of grace he preached (Gal. 1-4). But now Paul begins his ethical defense of the gospel of grace, showing us what kind of person it produces. In this first paragraph, we will learn that the gospel produces incredible freedom—and we are expected to protect and enjoy that freedom. How?

1. Stand On Christ (1)

Christ, Our Liberator

The first step to enjoying gospel freedom is to stand on Christ. In the first verse of this new section, Paul said, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (1). Here, Paul tells us in a dense little sentence about the freedom Christ won for us.

How did Christ set us free (1)? The answer is on the cross. Galatians has told us as much (Gal 2:17-21, 3:13). But from what did Christ set us free? The surrounding passages before and after this verse demand a specific answer. Christ set us free from the law by fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law that we had no hope of keeping on our own.

So Christ set us free from the law, but why did he set us free? What was his goal or purpose in freeing us? Paul said it was for freedom that Christ did his work of amazing grace (1). His goal was for us to not only be set free but to continue on in freedom. As one translation put it, "Christ set us free to be free" (NEB).

This freedom is important to understand correctly because our modern world, including many Christians, thinks of freedom as the ability to do whatever they please. But simple observation and experience demonstrate this is not freedom at all. The nature of the human condition is to become enslaved when we do whatever we please. The Bible presents an alternate and truer version of freedom.

"Human beings are truly free when they are no longer under the dominion of natural desires. Those who are constrained by natural desires are not free but slaves, whereas those who live in love are liberated to serve others, so that slavery to the will of God is perfect freedom." —Thomas Schreiner[^1]

It's not hard to imagine someone exercising freedom by indulging in an appetite of some kind, only to find themselves enslaved to the thing they freely chose. Our world is full of support groups for people addicted to drugs, alcohol, nicotine, pornography, gambling, junk food, unhealthy body image, and a cacophony of self-damaging practices. These constraining habits begin as freedoms but easily turn into addictions because freedom from constraint of any kind is not true freedom.

What Paul refers to is freedom from the law, which sets us free for God. By the gospel, we are no longer enslaved to a performance-based standing before God, so now we are free to live in the way God made us to live. We are free to enjoy and respond and experience him.

If you go back to Genesis 3, you'll discover Adam and Eve in communion and fellowship and freedom before God. But through sin, they lost their freedom, and life changed dramatically for the worse. Their experience could be compared to taking a fish out of water—they were no longer in the environment for which they were made. But, through the gospel, we are set free from that environment that distanced us from God and brought back into closeness with him. We are free from the tyranny of the law and the constant struggle to keep it as a way to win God's favor. We are now living in the way God designed us to live—free to enjoy him.

Stand In His Freedom

And Paul tells us here that it is Christ's intention that we enjoy that freedom—that we stay free! Christ set us free so that we could be free, and Paul even warns that we must stand firm in that freedom and refuse to submit again to a yoke of slavery (1).

Paul's warning that we stand firm and not submit to slavery again is surprising. His statement that Christ set us free for freedom is so resounding, so strong, and so clear that we might think there is no danger of losing it. But Paul knew that, despite the divine source of freedom, humans are prone to legalism and can slip from the beautiful position Christ won for us. Soon, the same feelings of guilt, shame, and misery creep right back in. Like a prisoner who chooses to remain imprisoned because it is what he knows, we often drift back into a works-based relationship with God because it is what we know, so Paul tells us to maintain the freedom Christ won for us. Just as Joshua led Israel into victory but then told them to be sure not to become enslaved to the nations around them, so we have been led into freedom by Jesus, and now he wants us to resist becoming enslaved again to the law.

So Paul tells us to stand firm in and on what Christ has done for us. There is no other work we need to be approved before God.

2. Remain In Grace (2-4)

A Warning

Paul continues on in his encouragement that we enjoy our freedom in Christ by urging us to remain in grace. To exhort us in this way, Paul pointed out the high cost of going back to works as a way to get God's favor. He warned us when he wrote, "Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace" (2-4). Some of you might wonder why Paul is writing about something so private and awkward as circumcision. Why does Paul move into this delicate and personal subject matter?

The problem was that the false teachers in Galatia told the men in the church that they needed to be circumcised in order to gain God's acceptance. Their teaching is summed up in Acts: "Unless you are circumcised and keep the law, you cannot be saved" (see Acts 15:1, 5). Circumcision was the big act they used to communicate that faith in Christ was insufficient for salvation. You must do something, and for them, that action was circumcision. But circumcision could be a stand-in for any practice or viewpoint someone says you must do or have to be accepted by God.

Stay In Grace

But Paul warned that taking up a practice like this has terrible consequences. Christ is of no advantage when you add to the gospel. You are actually severed from Christ. And you become obligated to keep the whole law—something the legalists might not have told the Galatians (3). And, perhaps worst of all, adding works to the gospel as a way to be approved before God means that someone has fallen away from grace (4).

In context, Paul does not mean a loss of salvation. He has steadily written all about the danger of adding law-keeping to the gospel. And when you move towards a works-based relationship with God, you depart from a grace-oriented way of relating to God. You leave the sphere of grace.

And to leave the sphere of grace might be a strong indication that you never knew true grace in the first place but merely claimed with your lips that you knew Christ. So this warning is a strong one. The word Paul used for "fall away" is also used to describe being shipwrecked or blown completely off course. And this happens today, for example, when a believer leaves a church that emphasizes salvation by grace through faith to join one that says salvation depends on the quality of your repentance, a specific confession, baptism, or church membership. They have fallen from grace!

Let us remain in—stay in—the sphere of grace. Let's allow the grace and love of God to make us confident and free before him. Let's allow his grace to melt away the ice of fear and insecurity before him. The Christian life begins by believing in the love and grace that God freely offers, but it continues that way as well. Believing—continually—in the love and grace that God freely offers sets off a series of explosive and wonderful results in a Christian's life, so we must remain in grace.

3. Wait For Righteousness (5)

The Innermost Desire Of True Believers

But Paul went on to tell us that to enjoy our freedom in Christ, we should also wait for righteousness. He said, "For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness" (Gal. 5:5). Paul means that gospel-believing people, all those who have trusted in Christ's work to make them right in God's sight, will look forward in great anticipation to Christ's return, for a very specific reason. Though the Bible gives us many good reasons to long for Christ's return, this passage tells us we long for it because it is when we will experience the righteousness God granted to us when we believed in his Son.

And this is what someone who is drawn to the gospel wants more than anything. The gospel message declares that God can fix the problem of sin within. But even after we trust Christ, we still have an ongoing battle with sin. Later in Galatians, Paul refers to a war between our flesh and the Spirit of God within us. The flesh is the body of sin we all inhabit. Conscious and experienced in the ways of sin, the flesh struggles against the newness we have in Christ.

But when the new creation arrives with Jesus, so will our appearance with him as totally new creatures. As John said,

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2, ESV)

Think of it! When Jesus returns for his bride, believers will be changed into total Christlikeness—not in divinity, but in character, sinlessness, and purity. All things are new right now for the Christian, but on that day, perpetual newness will be our lived reality. Sin will never decay us ever again. We will be totally conformed in every facet of our character to God's will. There will be no blind spots, no secret corners in the recesses of our hearts, and no failure of any kind.

It reminds me of a phrase about music from back in the day. Before the internet gave us amazing services that provided on-demand music at our fingertips, the way we got music was either on the radio or by purchasing a CD, a tape, an album, or an 8-track. Music labels often released a total jam to the radio stations, and it made you want to buy the whole record. But we were often disappointed to discover that the rest of the tracks weren't anywhere close to as good as the hit. But some bands were the exception, and when you got your hands on their albums, so many of the songs were great. And the phrase we had for CDs like that was "all killer, no filler."

Well, on the day we enter into glory with Christ, it will be all killer, no filler. There will be no gaps in our character. There will be no secret sin. Even temptation itself will be a distant memory. All hits, all day.

A Beautiful Life Is Produced

And this hope that Paul mentions here is a beautiful one. And please don't mistake what he meant—in the Bible, hope is a confident expectation and anticipation of something God has already promised. It is sure. It is coming. It is happening. It is assurance. It is certainty (Heb. 11:1).

This confident expectation that we will one day be glorified into the image of Christ is a great protection for our freedom in Christ.

• On one hand, it protects us from legalism. People who are looking forward to becoming fully like Jesus when he returns know how silly it is to try to become perfected by legalism. Little rules cannot bring us all the way to our final destination.
• On the other hand, it protects us from license. Since Jesus-like righteousness is our hope and expectation, the very thing we are on the edge of our seats to receive, continuing in sin makes absolutely no sense to us today. Why would I want to engage in that which is so unlike my Lord, so unrighteous, when the thing I am longing for more than anything is to become righteous?

Paul said we, by faith, eagerly wait for this moment to come (5). I recently saw a video that depicts eager anticipation well. In a strip mall parking lot, someone filmed a dog in a neighboring car. Its owner had just parked in front of a bank, gotten out, and gone inside. The dog never lost sight of that bank entrance. Sitting in the driver's seat, it placed its paws on the horn of the car and began simultaneously barking and honking for its owner to return. Eager.

With an eager spirit like that within us, one that is looking forward to our final and great transformation, we are bound to stay free from slavery to sin and the law.

4. Respond Through Love (6)

Neither Religion Nor Lack Of Religion

Finally, Paul tells us to maintain and enjoy our freedom in Christ by responding through love. He wrote, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6). What Paul means is that being irreligious or very religious doesn't produce real fruit anyhow. The best motivation for good works and righteous living is not through intimidation, boundaries, or warnings but a radical appreciation for what Christ has done. When a person sees the cross clearly, they do begin working, but it is love that motivates their work (6).

A person under grace no longer does good works as a way to earn merit or standing before God. Instead, they carry out acts of love—things like devotion to God and service to others—because they have been so impressed and impacted by God's love.

Faith Working Through Love

Notice how Paul saw it—faith works through love (6). It has been said that faith alone saves, but that saving faith is never alone. True faith is trust in what Christ has done. And the revelation required to see what Christ has done leads to a love for God. And love for God leads to a strong desire to be like Jesus and serve him. So we respond through love (6). Our faith works through love.

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). What does that mean? Perhaps it is like a parent who tells their child, "If you love me, you'll take care of yourself. Please take care of your health, your finances, your education." In a similar way, Christ says, "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments," because his commandments are the best thing for us.

Unfortunately, we are often like children who say, "If you loved me, you would let me do whatever I want to do." Or we think that because we love ourselves, we will treat ourselves to whatever desire enters our minds. But many of our desires are the worst things for us and do not lead to human flourishing. Love, however, obeys Christ because his word is the best for us.

In Exodus, God continually told Pharaoh to let his people go so that they might serve him (Ex. 7:16). God didn't want to free Israel just so they could do whatever they wanted—that's not freedom! The only way to truly be free is to submit to God. But his love shows us he is worthy of our submission.

Perhaps an example of love being a great motivation would be to consider the difference between a nanny and a mother. A mother will, of course, tire of her work as a parent, but love will drive her. And though a nanny might genuinely love a child in their care, they have hours and receive pay for their efforts, and they could never love as the mother does. Paul said, "Christ's love compels us," and it is this compelling love that serves as our best motivation for good works (2 Cor. 5:14, HCSB). Love is much better than law.

Conclusion

It is important to note what Paul is doing in this paragraph and the coming section in Galatians because many misunderstand. When they read Galatians 5-6, they think Paul is providing needed balance to the radical gospel of grace, as if he finally noticed that he went a little too far and now needs to reign in God's people. But that is not at all what Paul has done here. He is not providing a balance to grace but perspective and clarity on what it produces in a person's life.

In Greek mythology there is the famous story of Odysseus and three Sirens, humanlike beings with angelic voices. Sailors would pass by the islands they occupied and find themselves drawn towards their singing, only to die when they crashed upon the rocks. Odysseus wanted to hear their song, however, so he had himself tied to mast while putting wax in the ears of his sailors. Under no circumstances were they to untie his ropes until they were well clear of the islands. And his plan worked; he heard their songs, although he was tormented by his inability to go towards them.

But there is another story of a sailor named Jason. His method was to employ a talented musician named Orpheus to captivate his men while they passed by the islands of the Sirens. As long as Orpheus played, his crew would only hear his beautiful song—they could not hear the deadly song of the Sirens—and their lives were preserved.[^2] This is a good picture of the life we can have in Christ. We can respond in love to all God has done for us. The beautiful song of the gospel is a far greater motivation than the binding ropes or blocking wax of the law.

To Paul, saving faith produces a beautiful life. When a person is drawn to the gospel, it is because they appreciate—at least to some degree—what Jesus has done. In some real sense, they have become appreciative of Christ's cross and all it provides: forgiveness, cleansing, sonship, newness, and acceptance before God. They are moved by grace and want God to remake them. For a person like this, abusing grace is unimaginable because it makes you less like Jesus, less holy, and less clean in a practical and experiential sense. And that's the last thing a person who gets grace wants. They have been decimated by their sin—they don't want to continue in it and turn to God to help them overcome it. And because God loved them, they respond in acts of love to him and the people whom he loves.

[^1]: Schreiner, Thomas R. 2010. Galatians. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [^2]: Bos, Carole. n.d. “Odysseus and the Sirens.” AwesomeStories.Com. Accessed March 18, 2023. http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Odysseus-and-the-Sirens.