Explore the true meaning of freedom in Christ, where the unrestrained pursuit of God transforms lives. Learn to stand firm against interference, embrace grace, and live a life of love and service in the race of the Christian life.

Guarding the Gift of God’s Grace

“For freedom, Christ has set us free…” Galatians 5:1a

The word “freedom,” in a worldly sense, often means doing whatever we want. At the root of flesh, isn’t that what we all want to do, whatever we desire? It turns out that this kind of freedom leads to personal and community disaster and destruction.

Comparatively, in a biblical sense, the word “freedom” means unrestrained to pursue God with pleasure. In other words, it’s unrestrained, and nothing is holding you back from pursuing God! This kind of freedom leads to personal and community transformation.

Freedom always has a theological dimension. A relationship with God is at the very heart of the Gospel. No one is truly free without knowing God personally and walking closely with Him.

Eric Liddell, the famous Scottish runner and son of Christian missionaries, is portrayed in the movie Chariots of Fire. Liddell felt God’s call to set out with Jesus in the race of the Christian life but also to sell out to Jesus through complete surrender.

Liddell said many times that when he ran, he felt God’s pleasure. As a result, he ran not only like the wind but also like a winner; he was fast and free. God also wants us to experience His pleasure in the race of the Christian life. He wants us to know His freedom. Freedom always has a human dimension as well as a theological dimension.

• Freedom from the pressure to gain God’s favor through performance and the rigorous demands of the law; The pressure is off. The pressure is truly off us when we seek God and nothing else.

• Freedom to experience “a life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).”

“The trouble with most people is that they got just enough religion to make them miserable.” Billy Sunday, evangelist

Billy’s words make me want to cry. Some people feel too guilty to sin freely but too reserved to come close enough to God to drink deeply from the well of life that He offers. In John 7:37-38, Jesus says, “Come to Me, all who are thirsty!”

Growing up, my brothers and I would spend summers at my great-grandfather’s four-room house. His home was simple: no air conditioning, fancy furnishings, indoor plumbing, or modern accouterments. But there was always plenty of cold water drawn from the well! The bucket was always full, with a long-handled ladle close by to dip and sip from. That water cooled us from the inside out.

Isaiah speaks to God’s people, saying, “With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:2).” We need the joy of the Lord like never before!

Interference in the Race of Life

However, freedom, meaning pursuing God with pleasure, will not go unchallenged.

It’s not easy to run in freedom for long without interference because Paul hardly proclaims the promise of freedom before he gives a warning: “Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1b-c)” which refers to the burden of the rigorous demands of the law. Nobody ever sets out with Jesus or sells out to Jesus without interference.

E. Stanley Jones said that after he set out in salvation, he felt as if he’d swallowed sunshine, which was clean, warm, light, and bright! He was alive to thrive! He stood on tiptoe with joy! Freedom is both a gift and a daily decision. It’d be beneficial for us to wake up every day speaking this declaration: “I will choose daily to walk in the freedom of the Cross.”

However, many Gentiles had hardly come through the door of freedom in Christ; they had barely swallowed the sunshine before it felt like they swallowed sand instead. A group of Jewish converts called Judaizers tried to convince these new Gentile Christians that they weren’t right with God. They taught that salvation required faith in Jesus Christ plus adherence to the Israelite laws of circumcision and dietary traditions.

Even Peter was almost misled by these false teachers but later declared to the Council of Jerusalem, “Why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are (Acts 15:10-11).”

APOSTLE PAUL: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything (it’s not the flesh but the heart that counts) but only faith working (expressing itself) through love.” Galatians 5:6 (explanation added)

Who cut in on you? Paul says, “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth (Galatians 5:7)?”

In 1984, barefooted Zola Budd from South Africa competed against favored American Mary Decker in the 3000-meter Olympic race in Los Angeles. They both started great when Decker felt Budd getting uncomfortably close. Contact occurred, and Decker later said, “Budd was cutting in on the turn without being ahead enough to pass.” Decker went down, and when she tried to get back up to continue the race of her life, she said, “I felt like I was tied to the ground.” Budd continued the race but finished way down the list.

Who cut in on you? Who will cut in on you? The word translated “cut in” carries the meaning of “hindered, edged off the track.” Who tripped you on your pleasure run when your stride was right?

Let me repeat it: Nobody ever sets out with Jesus or sells out to Jesus without interference.

Perfectionism and Grace

While people can sometimes be malicious, most of the time, they are simply misguided, misled, and miserable. They aren’t free enough to let go of the past, so they spend their time camped out in it, trying to drag everybody else back into it.

Rather than helping new believers grow in their experience of freedom, much like the Judaizers, those misled start burdening new believers with traditionalism, theological viewpoints, and churchy attitudes. They heap guilt, half-truths, and heaviness to lore people back into a cheapened version of the Old Covenant of performance and perfectionism.

True freedom in Christ saves us from perfectionism regarding ourselves and others. Knowing that Jesus has accepted us with all of our imperfections should make it easier to accept others with all their imperfections.

JESUS: “Woe to you (the Pharisees), because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” Luke 11:46 (explanation added)

I want us to live differently! Don’t let anything or anyone stop you from obeying the truth of the Cross. We are free through His death, paying our penalty for sin and putting our trust in Him.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross…” Hebrews 12:2

Some think if we talk about grace too much, it’s a license for us to sin. No, biblical freedom, unrestrained to pursue God with pleasure, is a bridgehead or a springboard into service and love. Paul said, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another (Galatians 5:13).”

Finishing the Race Together: Faith Expressed Through Love and Service

Priest and theologian John Stott said, “True freedom is freedom from my silly little self in order to live responsibly in love for God and others.”

The more free we are, the less we will cut in on others. Yes, we can speak truth in love, but never load others up with demands that have nothing to do with a new life in the Spirit. The more free we are in Christ, the more free we are to help others struggling in this race of the Christian life.

British Olympian Derek Redmond had dreamed his whole life of winning a gold medal in the 400-meter race. During the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, his dream was in sight the second the starting gun sounded in the semifinals. As he rounded the backstretch, he felt a sudden and sharp pain run through the back of his leg. He fell face-first onto the track with a torn right hamstring.

Sports Illustrated recorded the events:

Redmond fought to his feet as the medical attendants approached. It was animal instinct, he would later say. He set out hopping in a crazed attempt to finish the race. When he reached the stretch, a large man in a T-shirt came out of the stands, hurled aside a security guard, and ran to Redmond, embracing him. It was Jim Redmond, Derek’s father.

“You don’t have to do this,” he told his weeping son.

“Yes, I do,” said Derek.

His father said, “Then, we’re going to finish this together!”

And they did! As they fought off security, the son buried his head in his father’s shoulder, and they stayed in Derek’s Lane to the end. The crowd gaped, rose, and wept as they howled for the beautiful moment.

Derek didn’t walk away with the gold medal, but he walked away with an incredible memory of a father who, when he saw his son in pain, left his seat in the stands to help him finish the race. Let that spirit of love and service be the sign of our true freedom in Christ.

Somebody will get cut in on right in front of you, and it might even be you. Will you be there for them when they struggle and fall? Will others be there for you?

TL;DR

1. True freedom in Christ is not about doing whatever we want but about the unrestrained pursuit of God, leading to personal and community transformation.

2. This freedom has both a theological and human dimension. It frees us from the pressures of performance and allows us to experience God’s joy and peace.

3. Despite inevitable challenges and interference, we are called to stand firm in the grace of the Gospel.

4. By embracing God’s grace, we move beyond perfectionism and traditional burdens, living a life marked by love, service, and support for one another in the Christian race.

Related Reading

Freedom in Submission by Bro. Chris Carter

Set Yourself Free from Spiritual Dullness by Rev. Paul Lawler

How Adoption into God’s Family Changes Everything by Rev. Paul Lawler