Day 115: How Have We Been Set Free Through The Spirit? PT02
Today, we continue to discuss how the Spirit has set us free to live an entirely NEW WAY of LIFE. The Spirit has set us free, not so we can serve ourselves, but so we can serve one another.
WORDwork:
Galatians 5:13–26
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another. 5:14 For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”
5:15 However, if you continually bite and devour one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another. 5:16 But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.
What have we been called to?
What should we use our freedom for?
How can the whole Law be summed up?
What will happen if we “live by the Spirit”?
In Galatians 5:1, Paul told us that Christ set us free “for freedoms sake.” Now, he reminds us that we are called to this freedom. Our freedom is both a “free from” and a “free for” or “free to.” We could summarize this important truth that appears throughout the New Testament as:
- We have been set free from the enslaving, powerless Law, so that
- We can be free to pursue goodness and righteousness in the new life of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, etc.
Paul develops this key concept most clearly in Romans 6-7. There he makes the case that since we have died with Christ—remember, we have been united to Christ through faith—our “body of sin” has been destroyed so that we no longer have to be enslaved to the power of sin (see Romans 6:1-7). We have also been united with Christ in the power of His resurrection (see Romans 6:8-11) and just as Christ has been raised to a new way of life, so also have we:
Romans 6:11
So you too consider yourselves dead to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Paul makes one more point in Romans 7 that helps us understand his view of our freedom and our relationship to the Law:
Romans 7:5–6
For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 7:6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.
If you think back to our last workbook, Rooted and Growing in Christ, we discussed these key truths in some detail there. Now we can dig a little deeper and talk more about the practical effects of these truths.
Back to the Galatians passages, Paul emphasizes that we have truly been set free, but we should use that freedom for serving one another in love. Yesterday, we heard, “the only thing that matters if faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Remember: the whole Law can be summed up, fulfilled in ONE command: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” Love is the fulfillment of the Law (Romans 13:8, 10).
Love is the highest and greatest Christlike virtue. It is the one reality that reveals the deepest facet of the Lord God’s character because, “God is love” (1 John 4:16). The Law can never empower us to love. But now, through the presence and empowerment of God’s own Spirit, we are free from the Law so that we are free to love.
Finally, Paul tells us, “live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.” We will go into more detail on this tomorrow. For now, simply realize that In Christ, you have been given the Holy Spirit and His presence and power enables you to live a type of life that is beyond your “natural” ability. You have been set free from the powerless Law to be free to live in the new life of the Spirit!
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
