The Constitution and the Bill of Rights laid out the guidelines within which our freedom would be lived.  We are free, but our freedom has to answer to a higher authority, the authority of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  For example, the Bill of Rights states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”  We are free to practice whatever religion we desire, we are free to speak our minds, and we are free to gather peacefully to petition the government for a redress of grievances, but we are not free to restrict someone else’s practice of religion, or to restrict someone else’s speech, or to restrict others from gathering in a peaceful manner to petition the government for a redress of grievances.  We gained freedom from the tyranny of the monarchy of Great Britain, but we were vulnerable to our own tyranny, so we created a Constitution and a Bill of Rights that would protect us from ourselves.

 

Freedom, sweet freedom.  Those who have always had freedom take it for granted, but those who have been enslaved know how sweet freedom is.  And they know how tenuous it is, how easily it can be corrupted.  Paul began Chapter 5 of his letter to the Galatians by stating, “For freedom Christ has set us free.”  But he followed this with an exhortation to “stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).  Once we are free, we must stand firm and not submit again to slavery.

 

The freedom from slavery that Paul was talking about was freedom from the law found in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament:  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  The question with which the Galatian Christians were struggling was, “Were Christians justified before God – that is, made right with God – by observance of the law found in Torah, or were they justified before God – made right with God – by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ?” 

 

Some people had been teaching the Galatian Christians that they must follow the law of Torah in order to be justified before God, particularly the command to be circumcised.  For the Jews, circumcision was the sign of their acceptance of a covenantal relationship with God.  But Paul maintained that the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, which was so great that he was willing to be crucified, was the only thing Christians had to believe in to be justified before God.  For Christians, baptism was the sign of their acceptance of a covenantal relationship with God.  In their baptism, the Galatian Christians had been joined to Jesus as children of God and heirs of the kingdom and could now call God “Father” (3:26-27, 4:6-7).  To seek righteousness through the law of the Torah meant denying the righteousness they received from the faithfulness of Jesus, the Messiah.[1]  The Galatian Christians had received the Holy Spirit and were to live by the power of the Spirit, not by the law of the Torah.

 

Now that they were free, they were not to submit to any yoke of slavery – not the yoke of the law of the Torah or the yoke of their own indulgences.  They were not free to do as they pleased, but free to live by the Spirit.  In other words, they were not free to bite, devour, and consume one another, or free to indulge in satisfying all their sensual desires, or free to quarrel with one another and create factions in their church community.  Instead, they were free to live by the Spirit.  They were free to answer to a higher authority than the Torah – the authority of Jesus, gained through his faithfulness, and expressed through the Spirit.

 

And, if that is what they did, if they submitted to that higher authority and were guided by the Spirit, they would reap the harvest of the Spirit and taste the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

 

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free:  freedom to love, freedom to be joyful, freedom to have peace, freedom to be patient, freedom to be kind, freedom to be generous, freedom to be faithful, freedom to be gentle, freedom to have self-control.  Freedom to live in the Spirit, freedom to be guided by the Spirit, and freedom to be fed by the fruit of the Spirit – freedom, in other words, to experience God’s kingdom on earth.

 

As Christians, we have been freed from the tyranny of the legal restrictions of the law of the Torah.  But we have been freed so we can answer to a higher authority, the authority of Jesus Christ, an authority gained through his faithfulness and expressed through the Holy Spirit.  It is that authority that saves us from ourselves, from the havoc we would wreak on ourselves if left to our own devices.  The faith of Jesus Christ is our Declaration of Independence, and the Holy Spirit is our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.  May we long celebrate Independence Day, honoring the freedom into which we have been delivered by Jesus Christ, and in which we are guided by the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

Sermon preached by the Rev. Amy Johnson at the Canton Community Baptist Church, CT, Sunday, July 7, 2024, the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost.

 

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[1] Quote adapted from Luke T. Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament:  An Interpretation.  Philadelphia:  Fortress Press, 1986, 307.