Galatians 5:1, ‘It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you’.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free. We need to stand firm in the freedom God had given us; not to be subject again to a yoke of slavery. We all know about the yoke which we have in our spiritual lives.
Galatians 4:23, ‘But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise’.
Through this flesh, we are getting into bondage, each day. God does not want any one of us to be in this bondage, in any areas of our lives. We all might have started well in our spiritual life.
Galatians 3: 1-3, ‘You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?’
We cannot be perfected by our flesh, having begun by the Spirit.
Galatians 4:30, ‘But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.” 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.
We need to cast out the bandage that is there. We are the children of the free woman. Do not be yoked by the bondage of sin again. Abraham had to cast out Hagar and Ishmael.
Galatians 5:3 -5, ‘And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law’.
Whoever has the circumcision, he is under the obligation to keep the law.
V4, ‘You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace’.
If you have severed from the relationship with Christ, then you have fallen from grace.
V5, ‘For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness’.
Bible says, ‘the righteous shall live by faith’. We through the Spirit, by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness. God wants us to be free of bondage, whether it is fear, sickness or anything which is hindering us from walking with fulness of Spirit in light. We need to cut off anything which is leading us into bondage; even the relationships also, which are hindering.
Luke 4:16 – 20, ‘And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” 20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him’.
Jesus read a portion from the Scripture from Isaiah. Jesus Christ came to preach the Gospel and release those who are captives and to bring recovery of sight to the blind and to set free those who are oppressed.
V21, ‘And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”’
Jesus is saying, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, I came to fulfill this Scripture’. The Jews there were looking at Him that He was speaking with freedom.
V24, ‘And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown’. V25, ‘But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow’.
Elijah was sent to a woman who was a widow, she was not a Jew.
V27, ‘And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”’
The healing of Naaman, we see in
2 Kings 5:1, ‘Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and highly respected, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram’.
It is through Naaman, God gave victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper. He was highly respected and was a great man with his master. Outwardly he was a great man of valor, he was very strong but he has leprosy that needs to be healed. Naaman had a heart to get well from his leprosy; though he had some frustrations, when he met with Elisha. There was a servant girl who was captured from Israel. She led Naaman to Elisha.
V2, ‘Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.”’
We see the heart of this Israelite servant girl. She wished her master well. Though the master was evil, she wished him well.
4 Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.”’
The king of Israel felt oppression from the king of Aram, when he saw the letter. Elisha heard and sent word to the king, that Naaman be sent to him. Now when Naaman went to meet Elisha, Elisha sent a messenger to tell him to ‘go and wash in the Jordan river seven times, and he will be restored and will be clean’. But Naaman was furious as he had expected the man of God would personally come to him and touch and heal him by calling on the name of the Lord his God. He was expecting a special treatment and respect from Elisha! The servant girl was again asking him to listen to him and led him to do what he said.
V13, ‘Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”’
Then Naaman came to his terms and repented and coming down, he went and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan.
V14, ‘So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean’.
When Naaman came down, came to terms with himself and repented and listened to the servant girl, we see the restoration happening to him.
Two areas we are encouraged to have:
- The servant girl leading Naaman to the Prophet. The heart she had that her master should be free from the leprosy.
- The heart of Naaman; even though he was frustrated with the prophet, he also had a strong desire to get well, to freed from his leprosy.
There should be a strong desire in our hearts to be free from the sin. Have a cry in your heart to the Lord to make you free whatever slavery you have. God will use you when we put down our pride, self-high thoughts, come down and submit ourselves to God. Naaman also came down and submitted to the Word of the prophet and his skin was restored as a small child! This is the deliverance which he got in his body.
Jesus Christ came into this world as a servant God. He did not come to save only Jews but for the heathen and gentiles also; for you and me! He wants us to be free from all the bondages, whether they are sickness, disease, the areas in our lives which are holding us back from coming close towards our Lord. Let us test our faith and examine our position – which standard, we are in. The situations in our lives, really reveal where we stand and what is our heart’s condition. Test and see if Jesus Christ is in you. He gives the freedom. Let us not drift away from Him. Do not go back into the slavery from which you were freed.
Whenever there were any issues – when they were hungry or thirsty, Israelites would grumble and complain in their heart and they wanted to go back into the slavery again! At the time of hardness, distress, thoughts come that the time of slavery was better. We should not be like the Israelites who grumbled in the wilderness and were laid low because of their rebellious heart. Let us come to the Lord and put everything at the feet of Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever bondages we are having, the fears and unbelief that we have in our hearts, let us come and boldly approach the Lord. Do not be yoked to slavery!
John 8:31, ‘So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”’
If we are continuing in the Word; ‘when we read the Word and the Holy Spirit prompts us, to come into that freedom, we need to accept the Lord, the Word that He speaks to us’ This is the continuity we need to have. Accept the Word, take the cross and accept Lord Jesus Christ, in our day to day lives. When we continue in doing this, then we are truly His disciples, and we will have better knowledge of Jesus Christ in our daily lives. This truth will set us free. Free from all the slavery and bondage to sin. Praise God. Lord Jesus Christ, set us free from the bindings of Satan and released us from his power.
Galatians 2:4, ‘But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage’.
Some false brethren secretly sneaked in and were spying the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage – When we are enjoying the freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan might put some thoughts on something or the other and put us into bondage.
V5, ‘But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you’.
We need to be protected by His Word and the Holy Spirit, to be in the freedom and not give in to the thoughts put by Satan. We need to stay in our freedom, be firmly gripped to know is it from the Lord or from the Satan. When we do this, the truth of Gospel will remain in us. Thank God for His Holy Spirit who, each day we are given the freedom in our Lord Jesus Christ, to have fellowship with each other.
John 8:34, ‘Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin’.
Whoever commits sin, is slave of the sin.
V35, ‘The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever’
Slave does not remain forever but the son remains in the house forever.
V36, ‘So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.’
It is the Son; the Lord Jesus is the only one who can set us free. We are in His household. We are with Him always, so we need to find the freedom through Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:6, ‘knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;’
Our old self-life is crucified with him. Our body of sin is going away.
V7, ‘for he who has died is freed from sin.’
He who is submitted to the Lord, depending on Him and who had died to his passions and desires of this world is freed from sin.
V10, ‘For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.’
Jesus Christ died for all our sins, once for all and the life that He lives, lives to God. The life of full commitment to the Lord.
V14, ‘For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace’.
We claim this promise. Any area we are getting into bondage, it is only through; when we are under law and not grace.
Romans 7:4, ‘Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God’.
We are made to die to the law, so that we can join with Lord Jesus Christ and bear much fruit for God.
V5, ‘For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.’
The law is bringing in us, the sinful passions were working in our body, bringing fruit for death. This is not what God wants from us! We need to be joined with the Lord Jesus Christ, so we can bear much fruit and renounce the desires and passions which come in our lives.
V6, ‘But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter’.
We have died to that which we had already bound; so we are serving in the newness of the Holy Spirit and not through the oldness of the letter. Thank God for the Holy Spirit, we can have freedom in the newness of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:15, ‘For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”’
We have a Father in heaven. It is by His Holy Spirit; He is communicating with us. We are not to get bondage to fear again, as He has given us Holy Spirit, which is delivering us from all fear; we can come to the Lord and cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ – ‘My Daddy’. This gives us a heart of freedom, that we have a Daddy in heaven, who is taking care of all our spiritual needs. This is how we get renewed day by day and the comfort we are getting, is happening only through the Spirit of God, who is communicating in us. Thank God for the freedom, He is giving us; so, we can communicate with Him, as Abba! Father!
Galatians 5:1, ‘It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.’
Whatever the situations in our lives, we need to stand firm and should lead us to Christ and not to bondage! There might be chances that we might slip back to the old bondages of sin but stand firm! Let the Holy Spirit work in us, let us draw near to Him, knowing we have a Father in heaven, every day, He is lifting us up, when we cry out to Him.
Colossians 3:1, ‘Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God’.
If we are seeking to stand firm, we need to think about the things of the above. The world is leading us away from the Lord. The world offers only the lust and the passions and desires. This is going away. We need to immerse ourselves in the Lord so much, that we keep standing firm in the Lord.
V2, ‘Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’
Our life is hidden in the Lord. It is not like before – coming to the Lord freely, communicating with Him and going away; but now we are circumcised from within, inwardly, where we have accepted Lord Jesus Christ and living in the freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ. Inwardly, our life is hidden in God. The Lord is holding us, we are inside, in Him. When we stand in the Lord, we should not come out of the grip of the Lord.
V5, ‘Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.’
These are the things we need to consider our members of the body as dead; if we are standing firm in the Lord and do not want to get into bondage of slavery again. By these things the wrath of God comes on each one of us who is disobedient – not denying our self and not walking in the Lord.
V7, ‘and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
We should put everything aside -: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. There is the tendency where this old man, is coming back again and again. We need to closely watch our lives, not getting into slavery again. Do not lie in any instance. There is no partiality with our Lord. We need to cleansed, whoever we might be, whether – Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
When Jesus was reading the Word from Isaiah, it was mentioned that He did not come only for Jews. We have freedom in Christ and is available to all. We should not be in bondage of any form. Now it is up to us, whether to live in bondage of sin or be free in Christ.
Matthew 5:3, ‘“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’.
This poverty of Spirit and the need of the Spirit should be there in our hearts always. Come to the Lord every day asking for the fulness of the Spirit – as there are some areas in our lives which are trying to take control, but we are not going to let them control, we need the Holy Spirit power. This is how, we remain very poor in spirit and to those people, the kingdom of heaven is given. We need to have this sense of need in our heart to come into this freedom in Christ, to whom the Lord wants all of us to have. We need to have this confidence that we can conquer through Him. The Israelites had to conquer the giants in the promised land. They had to conquer slowly. In our personal lives also, in our spiritual lives, there are strong giants, we need to admit them but we know that one day we will be overcoming all those giants. This we can do only by the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is working in us, every day in our lives. It is by every day process where, we come to the Lord and cry for help and to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, so we can have the kingdom of heaven, right in our homes – among our brethren and wherever we are – at the places of work too! We need to come to Him.
Hebrews 3:14, ‘For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,’
We become partakers of Christ when we hold fast the beginning of our assurance, firm until the end that ‘whatever situations come, we believe we have a Father in heaven and He will take care of us’.
V12, ‘Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God’. V13, ‘But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin’.
We need to take our role in the Church by encouraging one another and warn each other through the Word, in the gatherings we have. There are areas, where we get entangled into sin as in the areas of anger. We need to be very careful. We know that the sin is very treacherous and leads into hardening of our hearts, very quickly. Slowly it leads into bondage. This is why we are to encourage one another daily and become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. This is how we get the nature of Christ, every day.
Hebrews 12:1, ‘Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,’
We need to shut out all those things which are easily coming in our daily lives, and easily entangles us and we become unaware! We need to be very careful in those areas. We all have a race to run in this world and we need to run with endurance. The way we run this race is by fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.
V2, ‘fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.’
Jesus endured the cross, for the joy set before Him. The joy in His heart was that He can have the fellowship with His Father. When we take this cross, we should also have this joy in our hearts that we can also have the fellowship with our Heavenly Father and the fellowship with the Lord will not be cut off.
Psalms 51:12, ‘Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit’.
There is a salvation every day. Let us have a spirit which is willing, sustain that joy of Salvation, in our hearts.
