Freedom in Christ
The Apostle Paul said to the Galatians—and to us as well—"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).
Basically, Paul is saying: Jesus has set you free, so rest in Him. Why in the world would you ever go back to living without Him?
The Galatians were on the verge of abandoning the Gospel. A handful of false teachers had corrupted the church, and so Paul told them emphatically, “Stand firm!”
In the Bible, God never calls us to do anything without first giving us the power to do it. Notice how Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” That’s the indicative—a true, factual statement of what Christ has done. Because Jesus has accomplished the work and set us free, now we are called to live out the imperative—stand firm.
Simply put, we are not standing firm on our own. We stand firm because of Jesus and His work on our behalf. We cannot resist slavery by our own strength. Only the life-giving work of Jesus can set captives free (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18). So, if we are free in Christ, we are called to stand firm in Him.
There is freedom in a relationship with Jesus. And where there is freedom, Paul exhorts the Galatians: Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
In Paul’s day, a “yoke” was a wooden harness fastened around an ox’s neck to pull a heavy cart. It was a strain. A burden. The ox couldn’t move freely under its weight.
Paul’s point is clear: without Christ, we carry a yoke—a heavy burden of sin, guilt, and striving to earn God’s favor on our own. The Galatians had been set free by the Gospel. They were following Jesus, but now, distracted by false teaching, they were about to willingly place the yoke of slavery back around their necks.
So Paul cries out to them and us, "What are you doing? Don’t go back! In Jesus, there is freedom; apart from Him, there is only the heavy burden of slavery.”
In Christ, we are free. Don’t go back.
Each of us needs to pray and ask: What yoke am I tempted to submit to again?
For some, it could be a particular sin. For others, the struggle to let go of guilt and shame. Maybe it’s being enslaved to the approval of others. Bondage wears many masks. But freedom is found in one place—Jesus Christ.
Don’t go back.
The Father loves us so much that He sent His Son into the world to live the perfect life we could never live, to die the death we deserved, and to rise from the dead so that we could be truly free—given abundant life now and for eternity.
There is freedom. There is freedom in Christ!
