Freedom in Christ
You can’t just pick and choose what parts of the Bible you want to believe; it’s either all or nothing! How many times have you heard that saying? This week, I was on Facebook and ran across something on someone’s wall. Actually…multiple somethings on their wall. Seeing this led me to an actual web page on Facebook called “Religion Poison’s Everything”. On this page was a picture of someone holding up a sign quoting Scripture. (show photo) By the way, this is being held up at a protest wanting to allow gay marriage. What they are trying to do is use Scripture to point out things that we are apparently ‘cherry picking’ to quote what we believe.
When we look at Scripture, we can’t ‘cherry pick’ them to prove what we want. We must look into the context and be sure of the true meaning behind what we are studying. If we do it correctly, the Truth comes out. Anyone can make any Scripture say what they want. Getting the Truth however, takes time. Today, our Scripture is going to be Galatians 5:1-15.
1 Christ has liberated us into freedom. Therefore stand firm and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Take note! I, Paul, tell you that if you get circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. 3 Again I testify to every man who gets circumcised that he is obligated to keep the entire law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace! 5 For by the Spirit we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness from faith. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love. 7 You were running well. Who prevented you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion did not come from Him who called you. 9 A little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough. 10 In the Lord I have confidence in you that you will not accept any other view. But whoever it is who is troubling you will pay the penalty. 11 Now brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated! 13 For you are called to freedom, brothers; only don't use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.
We’re free. We regularly sing the song “I am Free” by the Newsboys. In Christ, we are free to do all things. Today, I chose this topic because throughout the world, we fight and argue over so many things; Denomination, Hell, Heaven, Baptism, Death, Creation, Literal, Figurative, End Times, and even Holidays; Halloween more specifically. Some Christians fight because the holiday started as a pagan holiday and is, quite frankly, an evil holiday to scare the pants off of people.
I’ll be the first to tell you that Sherri and I do not like Halloween. I don’t like the evil it portrays or the pagan ideas behind it. But if I choose not to celebrate Halloween, but I continue to celebrate Christmas, Easter and various other Holidays then I am a hypocrite. I’ve picked and chosen what I want to believe in. I’m not sure how many people realize this, but Christmas and Easter are holidays that the Catholic church started from originally pagan holidays. Both Christmas and Easter coincide with Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.
Christmas was originally celebrated way before Christ. By the 4th Century A.D., it was a holiday known as saturnalia. It celebrated the sun-god Phyrgia who was died on December 22nd reborn on December 25th. The Early church got rid of this holiday by instituting what they called “The Feast of the Nativity”. The problem is, there are a lot of festivals by all kinds of pagan religions around this time.
Easter is no different. Some think that Easter is borrowed. Evidence shows that Passover and the Resurrection were celebrated in the early church because evidence shows Christ was resurrected during the Passover week. However, there are many festivals that surround that holiday that are of pagan origins. Naturally, things creep in that are some pagan traditions.
Halloween is a Celtic holiday. The church made November 1st All Saints Day, to celebrate the saints of the Church (Catholic). Some of the traditions, including the “Jack-O-Lantern”, trick-or-treating, bobbing for apples, black cats, dressing up in costumes to scare away the spirits, all come from a mixture of the pagan rituals and early Catholic traditions.
So, what’s the deal? Can we celebrate these holidays or not? The first verse tells us that we are free; that we are to stand firm in our salvation through Christ and not submit again to the slavery we were once in bondage to. I can’t tell you whether or not celebrating these holidays is right or wrong. That is between you and God. For Halloween, or Neewollah as we’ve come to call it, we fill with happiness, joy and non-scary stuff in our house. As I said earlier, we don’t like evil or being scared. So, we use this time to reach people for Christ. Christmas and Easter, we focus on Christ alone. Are the trees we put up for Christmas, wreaths and all that objects of our worship? No. Christ is. We use them to reach Christ. Same with Easter egg hunts and those type of activities. The point is, in all things we are to focus on Christ and worship him.
Apparently in Galatia, there was a debate, between being circumcised or not. Circumcision is the sign of the Old Covenant with God through Abraham. Some of the Jews who had turned Christian were insisting that the Gentiles first be circumcised to fit in with God’s Law.
Paul here states if we submit to circumcision, then Christ will not benefit us. Now why is that? Why is Christ no benefit if we submit to circumcision? Verse 3 explains it. If we think that we must be circumcised first in order to be proper, then we are obligated to keep the entire law. Essentially what Paul is saying here is that you pick a piece of the Law to obey, you can’t just pick one little thing and do it. You must do it all. There isn’t a half-way about it. The law isn’t sufficient enough to provide atonement for our sins; only Christ can do that.
Some of the ones in Galatia were trying to be justified by the law, not Christ…they’ve alienated themselves from him. Only in Christ does anything get accomplished. It isn’t circumcision or uncircumcision that accomplishes anything…but it is Christ.
You see, the Galatians were doing very well. However, someone came to them and started preventing them from obeying the Truth. God does not call us away from the Truth of Christ. Paul uses the illustration here of yeast in dough. For me, this is easy to identify with.
When making bread, the portion of flour, butter, water, salt and other ingredients is massive compared to the amount of yeast it takes. A very small portion mixed in with these ingredients makes the whole loaf of bread elevate and rise. Likewise with a congregation of believers; one person trying to prevent things from happening will spread like wildfire until everything we worked for is destroyed. The person doing the destroying will be taken care of by God; but we must hold fast to the message we received.
We were called to be free; we cannot use this freedom to do evil. We must serve one another. We must love. Jesus sums up the entire law with 2 commandments. Love God, Love others. My friends, if we fight with one another, we will be consumed by one another.
Remember earlier when I told you about that website? I was furious at what I found on this Facebook page. But I then got to thinking. What is it that made them see Christianity like this? There is nothing in here inappropriate, but I do want to warn that it may offend some people. I know I was deeply offended at first. (play slide show)
What is it that we stand for? Are we more concerned with what we think is right, or what Jesus tells us that is right. The appearances we give off tell the tale of Christianity. My friends, it is a dangerous thing to be a Christian. None of us are perfect. We are all hypocrites. However, we need to realize that we are free from that bondage. We need to consume ourselves in love for one another, so we can save those who are lost, instead of preaching hell and hate. Tell them they’re wrong…but do it lovingly. We shouldn’t be fighting over miniscule things; Holidays, baptism, creation, denomination…nothing. It is minor in the scheme of saving the lost.
When we look at Scripture, we can’t ‘cherry pick’ them to prove what we want. We must look into the context and be sure of the true meaning behind what we are studying. If we do it correctly, the Truth comes out. Anyone can make any Scripture say what they want. Getting the Truth however, takes time. Today, our Scripture is going to be Galatians 5:1-15.
1 Christ has liberated us into freedom. Therefore stand firm and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Take note! I, Paul, tell you that if you get circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. 3 Again I testify to every man who gets circumcised that he is obligated to keep the entire law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace! 5 For by the Spirit we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness from faith. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love. 7 You were running well. Who prevented you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion did not come from Him who called you. 9 A little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough. 10 In the Lord I have confidence in you that you will not accept any other view. But whoever it is who is troubling you will pay the penalty. 11 Now brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated! 13 For you are called to freedom, brothers; only don't use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.
We’re free. We regularly sing the song “I am Free” by the Newsboys. In Christ, we are free to do all things. Today, I chose this topic because throughout the world, we fight and argue over so many things; Denomination, Hell, Heaven, Baptism, Death, Creation, Literal, Figurative, End Times, and even Holidays; Halloween more specifically. Some Christians fight because the holiday started as a pagan holiday and is, quite frankly, an evil holiday to scare the pants off of people.
I’ll be the first to tell you that Sherri and I do not like Halloween. I don’t like the evil it portrays or the pagan ideas behind it. But if I choose not to celebrate Halloween, but I continue to celebrate Christmas, Easter and various other Holidays then I am a hypocrite. I’ve picked and chosen what I want to believe in. I’m not sure how many people realize this, but Christmas and Easter are holidays that the Catholic church started from originally pagan holidays. Both Christmas and Easter coincide with Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.
Christmas was originally celebrated way before Christ. By the 4th Century A.D., it was a holiday known as saturnalia. It celebrated the sun-god Phyrgia who was died on December 22nd reborn on December 25th. The Early church got rid of this holiday by instituting what they called “The Feast of the Nativity”. The problem is, there are a lot of festivals by all kinds of pagan religions around this time.
Easter is no different. Some think that Easter is borrowed. Evidence shows that Passover and the Resurrection were celebrated in the early church because evidence shows Christ was resurrected during the Passover week. However, there are many festivals that surround that holiday that are of pagan origins. Naturally, things creep in that are some pagan traditions.
Halloween is a Celtic holiday. The church made November 1st All Saints Day, to celebrate the saints of the Church (Catholic). Some of the traditions, including the “Jack-O-Lantern”, trick-or-treating, bobbing for apples, black cats, dressing up in costumes to scare away the spirits, all come from a mixture of the pagan rituals and early Catholic traditions.
So, what’s the deal? Can we celebrate these holidays or not? The first verse tells us that we are free; that we are to stand firm in our salvation through Christ and not submit again to the slavery we were once in bondage to. I can’t tell you whether or not celebrating these holidays is right or wrong. That is between you and God. For Halloween, or Neewollah as we’ve come to call it, we fill with happiness, joy and non-scary stuff in our house. As I said earlier, we don’t like evil or being scared. So, we use this time to reach people for Christ. Christmas and Easter, we focus on Christ alone. Are the trees we put up for Christmas, wreaths and all that objects of our worship? No. Christ is. We use them to reach Christ. Same with Easter egg hunts and those type of activities. The point is, in all things we are to focus on Christ and worship him.
Apparently in Galatia, there was a debate, between being circumcised or not. Circumcision is the sign of the Old Covenant with God through Abraham. Some of the Jews who had turned Christian were insisting that the Gentiles first be circumcised to fit in with God’s Law.
Paul here states if we submit to circumcision, then Christ will not benefit us. Now why is that? Why is Christ no benefit if we submit to circumcision? Verse 3 explains it. If we think that we must be circumcised first in order to be proper, then we are obligated to keep the entire law. Essentially what Paul is saying here is that you pick a piece of the Law to obey, you can’t just pick one little thing and do it. You must do it all. There isn’t a half-way about it. The law isn’t sufficient enough to provide atonement for our sins; only Christ can do that.
Some of the ones in Galatia were trying to be justified by the law, not Christ…they’ve alienated themselves from him. Only in Christ does anything get accomplished. It isn’t circumcision or uncircumcision that accomplishes anything…but it is Christ.
You see, the Galatians were doing very well. However, someone came to them and started preventing them from obeying the Truth. God does not call us away from the Truth of Christ. Paul uses the illustration here of yeast in dough. For me, this is easy to identify with.
When making bread, the portion of flour, butter, water, salt and other ingredients is massive compared to the amount of yeast it takes. A very small portion mixed in with these ingredients makes the whole loaf of bread elevate and rise. Likewise with a congregation of believers; one person trying to prevent things from happening will spread like wildfire until everything we worked for is destroyed. The person doing the destroying will be taken care of by God; but we must hold fast to the message we received.
We were called to be free; we cannot use this freedom to do evil. We must serve one another. We must love. Jesus sums up the entire law with 2 commandments. Love God, Love others. My friends, if we fight with one another, we will be consumed by one another.
Remember earlier when I told you about that website? I was furious at what I found on this Facebook page. But I then got to thinking. What is it that made them see Christianity like this? There is nothing in here inappropriate, but I do want to warn that it may offend some people. I know I was deeply offended at first. (play slide show)
What is it that we stand for? Are we more concerned with what we think is right, or what Jesus tells us that is right. The appearances we give off tell the tale of Christianity. My friends, it is a dangerous thing to be a Christian. None of us are perfect. We are all hypocrites. However, we need to realize that we are free from that bondage. We need to consume ourselves in love for one another, so we can save those who are lost, instead of preaching hell and hate. Tell them they’re wrong…but do it lovingly. We shouldn’t be fighting over miniscule things; Holidays, baptism, creation, denomination…nothing. It is minor in the scheme of saving the lost.
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