Galatians 5:1, 13-25 (ESV)

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. ¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. ¹⁶But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 

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Independence Day reminds us of the freedom we have in this nation. The guarantee of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” often results in an undisciplined surrender to whatever impulse, freedom of choice, or personal right that seems most urgent right now.  Saint Paul warns it is dangerous to live according to the flesh saying, “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (13). The freedom to choose is a deceptive lie because our natural will is in bondage to sin.  Independence from God means we are in bondage to the impulses and desires of mind and body which places us under a curse, as Paul writes in Galatians 3:10, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them.”  For those who surrender to the works of the flesh, which can be summed up as indulgence of sexual appetites and lust, idolatry, hostility toward others, and unbridled self-indulgence of sensual pleasures, Paul declares they “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (cf. 19-21).  

The judgment of the Law is clear: “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20).  God has already carried that sentence out; the sinner has been executed. “For our sake [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in [Christ Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Because Jesus died on the cross for our sin, we receive the benefit of His holy obedience and sacrificial death. Everything the Law demands has been fulfilled.  

Everyone who has been Baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus has received the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:38) who creates faith in us and produces the “fruit of the Spirit” which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (22-23). 

So, as we celebrate our nation’s independence, remember that Christian freedom is not living according to your own personal choices and individual rights, but rather living in the Son of God who gave His life for our freedom, which is the freedom for which Christ has set us free.  In Christ we have true liberty and freedom.  

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