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Sacrificed for Your FreedomJul 04 2009
“It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” - Galatians 5:1
In 1776, George Washington gathered his troops together and told them he needed someone for a highly secret mission behind enemy lines. A young twenty-one year old soldier from Yale volunteered for the mission. It seemed he was going to be successful, but as he returned with the battle plans of the British, they were tipped off and he was arrested and sentenced to be hanged. The next morning, as he was facing execution, he uttered these poignant words: “My only regret is that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
This young man, Nathan Hale, was willing to pay a price for freedom that required his own life. In many ways, what he did symbolized what Christ has done for all of us. Christ paid the ultimate price for our freedom from the bondage of sin. Freedom always involves a price—what Nathan Hale did for America and, likewise, what Jesus has done for us. Our choice is to accept it on faith with gratitude.
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1 Comments
This verse is loaded with meaning for us. Paul was writing to the Galatians regarding the heresy of the judaizers. This group had taken the position that gentiles must undergo circumcision as a part of their conversion. In other words they were adding something that a person must do, to what had already been accomplished by Jesus.
This was "the yoke of slavery", which was also called "the yoke of the law", from which Christ set us free. As Bryant says, Jesus paid the ultimate price for our "freedom". Interestingly, this can be seen as the freedom to fail, the freedom to be human, the freedom from our sinful nature. Not to keep on sinning willfully, but to know that we belong to him and that in him is our justification.
The Greek word for "stand firm" is stecko, which is a military word meaning to stand or hold your ground. In this context, Paul was encouraging the Galations to stand firm against the judaizers.
For us today, I think Paul might exhort Christians to stand firm against those who deny that Jesus is the only way to God the Father. That there are not "many roads that all lead to the same end".
As Americans, I exhort you all to stand firm against the assault on our Constitution and our personal liberty that is underway right now by many of our elected (and unelected) officials.
- Grant