The Law, the Christ, the Promise With R. L. SolbergSample

We have been called to freedom, Paul says, but don’t think that translates into license to do whatever we want. We tend to view freedom as a lack of rules, responsibilities, and obligations. It’s often linked to financial freedom. We think if we were rich, we could be truly free. We wouldn’t have to “work for the man” or play by society’s rules: we could come and go as we please, travel wherever and whenever we want, and eat at the fanciest restaurants. There would be no limits for us! . . .

Jesus did not set us free from the law in the sense that we no longer have moral obligations. He didn’t release us from our responsibility to obey Him. The fact that Christians are no longer under the law does not mean that we are now free to sin; it means we’re now free from sin. The law chained us to our sin and offered no avenue of escape. This is why it required sin sacrifices to be continually repeated year after year. The law was a guardian that could not release us from our sin, but only remind us of it (Heb. 10:1–4). As Paul wrote earlier, “Now that this faith [in Jesus] has come, we are no longer under a guardian” (Gal. 3:25). Christ freed us from the law with his “once for all” sacrifice, but we still serve God. . . .

Believers are called to live lives of obedience and “serve one another humbly in love” (5:13). Jesus commanded, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). He taught the kind of self-sacrificial, other-focused love that “enslaves” us to one another in the highest sense of freedom. Paul said the faith that saves and justifies us “is faith expressing itself through love” (5:6). Therefore, freedom in Christ does not lead to license but to love.

Prayer

Lord, thank You for sending Jesus to free me from my sins. Help me to love others well as a reflection of my gratitude. Amen.