Let us take one more opportunity to deal with
this passage. It is crucial to a true
perspective about the Christian life.
The “law of liberty” (as James calls it, Jas. 2:12) keeps the believer
from the evil of either extreme.
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LEGALISM |
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“an opportunity for
the flesh (Gal. 5:13b) |
“you were called to
freedom” (Gal. 5:13a) |
“a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1) |
We have noted that
the believer in Christ does not live the Christian life by his best
efforts. He walks in faith, dependent on
the Word of God and the Spirit of God to enable him to live out the love of
God. Truly, Christ lives in the believer
and the life he lives he lives by the faith of the Son of God (Gal. 2:20).
What does this mean in practice? Does the Christian just sit on his couch with
his Bible in hand, waiting for God to pick him up and drop him into a situation
where he is then manipulated like a puppet?
That is as ridiculous as it sounds.
Scripture tells us the body of sin has been crucified along with its
passions and desires (Gal. 5:24). The
Christian presents his body to Christ as a living sacrifice. As God leads through His Word/Spirit the Christian
serves Him. Again, in Gal. 2:20 Paul
says: nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me. In Phil. 4:13 he says, I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. The
believer has taken on the yoke of Christ. Take My yoke upon you and learn from me …
for My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Mt. 11:28-30). We are not free to do whatever we want
(antinomianism, no law); we are His servants, the servants of a gentle Master.
This “yoke” is in Galatians 5. We have been called to liberty, only do
not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one
another. The yoke reminds us that if
we live according to the flesh we return to the miserable life from which we fled
when we came to Christ. Life according
to the flesh is always lived out in the culture of death into which we were
born. By the new birth we have escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Pt. 1:4). Thus we are called to abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul (1 Pt. 2:11).
Christ’s yoke calls
us to serve one another through love.
This is not the only place we see this call. Our life in the world is lived as people who
have freedom in Christ; yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as
bondservants of God (1 Pt. 2:15-16).
Likewise, our life in the fellowship of believers is lived the same way:
But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to
those who are weak (1 Cor. 8:9). And
by the way, the alternative is that we bite and devour one another,
ultimately to be consumed by one another. That is not the eternal life that God
has gifted to us but is the miserable life of the flesh.
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me!
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