Matts Sermon The goal: to teach that salvation comes only through faith.

Those who are in great suffering (examples given at the beginning of the message) are still lost unless they put their faith in Christ. For all have sinned an fall short of the glory of God. Our circumstances do not determine whether we are saved or not. Salvation is by faith. Georges Sermon We are saved to/for freedom. Freedom from a system of trying to pay for our sin / grace not law Rom 3: 19-21 Rom 5:1-2 Freedom from slavery to sin - Rom 6:16-18 Freedom to find joy in life 1 Tim 4:4-5

You gotta serve somebody Bob Dylan

Gal 5 1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. A. The Thesis: Free at Last (5:1) This thesis has two elements: the statement of freedom (v. 1a) and the implication of freedom (v. 1b). In other words, you are free; therefore, do not get caught up in the Mosaic law.

B. Summary of Pauls letter (5:5-6) It has been said that verses 56 are a masterful summary of Pauls whole letter. Here we find (1) faith, (2) the Spirit of God, (3) love

C. Freedom in Christ 5:1315 What is Christian Freedom? Scot McKnight and John Stott have suggested some things about that Freedom: In our passage, Paul says two things about love: (1) the Galatians are to serve one another in love, and (2) the entire law of Moses is summed up in the commandment from Leviticus 19:18: Love your neighbor as yourself. 1. Theological dimension of freedom First, we should observe that being free is a relationship with God: in the presence of God we are free from the curse of the law (cf. 3:1014; 5:1, 13) and a sin status (Rom. 6:18, 20, 22; 8:2) so that we can live as his free children (Gal. 4:2131). Second, being free is the result of the death of Jesus Christ: we were captive to sin and the law, but Christs death redeemed us from the curse of the law (2:4; 3:13; 5:1; cf. John 8:36). The language of freedom is tied into the language of redemption (cf. 1:4; 3:13; 4:5). Third, being free is life in the Spirit of God: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17). We get nowhere in talking about freedom until we comprehend that it is completely a work of God in our lives through Christ Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. Freedom is being incorporated into the life of God, which he mediates to us through Christ and allows us to enjoy in the Spirit. 2. Human dimension of freedom Fourth, there is a polemical dimension to freedom. Paul gives an argument that is intended to establish the truth of a specific understanding and the falsity of the contrary position. Freedom is something that Christians know about, that Christians enjoy, that Christians are able experience, and that the Judaizers have not known, and cannot know, until they give up their hold on the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses was for a limited time (until Christ) and for a limited purpose (to reveal sin); therefore, the Galatians must not submit to the law. Instead, they must surrender to Christ and live in the Spirit. This makes them mature sons who have the Spirit and who can live in freedom of adults. Fifth, we need to observe in Paul that being free is personal and existential in the sense of being liberated to be what God wants us to be and to do what God wants us to do. Finally, being free has social implications. Those who have been set free by God, through Christ, and in the Spirit are those who live out this life of freedom by loving others (Gal 5:6, 1315) and by developing relationships to others that are marked by such things as kindness and goodness. This freedom, I believe, is what supports the conclusion of Paul that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female: those who live in freedom have learned to neglect the barriers that social conventions have taught us in order that we can pursue Gods will. 6

D. The Flesh and the Spirit 5:1618 To live in the flesh is fundamentally living outside the realm of the Spirit of God. Flesh is not effort necessarily (though that could be involved); rather, flesh is unspiritual life. Paul says two things about love: (1) the Galatians are to serve one another in love, and (2) the entire law of Moses is summed up in the commandment from Leviticus 19:18: Love your neighbor as yourself. Pauls entire ethic can be handled in three simple expressions: the Galatians are to live in love (vv. 6, 13), or in the Spirit (v. 22), or under the law of Christ (6:2). These are all the same; and each is the fulfillment of the law of Moses (and better). Here he allows the will of God with respect to our relationship to others to be distilled down into the word love. But this love of Paul is not passion. It is the love of God for us that changes us so we can serve one another in love. When a person lives in Gods Spirit, he or she escapes the power of flesh (v. 17a) and the power of law (5:18). But this life of the Spirit is a battlea battle over Gods will; those who are engaged in it recognize that flesh and Spirit are opposites. When one lives in the flesh, one does not do what Gods Spirit wants.

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We see here as to how Paul depicts the Christian life. It is life in the Spirit, the life of a person who is surrendered to letting the Spirit have complete control. But we see here also that one does not gain this life by discipline or by mustering up the energy. One does not huddle with oneself in the morning, gather together his or her forces, and charge onto the field of life full of self-determined direction. Rather, the Christian life is a life of consistent surrender to the Spirit.

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