Ways to Freedom

³⁰ 너희는 하나님께로부터 나서 그리스도 예수 안에 있고 예수는 하나님께로서 나와서 우리에게 지혜와 의로움과 거룩함과 구속함이 되셨으니 ³¹ 기록된 바 자랑하는 자는 주 안에서 자랑하라 함과 같게 하려 함이니라. ³⁰ And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (1Co 1:30-31)

그리스도께서 우리로 자유케 하려고 자유를 주셨으니 그러므로 굳세게 서서 다시는 종의 멍에를 메지 말라 ² 보라 나 바울은 너희에게 말하노니 너희가 만일 할례를 받으면 그리스도께서 너희에게 아무 유익이 없으리라 ³ 내가 할례를 받는 각 사람에게 다시 증거하노니 그는 율법 전체를 행할 의무를 가진 자라 ⁴ 율법 안에서 의롭다 함을 얻으려 하는 너희는 그리스도에게서 끊어지고 은혜에서 떨어진 자로다 ⁵ 우리가 성령으로 믿음을 좇아 의의 소망을 기다리노니 ⁶ 그리스도 예수 안에서는 할례나 무할례가 효력이 없되 사랑으로써 역사하는 믿음 뿐이니라. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. ² Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. ³ I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. ⁴ You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Gal 5:1-6)

FCF: We tend to lose our liberty in Christ.

주제: 그리스도께서 우리를 자유케 하셨기에 그분 안에 있는 자유를 굳게 지켜야 합니다.

Theme: Because Christ has set us free, we must stand firm to keep our liberty in Christ.

Introduction: Some people live their lives like hamsters. A hamster looks outside the glass of his cage and sees freedom. He decides to run for it. He gets on the wheel. He runs on the wheel, trying to get to his freedom. He soon realizes that he’s not getting anywhere. So, he runs faster. An hour later, he’s still in the same spot. Many of us have been trying to break a habit for years, and ten years later we are still in the same spot. We’ve made New Year’s resolutions to quit bad habits or to have better marriages or to work on bettering our finances. A year later, we are in the same position. Why does this happen? We are using the wrong method. When we are trapped, we cannot change things ourselves. The only way for a hamster to find freedom is for the owner of the hamster to reach inside the cage and lift it out of there. Somebody bigger than the hamster has to take over. Trying to get out of a caged situation using only our own human effort is not good enough.

We often feel like living like a hamster running on the wheel without any progress. We feel bound by the things of the world. But Paul says Christ has set us free for freedom. He has handed the fish of freedom over into our hands. We grab it for a moment of joy and victory. But soon we lose it out of our loose, careless grip. We fall into the shackles of our legalism. Soon, we return to the yoke of spiritual slavery. Sin, Satan, and the world always keep working together to snatch our liberty from our hearts. This is what Paul has been saying to the young Galatian Christians. These young Christians were attracted by the false or superficial spirituality of the Judaizers. Paul has been calling them back to the sufficient gospel of grace of Jesus Christ, describing the free justification by faith in various ways in the first four chapters. From his personal experience, understanding of Scripture, and the Galatians’ salvation experience, Paul has proved that sinners are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, not by legal performance.

Now, we have come to the beginning of the last section chapters five and six where Paul deals with Christian ethics. Here Paul deals with the issue of how to practice liberty in Christ or what constitutes Christian liberty. His practical conclusion of the first four chapters is Gal. 5:1 in which he says: 그리스도께서 우리로 자유케 하려고 자유를 주셨으니 그러므로 굳세게 서서 다시는 종의 멍에를 메지 말라. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” He talks about what Christ has done for us first and then what we must do: Christ has set us free to be free and so we must keep and enjoy it, not rendering ourselves to the yoke of the law. Today, we will study Gal. 5:1-6 where Paul suggests our problem is losing our precious liberty to legalism. Paul tells that we must stand firm to keep our liberty in Christ because Christ has set us free. Unless we keep vigilant and stand firm, we will lose our liberty to our spiritual enemies. As Paul says, we must stand firm to keep and enjoy God-given liberty in Christ. To keep and enjoy what we have in Christ is not an easy task. Surely, it takes our efforts. But it takes more than that. From the text today, we may learn of three ways to keep and enjoy our freedom in Christ. First,   

     I.         규칙이 아닌 관계로

Not by rule, but by relationship

Let me say this first. Rule is nothing wrong in and of itself. It offers us the standard whereby we conduct ourselves. Rule, that is, the law, is good and spiritual by nature. But, our attempts to live by rule are never perfect. Law-keeping is not the way to salvation. However, we have a strong tendency to conduct our Christian living by keeping a list of “dos” and “don’ts.” We may define ourselves as our activities such as Sunday church attendance, tithing, prayer, baptism, refraining from smoking, drinking, or gambling, etc. It seems right to regard those doing such things as Christians. Thus, we tend to show our Christianity by what we do and what we don’t. Of course, we may show our faith through those things. However, non-Christians or unbelievers may practice such things for different reasons. Some generous unbelievers make great monetary contributions to the welfare of the poor, the famished, or the marginalized in the world. But they are not Christians at all. If we define ourselves as our activities, then we will have an ever-changing view of our identity. Our activities are the fruit of our internal status.

Then, how do we define ourselves? Foremost, Christians are those who have a saving, loving relationship with Christ. We have entered a personal relationship with Christ as our Savior and Lord. We have personally experienced Christ’s saving grace and love. We know we are forgiven and accepted into the family of God. We know we are God’s children and heirs. The Bible uses various metaphors to describe our relationship with Christ. Christ is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. Christ is the Head and we are His body. Christ is our God and we are His people. Christ is our Bridegroom and we are His bride. Christ is the Cornerstone and we are His building. Christ is the High Priest and we are His temple. Christ is the Vine and we are the branches.

These metaphors suggest that we are vitally united with Christ. There is an inseparable, vital, mystical union between Christ and His beloved. A key to the Christian life is our union with Christ. Paul expresses this idea in Gal. 2:20-21: ²⁰ 내가 그리스도와 함께 십자가에 못 박혔나니 그런즉 이제는 내가 산 것이 아니요 오직 내 안에 그리스도께서 사신 것이라 이제 내가 육체 가운데 사는 것은 나를 사랑하사 나를 위하여 자기 몸을 버리신 하나님의 아들을 믿는 믿음 안에서 사는 것이라 ²¹ 내가 하나님의 은혜를 폐하지 아니하노니 만일 의롭게 되는 것이 율법으로 말미암으면 그리스도께서 헛되이 죽으셨느니라. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose (Gal 2:20-21). We are living not by rule, by relationship with Christ.

We can keep and enjoy our liberty in our Christian life by utilizing the principles of union with Christ. We must recognize Christ is in us and we are in Him. We are living together for God’s glory. We must treat Christ not an idea, or concept, but as a Person. We talk everything with Him. With our divine Friend, we share our joy and sadness, our hope and despair, our success and failure, our confidence and doubt, or our peace and worry. We suffer with and suffer for Him. We will participate in His glory. We listen to His whisper of love. We journey with Him through storms in life.

Instead of relating to Him by keeping a list of rules, we live together with Christ in every sector of life. If we fall into legalism, that is, our efforts to save ourselves through our self-righteousness, we will be separated from Christ and His saving benefits, and from grace. Unless we keep our liberty for which Christ has set us free, we will fall into the yoke of spiritual slavery and fail to enjoy a saving relationship with Christ. If we don’t live with Christ, we will be overloaded with heavy regulations of the whole law.

This is what Paul says in Gal. 5:1-4: 그리스도께서 우리로 자유케 하려고 자유를 주셨으니 그러므로 굳세게 서서 다시는 종의 멍에를 메지 말라 ² 보라 나 바울은 너희에게 말하노니 너희가 만일 할례를 받으면 그리스도께서 너희에게 아무 유익이 없으리라 ³ 내가 할례를 받는 각 사람에게 다시 증거하노니 그는 율법 전체를 행할 의무를 가진 자라 ⁴ 율법 안에서 의롭다 함을 얻으려 하는 너희는 그리스도에게서 끊어지고 은혜에서 떨어진 자로다. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. ² Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. ³ I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. ⁴ You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

We are not allowed to abandon our duty to keep the law by living in union with Christ. Rather, we can fulfill the law out of love for God. Relationship with Christ comes first to honor His Law. We honor God’s law not as a way to God, but as a way of God. Rule can’t save us from sin. Only Christ can. Thus, the way to God is not through rule, but through Christ. Our saving relationship with Christ leads us to freedom, not to bondage. Our freedom is to serve God, not to sin, which leads to spiritual bondage. But legal performance will fail because it is not perfect. Even when it seems to succeed, it brags about its merit. Thus, it severs us from Christ.

Rule enslaves you, not frees you. Rule may invalidate what Christ has done for us. If you live by rule, you will be focused on it and lose your personality in it. All you consider is rule whereby you judge yourself and others. Especially in a community setting, you will evaluate all people by rule. You will accept those who follow rule and reject those who do not follow rule. You will make the impersonal rule dictate everything about you and others. Though the rule is given for you to be led to Christ, it will be your dictator. The Jews expanded God’s law and classified them into 613 regulations, what to do and what not to do. They added more to the law of God, because they believed they could satisfy God by keeping the whole law. So, they trained themselves harshly to follow the law without having their hearts changed by their personal relationship with God.

Indeed, Jesus Christ has set you free from the yoke of the law. He did this through His death when He died upon the cross. How tragic it is when men are ignorant of what Christ has done for them. Men in sin are starving for a freedom that is simply theirs for the asking. Let me illustrate this point with the following story: A few days after the American Civil War had been officially ended, a man was riding along a road in West Virginia. Suddenly a soldier, clad in a dirty and tattered Confederate uniform, sprang out of a thicket, seized the horse’s bridle, and with twitching face demanded, “Give me bread! Give me bread! I don’t want to hurt you, but give me bread—I’m starving.” The man on horseback replied, “Then why don’t you go to the village and get food?” “I don’t dare—they will shoot me,” was the soldier’s answer.

“What for?” inquired the man; “tell me your trouble.” … the confederate soldier related that he had deserted his company several weeks before. Upon approaching the Union pickets, however, he had been informed that no fugitives from Lee’s army were to be taken in. What was he to do? If he returned to his company, he would be shot as a deserter. In desperation, he had taken to the woods and lived there on roots and berries until starvation had driven him to the point of madness. The man on horseback listened, and then exclaimed: "전쟁이 끝난 걸 모르십니까? 링컨이 남부군 전체를 사면했어요. [이제 원하는 음식을 마음껏 먹을 수 있습니다." “Don’t you know the war is over? Lincoln has pardoned the whole Confederate army. [Now] you can have all the food that you want.”

In case you have not heard, the war is over, Jesus Christ has won the victory through His death and resurrection. Now you can eat at the Lord’s table. The question is, "세상이 제공하는 썩은 음식 거리를 계속 찾아 헤매시겠습니까, 아니면 생명의 떡을 먹으시겠습니까?" “Will you continue to scavenge for what the world has to offer, or will you feed on the Bread of Life?” Will you continue in live in bondage of the world or in freedom in Christ? What matters is our relationship with God based on trust and love. We should not turn God’s law into external regulations whereby we try to manipulate God or earn God’s favor. God can’t be manipulated by our law-keeping. We should build our relationship with God on the basis of loving trust.

Of course, we can’t keep a meaningful relationship if we keep violating His Word. Our fellowship with God is to be based on a loving and trustful relationship with God. We are to keep God’s law to express our love for God, not to earn God’s salvation. Relationship precedes rule. It is bound by love, not by slavish ritualism. Relationship with Christ is beneficial to us. Everything we need for our salvation is done by Christ. So, we are to live in a way that Christ is beneficial to us. Christlikeness, one of the goals of our salvation, does not come from the keeping of a series of rules, but from a loving relationship with Christ. When Christ reigns in our hearts, we can be separated from sin to God for His divine purpose. So, we must stand firm to keep our liberty through a vibrant, vital relationship with Christ.

Not only do we stand firm to keep our liberty in Christ not by the rule-keeping, but by a vibrant relationship with Christ, but also we must stand firm to keep it in Christ not by….

   II.         행위가 아닌 은혜로

Not by works, by grace

Grace is God’s unmerited favor. We have done nothing to deserve it. God has freely given it to us. The motivation for grace is God’s love. Because He loves us in Christ, God has chosen us in Christ eternity before, called us in His timing, and has applied all the saving benefits of Christ to us through the Holy Spirit. Grace is God’s unchanging love for those who deserve only God’s wrath. God’s grace is comprehensive in our Christian life. It covers all Christian life from beginning to end. God’s grace is the motivation, principle, and power for us. 

However, legalism finds its motivation in one’s own will. It seeks to show its own righteousness before God. It is proud, so it can’t accept God’s grace. It regards grace as a cheap freebie. Legalists in their consciences can’t accept grace because they believe they must work hard to deserve God’s grace or receive it. They try to make themselves worthy for God’s grace. However, grace is not for those worthy, but for those unworthy. Grace is for sinners, not for self-righteous ones. The reason that legalists can’t accept God’s grace is pride in their hearts. They feel shameful and angry if they receive something for free from others. They may feel in their hearts, “I don’t need your help. I am OK. I can do that for myself. I am not a person who needs you.”

If we try to establish our own righteousness, we will be perishing in spiritual bondage, separated from grace. Martin Luther applied Paul’s warning as follows: 가라 앉고 있고 배를 탄 자가 배의 어떤 부분에 있든 상관 없이 그 배는 가라 앉을 것이다. 이와 같이 은혜에서 떨어진 자도 멸망할 수 밖에 없다. 그러므로 율법으로 의롭다 함을 받고자 함은 파선당함과 같다. 영원한 사망에 이르는 가장 확실한 위험에 노출된다. 하나님의 은혜를 버리고 모세의 율법을 유지하려는 것보다 더욱 정신 나가고 악한 일이 있을 수 있겠는가? “For just as someone on a ship is drowned regardless of the part of the ship from which he falls into the sea, so someone who falls away from grace cannot help perishing. The desire to be justified by the law, therefore, is shipwreck; it is exposure to the surest peril of eternal death. What can be more insane and wicked than to want to lose the grace and favor of God and to retain the law of Moses.”

Paul condemns circumcision as a way to God. It is because circumcision stands for something more than a physically cutting off the foreskin. As the false teachers were pressing it, circumcision was neither a physical operation, nor a ceremonial rite, but a theological symbol. It stood for a particular type of religion, namely salvation by good works in obedience to the law. The slogan of the false teachers was: “Unless you are circumcised and keep the law, you cannot be saved” (cf. Acts 15:1, 5). They were thus declaring that faith in Christ was insufficient for salvation. Circumcision and law-obedience must be added to it. This was tantamount to saying that Moses must be allowed to finish what Christ had begun.

What does Paul say to them? He does not mince his words. On the contrary, he makes a most solemn assertion, beginning Now I, Paul, say to you (verse 2). He warns them in three sentences of the serious results of their receiving circumcision: Christ will be of no advantage to you (verse 2), you are severed from Christ and you have fallen away from grace (verse 4). More simply, to add circumcision is to lose Christ, to seek to be justified by the law is to fall from grace. You cannot have it both ways. It is impossible to receive Christ, thereby acknowledging that you cannot save yourself, and then receive circumcision, thereby claiming that you can. You have to choose between a religion of law and a religion of grace, between Christ and circumcision. You cannot add circumcision (or anything else, for that matter) to Christ as necessary to salvation, because Christ is sufficient for salvation in Himself. If you add anything to Christ, you lose Christ. Salvation is in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone.

Legalists refuse grace to retain the law in pride. Legalists who refuse God’s grace may be compared to a poor nobleman who refused to receive any help from a wealthy commoner. He was proud of his noble lineage. He tried to act in accordance with his high status. He walked like a nobleman. He spoke like a nobleman. Though he was poor and hungry, he wouldn’t ask for help from others. He acted like he had everything. Now, he was about to lose his house to his creditor. He had no money to pay. But he didn’t want anyone to know his plight. He tried to solve his own problem. In the meantime, the wealthy merchant in town, one of his former servants, heard about his story. He wanted to help him out. Though he suffered much from his former master, he felt compassionate toward him. So, he paid all the debt for him. At first, the nobleman didn’t know about it. He went to see his creator to earn some grace time.

Surprisingly, he was told that his debt was paid off by his former servant. Instead of feeling thankful to him, however, he was infuriated. His pride got hurt. He was a nobleman but his servant was a commoner. He thought, "저렇게 비열한 사람에게 어떻게 도움을 받을 수 있을까요? 제 할아버지와 아버지는 정부에서 높은 직책을 맡으셨어요. 나는 아직 끝나지 않았습니다.나는 죽지 않았습니다. 저는 아직 살아있어요. 이 문제는 저 혼자서 해결할 수 있습니다. 고통스럽지만 괜찮을 것입니다. 내가 누구입니까? 나는 위대한 아버지의 가장 똑똑하고 유능한 아들입니다." “How can I receive a help from such a despicable guy? My grandfather and father held high positions in the government. I am not done yet. I am not dead. I am still alive. I can handle this problem on my own. Though I suffer this much, I will be OK. Who am I? I am the smartest and most capable son of my great father.” He asked his creator to give the money back to his former servant. He promised to pay it back as soon as possible, not knowing he had nothing but pride. Then, he visited his former servant and blasted him, saying, "나는 귀족이다. 넌 아무것도 아니야. 너 같은 놈의 도움이 필요할 정도로 나쁘지 않아. 절대로 날 도와주려고 하지 마. “I am a nobleman. You are nothing. I am not that bad to need a help from a guy like you. Don’t ever try to help me!”

In some way, we are like this proud nobleman. We owe incalculable debt of sin to God. We try to pay it off with our good works. But we do not realize we are spiritually bankrupt. Christ paid it off by his life and death. When we hear this news, we get angry, saying, “I am OK. I can pay it on my own. I am not dead yet.” We don’t appreciate God’s grace and love that gave His Son for our sin. We complain to God, “Why did you do this? I don’t need your help. I will take care of my debt.” Our pride, like that of legalists, hinders us from receiving God’s grace or living by God’s grace. We must humble ourselves first to receive God’s unmerited favor. If we don’t stand firm in grace, we will be drifting away to legalism whereby we try to pay our sin-debt and prove our nobility before God.

Grace humbles us. Grace helps us see our spiritual bankruptcy. But if we refuse grace by pride, we get our hearts unmoved and then our lives unchanged. If we reject God’s unmerited favor, then we will rely on our prideful attempt to prove ourselves before God by keeping the law. We must extend our hands of faith to receive God’s grace in humility. Grace moves our hearts. Before we try to figure out what regulations we have to follow, we have to let God’s grace move our hearts. But we fail to let God move our hearts by grace. Grace is moving and touching only when our hearts are burdened by sin and guilt, longing for God’s forgiveness. When we hear God say, “I love you, not because you have kept my law, but because you are my child. I love you in spite of your sin. You are my beloved for whom my Son shed His precious blood.”

Christ does not want you to live in discouragement and defeat. He wants you to live in a loving relationship with God. He wants us to appreciate how much He cares for you in love. Let me illustrate it with the following story: A small boy was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him that he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he arrived later than ever. His mother met him at the door and said nothing. His father met him in the living room and said nothing. At dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water. He looked at his father’s full plate and then at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed. The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy’s plate and placed it in front of himself. He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at his son. When that boy grew to be a man, he said, "저는 평생 아버지가 그날 밤에 하신 일을 통해 하나님이 어떤 분인지 알았습니다." “All my life I’ve known what God is like by what my father did that night.”

Jesus Christ wants you to have life and liberty. He has already paid the price to free you from bondage to the Law. God’s grace comes to us through Christ. When we look at the person and work of Christ, when we live by a living relationship with Christ, we can enjoy His transforming grace. Grace is a gift of God our heavenly Father. If it is a gift, we can ask it of Him. Since He is gracious, He will freely give us everything we need. Paul says: 자기 아들을 아끼지 아니하시고 우리 모든 사람을 위하여 내어주신 이가 어찌 그 아들과 함께 모든 것을 우리에게 은사로 주지 아니하시겠느뇨 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8:32). What we need to do is to ask our heavenly Father in prayer. Prayer is God-ordained way to receive His grace. Prayer is a channel through which God’s grace abundantly flows into our hearts.  

We must stand firm by a vital relationship with Christ and His grace to keep liberty in Christ. Thirdly, we must stand firm….

 III.         자기-의존이 아닌 믿음으로

Not by self-reliance, but faith

To live a life of freedom in Christ, we must be focused on Christ, grace, and faith. Faith is a key to keeping and enjoying liberty in Christ. Paul says: 우리가 성령으로 믿음을 좇아 의의 소망을 기다리노니 ⁶ 그리스도 예수 안에서는 할례나 무할례가 효력이 없되 사랑으로써 역사하는 믿음 뿐이니라.  ⁵ For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. From these two verses, we glean some important truths on faith. First, faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith is not something we can work within ourselves. We can’t get it by trying to believe something our hearts can’t believe. When the Spirit of God moves our hearts to believe in Christ, we come to have faith in Christ. Faith wrought by the Holy Spirit leads us to live in freedom from sin and freedom in Christ. The Holy Spirit uses our faith to lead us to enjoy liberty in Christ. If you don’t have saving faith, you must ask God for it instead of keeping trying to believe because faith is God’s gift.

Second, faith waits in hope. If you have faith in Christ, you will be a person of endurance and hope. Hope in the Bible is not wishful thinking, but confident expectation. Faith gives us hope for God’s final deliverance. “The hope of righteousness” here refers to the consummation of salvation at Christ’s return. By faith, we eagerly anticipate the day of the Lord’s return. Faith fixes our eyes upon the day we will be with Christ in heaven. Such faith-based hope frees us from spiritual bondage. It helps us stay away from sin. It helps us purify ourselves from pollutions of this world. Faith works with hope to sustain us under all circumstances. The reason we have hope for tomorrow is that we trust a God of faithfulness and goodness. Such trust looks forward to a brighter future when we will be perfectly vindicated. Faith waits until Christ returns.  

Third, faith works. It is effective to change us positively. Circumcision or un-circumcision is ineffective to change us from sin to righteousness. As James says, faith that does not work is dead. Saving faith is always working faith. How do we know that our faith is working or not? Among other things, we have to check on whether our faith is working itself to be expressed in love. Love is not only a result of faith, but also a companion of faith. In fact, love sums up the whole law. Faith energizes us by grace to love God and others. When we say to poor brothers and sisters, “Go and warm yourself. Feed yourself,” instead of giving them food, our faith is not working through love.

This is what James says: ¹⁴ 내 형제들아 만일 사람이 믿음이 있노라 하고 행함이 없으면 무슨 이익이 있으리요 그 믿음이 능히 자기를 구원하겠느냐 ¹⁵ 만일 형제나 자매가 헐벗고 일용할 양식이 없는데 ¹⁶ "너희 중에 누구든지 그에게 이르되 평안히 가라, 더웁게 하라, 배 부르게 하라 하며 그 몸에 쓸 것을 주지 아니하면 무슨 이익이 있으리요" ¹⁷ 이와 같이 행함이 없는 믿음은 그 자체가 죽은 것이라. ¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (Jam 2:14-17). Love is evidence of faith. Faith makes us fulfill the law of love in Christ.

Why then are we enslaved by sin and law even when we claim that we have faith in Christ? One of our mistakes is that we see faith as a mere profession of Christ’s death and resurrection. If we profess that Christ died for our sin and rose from the dead, we count ourselves as believers. But devils know that Christ died and rose from the dead. Mere confession of factual information on Christ and mere historical knowledge of Jesus Christ are not equal to biblical faith. It is true that faith professes and possesses the historical facts on the person and work of Jesus Christ. But faith is more than intellectual assent to the information on Christ. Faith is a personal trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is not a reliance on one’s possession and profession of the knowledge of Christ. But it relies on Christ, not on self-righteousness. Faith is a denial of self-righteousness. Also, it is faithfulness to Christ. Those who have faith in Christ are faithful to Him. As Christ is faithful to believers, believers are those who keep faithful to Christ.  

Such faith waits, hopes, works, and loves. It abandons self-glory. It glories only in Christ. It forsakes self-reliance. However, if we live by self-reliance, then we will be enslaved by law and self. Self-reliance keeps us in the prison of self. We know by experience that our self is too unreliable to achieve salvation by works.  But if we live by faith, then we will use our freedom to love God and others. Faith is a link where we connect heaven with earth. It is a vision whereby we see the invisible in a visible world. Faith is trust. Faith is faithfulness. How germane it is for Paul to say, “The just shall live by faith.”

We must stand firm by faith in Christ. This is the way we keep and enjoy liberty in Christ. Christ has set us free to be free. Christian freedom is not freedom to be left alone, but freedom to serve God freely. The best and truest freedom is the kind described by John Stott: 하나님과 타인을 사랑하며 책임감 있게 살기 위해 어리석은 나로부터의 자유." “freedom from my silly little self, in order to live responsibly in love for God and others.” Philip Ryken says, "우리는 그리스도를 신뢰하여 그분의 사랑으로 충만할 때 가장 자유로워지며, 따라서 이타적인 희생으로 하나님과 다른 사람들을 사랑할 수 있게 됩니다." “We are most free when we so trust in Christ that we are filled with His love, and thus enabled to love God and others with selfless sacrifice.”

Conclusion: A MAN who lived in a foreign country became a citizen of the United States of America. In the country where he was raised and grew up, there was a curfew overseen by the military. Beyond a certain time, the streets had to be cleared and everyone had to be in their homes. When he immigrated to the United States, he began immediately sightseeing to see part of the country that he was now becoming a part of. However, when he saw darkness set in and looked at his watch, he saw that he was about to pass his curfew time. Seeing a man getting in his car, he said, “Sir, would you please rush me to my hotel so that I won’t overstay my curfew and get in trouble?” The gentleman in the car couldn’t figure out what in the world the man was talking about until it dawned on him that he was a foreigner and that he was a little mixed up about his new life in America. He explained to and assured the man that in the U.S. the law that he had been used to no longer applied. He explained that he was no longer under the jurisdiction of the country he came from. He was in a new country now and that meant he was free to stay up and stay out. The restrictions of the old homeland no longer applied. This man was in the United States. but had not yet learned to cast off the bondage of the old country.

A lot of us are in Christ, but we’ve not yet learned how to cast off the old bondage of being in Adam. So we sing about freedom, talk about freedom, and yet we feel the pressure of the curfew and the bondage and oppression of the old law system under which we operated. Far too many Christians today are in chains because they’ve just spent so much time in the old country. In getting used to this thing about being free in Christ, they have not adapted yet. What about you today? Are you still trying to save yourself from the bondage of sin and death with your legalistic efforts? Or are you living in a vibrant relationship with Christ and the transforming power of Christ’s grace? Are you still living in the fetters of fear and worry for your failure to keep the law of God for salvation? Or are you living in freedom by relying on Christ every day?

You must listen again to this liberating truth of Christ: “For freedom Christ has set us free!” To quote from John Stott again, "우리의 이전 상태는 노예로, 예수님은 해방자로, 회심은 해방의 행위로, 그리스도인의 삶은 자유의 삶으로 묘사됩니다." “Our former state is portrayed as a slavery, Jesus as a liberator, conversion as an act of emancipation and the Christian life as a life of freedom.” Our Lord Jesus Christ had lived a life of freedom. He was perfectly free from sin. His freedom was in the Father’s unfailing love. Also, He set His people free from sin, death, and Satan. He did everything in dependence upon His Father, though He could do it on His own. God demonstrate His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If God’s love doesn’t move your hearts to love God and others, you are proud, maybe feeling like you don’t need God. Your pride is your enslaver. No matter how hard you try to prove yourself before God, you will certainly fail. Take your eye of faith off from yourself to Christ. Enjoy freedom in Christ. Keep and enjoy it in Christ, not by rule, but by relationship with Christ, not by works, but by grace, and not by self-reliance, but trust in Christ. Please, let Paul’s exhortation ring in your heart: 그리스도께서 우리로 자유케 하려고 자유를 주셨으니 그러므로 굳세게 서서 다시는 종의 멍에를 메지 말라. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.  

Benediction: ²⁴ 능히 너희를 보호하사 거침이 없게 하시고 너희로 그 영광 앞에 흠이 없이 즐거움으로 서게 하실자 ²⁵ 곧 우리 구주 홀로 하나이신 하나님께 우리 주 예수 그리스도로 말미암아 영광과 위엄과 권력과 권세가 만고 전부터 이제와 세세에 있을지어다 아멘. ²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jud 1:24-25)