Works or Faith?

Are you free? If you are free, then what makes you free?

Is your freedom from:

The country you live in?

The financial security in your bank account?

The ability you possess to accomplish even hard things?

The following of religious laws and rules?

The problem with all those is that they all depend on things that could change.

Paul talks about true freedom in Galatians 5:1-6.

Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

We have been set free by God so that we can be free.

We have been so conditioned by life to believe that, when someone does something for us, it has a condition or price tag. We think that the person who does something for us wants something from us.

Paul says that God is not like that. God has set us free so that we can be free. God has not set us free so we can do something for Him. He has set us free so we can be free.

We are to stand firm and not let anyone take us back into slavery. Slavery in this context means depending on anything for our freedom except Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting Jesus make us free and depending on Jesus for our freedom.

Galatians 5:2-4

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

Paul uses the example of circumcision to show why trying to find freedom in keep the law does not work.

When we depend on the law or anything else that is about what we do, it leads to declaring that Jesus is of no value.

If by what we do we could make ourselves free or justify ourselves, then Jesus’ death on the cross means nothing. It means that Jesus’ death was unnecessary and foolish.

If by what we do we could make ourselves free or justify ourselves, then we have to obey all of the law. We cannot just obey part of the law or even most of the law, and we have to do it one hundred percent of the time. We cannot have one slip.

If by what we do we could make ourselves free or justify ourselves, then we alienate ourselves from Jesus and fall away from grace.

Doing all the right things all the time cannot free us or justify us because we cannot do it.

Law cannot free us.

Law cannot justify us.

Law can enslave us.

So, what frees and justifies us?

Galatians 5:5-6

But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Paul says that there are two things that free us.

One is faith.

Two is love.

Faith in Jesus, and love from Jesus, and that love being expressed through the way we live, will bring us real freedom.

Jesus was the freest person who has ever lived. He had complete trust in the Father, He knew that the Father loved Him, and Jesus lived out that love by loving others. 

The Holy Spirit gives us that same ability as He indwells us.

Through the Spirit we can:

Have complete faith in God

Know that God loves us

Love others with nothing held back

It is not about rules or religion.

It is about relationship.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on the indwelling presence and work of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus came to free us and save us. We can be saved but still living in bondage based on a lie. The lie is: It is based on us, how hard we try and how well we perform that sets us free.

Jesus wants you to be free so you can be free.

In Freedom Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe