Freedom from Law

Gal 2:16-21

 

1. God gave me three beloved teachers to respect and follow in my life, and one of them died in Seoul on the last Wednesday. He has loved me so much like a son, and I loved him out of my deepest heart. I missed his last moment, but I will fly to Los Angeles and participate in his funeral and burial there. Dr. Jin Tae Lee was a genuine Christian, faithful servant of the Lord, and a man of grace, humility, peace, love, and righteousness. As the president of the seminary where I taught as a professor, he was respected by every seminarian and faculty members. However, simply because he followed God faithfully and pursued both love and righteousness, he was a man of suffering.

2. We humans set an example and try our best to be like him or her. But, it is a question why everybody sets different kind of people as his or her model. It might be due to some external influence like popularity or trend as well as some internal motif like one’s own atmosphere of growth, education, or religion. In this postmodern capitalistic society, people want to be rich, popular, attractive, and energetic. But, we do not want to be despised by people even though we have them all. Humans as the image of God want to be respected by people, even if we do not have such things.  

3. So, we want to be honorable and righteous men. We do not want to be condemned as sinner and go to prison. Therefore, we try to keep laws not to be arrested, fined, or indicted. Kalamazoo was originally called Bronson-ville, but the city name was changed because the first non-Indian settler Titus Bronson was accused of stealing and left the town. The Jewish people were very eager to keep the Law to be an honorable and righteous man. In fact, every people on the earth did the same, because laws designated what kind of people are sinner and thus defined who is honorable and righteous.

4. By keeping the laws or skillfully deceiving court or avoiding charges, people lives peacefully as a righteous non-sinner. Or, the law itself was not perfect, quite defective to correctly identify sinner. However, it may work to fellow humans. But, the problem is that it does not work even for oneself, one’s own conscience. It does not work for some close people like family. Hypocrisy was the issue.

5. Jesus came to the world to free us from the law, because it does not work for God, who cannot be deceived or avoided. We cannot be judged as righteous by deceiving God. Verse 16 declares that “by observing the law no one will be justified.” We humans have sinful nature and therefore we cannot perfectly keep the divine laws, not even human laws! Then, the result will be clearly condemnation and punishment. Therefore, all men are under the destiny of divine condemnation and wrath in this world and eternity.

6. Jesus came to the world to free us from this unbearable and impossible burden of the law. Jesus is the new way to be a righteous man. Jesus is the grace of God for us. Jesus is the new righteousness! Even though we cannot achieve righteousness by ourselves, we become righteous by the merit of Christ who paid for all our sins and invited us to join His redeemed people. When we believe this, that Jesus died for me and liberated me from the impossible burden of the legal righteousness, he gives the Holy Spirit to our soul and make us really feel our forgiveness and peace with God. There is no other way to be justified before God than Jesus Christ. So, we praise him, and we love him.

7. Therefore, freedom from the law means to confess that I am sinner and Jesus is my Savior. In the recently opened movie Amazing Grace, the writer of this most beloved hymn and former slave trader, pastor John Newton confessed to William Wilberforce: “My memory is failing, but I remember two things even more clearly: I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.” Yes, that is the fundamental freedom from our effort of self-achievement or self-realization, freedom from our growing pride or growing despair. Jesus is my wonderful Savior! Yes, “we know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law.”(16) Freedom from the law is to “die to the law.”(19) It means that we no longer depend on the laws as a way to achieve our righteousness. We totally give up this worldly and wrong way, and totally depend on the grace of God. We totally give up our pride and self-righteousness.

8. Therefore, freedom from the law is to “be crucified with Christ.”(20) My proud ego must completely die away. Or, we cannot fully participate in and enjoy our salvation. If I die away, then what am I? Paul teaches that “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”(20) Jesus is my Lord, and Christ lives in me. Genuine freedom is freedom from my sinful ego and dedication to God.

9. Paul rebuked Galatian Christians, because they were returning back to the Law from freedom. It is not understandable phenomenon, but it happens everywhere. Erich Fromm wrote Escape from Freedom, that human beings on the one hand have a deep longing for freedom, but on the other hand fear nothing as much as that very freedom. Even after we become Christian and confessed that I am sinner, we are tempted to think that I am not sinner. Even after we came to Christ and depend on His grace, we are tempted to live our own life independently. Even after we are free from the law and give up such an impossible way, we are tempted to pile up our self-righteousness and feel superior by comparison with others. Paul’s rebuke is even harsh: “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? … Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”(3:1, 3) In this season of Lent, think about your way of life and repent your foolish return and return back to the full dependence on the grace of Jesus Christ!