Would You Be Free? 

Remember that great old gospel song that started, “Would you be free from the burden of sin, there’s power in the blood, power in the blood, Would you o’er evil a victory win, there’s wonderful power in the blood!” Paul starts off this section with an even older hit. “There’s Power in the Law.” Have you heard this one? It goes like this. “Would you throw off all the freedom of grace, there’s power in the law, power in the law, You can be saved by your own steady pace, there’s back-slapping power in the law!”  Could be the next hit. Let’s face it, there are some good things about choosing to live under the law. First, there’s a list of rules to follow every moment of every day. Second, you can always give yourself praise for keeping the rules better than others. Well, there is that nasty truth that some keep it better than you, but just stuff that thought and move on. Finally, you can pat yourself on the back every day for your salvation, because clearly you did that yourself by keeping the rules. True? 

No! Paul asks the Galatians, do you even listen to the law? Do you actually know what it says? In other words and to echo Jesus’ question to the Pharisees, “Have you not read? Have you not heard?” Did you not hear the fine print, the final clause of the contract in the law that seals your eternal destination? If you break one law, Jesus said, you are guilty of breaking them all. Period. Think of it this way. Under the law is what you do for God to make yourself right with Him. Under grace is what God did for you in His Son to make you right with Him. Under the law relies solely on your perfect performance. Under grace relies solely on Jesus’ perfect sacrifice. Under the law are fig leaves that cannot even begin to cover your sin. Under grace is the precious and imperishable blood of Jesus that completely washes your sin away. 

Paul tells the Galatians what has been written, and goes back again to the time of Abraham as exhibit A. Back to the very Scriptures that the Judaizers claimed to stand on. They likely were telling the Galatians, “You say you are sons of Abraham because you believe in Christ, but you are not sons of Abraham unless you keep the law of Moses! All of it.” So Paul turns those tables over by reminding them that Abraham had two sons: one was born by a slave woman and one by a free woman. So there are two ways to be related to Abraham, a right way and a wrong way. 

You remember the story. God told Abraham when he was 75 years old to leave his homeland and everything he had known and go to a place he knew nothing about. There, God promised, He would make Abraham a great nation. So he left Ur with his wife Sarah and they traveled 1200 miles to Canaan. There, God promised to give the land to Abraham’s offspring. But he had no offspring. And after Abraham and Sarah had lived in Canaan for ten years, they still had no children. In fact it would be 25 years between the promise and the fulfillment. So Sarah decided that though she still believed God, she needed to help God out with keeping His promise. She attempted to do that through a scheme of the flesh, by giving Hagar, her servant, to Abraham her husband so, as she put it, “I shall obtain children by her.” Abraham obviously also had issues that included not trusting God’s timing as well, so he doesn’t argue. He sleeps with Hagar, who gives birth to Ishmael. Then Hagar looks at Sarah with contempt, because Sarah is still childless. The family is in a total mess now because the whole act was born out of fear and unbelief. But God. But God was patient, and 14 years later, when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 and still barren, God fulfilled his promise and Isaac was born. The son of promise. 

Do you see in Galatians that Paul is teaching us there are two opposite approaches to God? One leads to death and one leads to life. We can try to come to Him through law or by grace. Through the flesh or by the Spirit. Through self-reliance or through divine dependence. 

Would you be free? Stand on grace through faith.