Greetings,
It’s another glorious day the Lord has made. It is expected that as Christians we are no longer in bondage. We are totally free.
However, many don’t even know the basis of this freedom. Some think that they are free from sin because they strive to obey the words of God. These are people who live under the Law, they think that they can achieve their total freedom and attain righteousness before God by their own efforts. Sometimes we think that it is our own efforts that will bring us freedom.
Galatians 5:1-6 made us to understand that it was Christ who freed us to make us truly free. It further stressed that we should remain firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. The yoke of slavery being referred to here is the Law. Galatians 4:4-5 says that, “But when the fullness of time came, God sent his son. He was born as the son of a human mother and lived subject to the Jewish Law, in order to redeem those who are subjected to the Law and to make us adopted sons and daughters of God.”
Verse 7 of the same chapter told us that we are no longer slaves but sons of God and heirs by His Grace. This implies that the coming of Jesus to the world was to signify the end of the Law and beginning of a new kind of relationship with God. A relationship based on Grace and Freedom. For when we were under the law we were subject to so many bondages.
According to 2Corithianns 3:4-18, the scripture says the letter(law) kills but the spirit gives life. If you consider the case of the woman caught in the act of adultery and brought before Jesus by the Scribes and Pharisees, you will understand that if the law had been followed, she would have been stoned to death. However, it was Jesus, the living word who gave her life and secured her acquittal signifying freedom.
Someone might be thinking that why then did God give HIS LAWS to Moses? Galatians 4:1-3 answers that clearly. ‘As long as the heir is not of age, he is not different from a slave, although he is the owner of everything. He is subject to those who care for him and who are entrusted with his affairs until the time set by his father comes. In the same way we as children were first subjected to the created forces that govern the world. But when the fullness of time came God sent his son”
The above implies that God only gave us the Law pending the coming of Jesus. The created forces referred to in the above passage is the Law. Hence, now that Jesus Christ has come, we are now free by God’s grace and no longer subject to the law or need to walk by the law.
The law was made for those born of the flesh and not those born of the spirit. Hence, once we receive Christ and are born again, we are no longer of the flesh but the spirit. Christ has given us liberty, so we must enjoy it.
The Law brings punishment. Just like in our societies, a contravention of the law attracts a punishment. So, anyone who wishes to walk by the law will always be punished because there is no way on can carry out all the provisions of the law. However, walking under the grace offered by the birth of Jesus Christ, we are free. Just like Paul said in, Galatians 5:13-14, “I not speaking of that freedom which gives free rein to the desires of the flesh, but that which makes you slaves of one another through love. For the whole Law is summed in one statement: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
No one can achieve holiness and freedom by walking under the Law. It is not enough to say that I want to follow all the rules of God, the most important thing is to accept Jesus Christ as the only who can bring us to holiness with God, by so doing, we are admitting that we are weak and that only God’s grace can make us strong.
Finally, the transfiguration of Jesus Christ also signifies the passing away of the Law and the fact that only Christ brings salvation, holiness and freedom.
May the Grace of God be with us and may we be truly free.
NB: All Bible references are from The New Community Bible (Catholic Edition).
Reference was also made to Patrick Enega’s NO MORE CONDEMNATION: Woman, Arise and Be Healed.
With love. Stay free
Oyekan Oluwaseun O
Labake Blogs 