FROM BONDAGE TO LIBERTY

“Stand fast therefore in the LIBERTY by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of BONDAGE” – Galatians 5:1

Transformation in Christ involves radical lifting FROM BONDAGE to LIBERTY: “Stand fast therefore in the LIBERTY by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of BONDAGE” (Gal.5:1). This is the sole verse in the New King James Version that uses the phrase “yoke of bondage”! Earlier, Paul spoke of an incident where some folks had tried to get him and other ministers to require Gentile males to be circumcised. He surmised that: “this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage)” (Gal. 2:4). He referred to us, prior to salvation, being “in bondage under the elements of the world” until God delivered us from enslaving thoughts and actions through Christ’s sacrifice for sins (Gal.4:3-4).

Bondage means “to make a slave of” through slavish thinking and practices. Paul wondered why the brethren desired to still be in bondage to “weak and beggarly elements” (Gal.4:9). These were heathen observances and pagan practices that they engaged in prior to knowing Christ. Some had erroneously dragged worldly religious customs from their pagan backgrounds into the Church. He also tried to correct the idea of earning salvation by works rather than by Grace through Faith.

To the previously Gentile Christians, Paul was saying, “Don’t go back to the worldly ways you practiced prior to knowing God.” To the Christians of Jewish background who thought they could earn salvation by obedience to God’s law, he was saying, “Don’t hold onto that mistaken view. We are saved by God’s grace.” Both were entangled with the yoke of bondage – of error. Spiritual liberty comes from knowing the truth: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jh.8:32). Jesus – the Living Word – is the Truth (Jh.14:6). “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (Jh.8:36).

Another heavy yoke is Bondage to Sin. Prior to embracing the Lord Jesus, we were slaves to sin: “whoever commits sin is a SLAVE of SIN” (Jh.8:34b). We were “bound by iniquity” (Acts 8:23). But Jesus came to destroy the Power of Sin and all other nefarious activities of Satan: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1Jh.3:8). Acts 10:38 says, “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” In defeating the devil and breaking the dominion of sin, He has made us Free Indeed!

Jesus came with the clear mandate and anointing “to preach the gospel to the poor…to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim LIBERTY to the CAPTIVES and recovery of sight to the blind, to SET at LIBERTY those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk.4:18b). He not only PROCLAIMS LIBERTY to the captives, He SETS at LIBERTY those who are oppressed by Satan. Christ’s redemptive grace “has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Col.1:13-14).

In Christ, we are born into liberty: the liberty to serve God, to enjoy life in Him, and accomplish destiny. We’re superior to Satan and never meant to be in bondage to him, except by default of disobedience or ignorance. Dead to sin and alive to God, we are no longer in servitude to Satan or in bondage to darkness (Rom.6:12-14). Now, as Christ’s Love Slaves, it is our responsibility to stand fast in this Liberty and never be entangled in bondage: “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (v.13).