Galatians 5:1-15

Set Free For Righteousness

GALATIANS 5:1-15

The goal of the gospel is righteousness, from the Spirit, produced by faith in Christ

1. The Freedom We Were Given

verse 1

• Christ HAS set us free. Past tense. Finished.

• Freedom is the ground you stand on, not the destination.

• Stand firm does not mean advance. It means do not move.

2. The Trade We Are Tempted to Make

verses 2 to 4

• Circumcision meant both: cut out as blessing, cut off as warning.

• At the cross, Christ was cut off, so that you never will be.

• Legalism: treating what is good as though it were essential.

3. The Righteousness We Are Waiting For

verses 5 and 6

• Through the Spirit. By faith. For righteousness.

• Hope is not wishing. You wait for a sunrise, not a verdict.

• Nothing counts but faith working through love.

4. The Freedom That Serves

verses 13 to 15

• Two ditches, not one: legalism and license.

• Freed from the law to become slaves to one another in love.

• A church that keeps score will start eating its own.

You have nothing to add. He left nothing out.

Discussion Questions

The sermon started with the instinct that says there ought to be a bill. Let me pay something. Then I will know it is mine. Where do you notice that instinct in yourself, either with God or with people?

Follow-up: is it easier for you to give a gift or to receive one, and why do you think that is?

The sermon made the point that circumcision carried both blessing and warning, being cut out and being cut off, and that at the cross Jesus was cut off in our place. How does that change the way you hear Paul's warning in verse 4 about being severed from Christ?

Follow-up: why is adding something to Christ the same as losing him, rather than just being unnecessary?

Todd Wilson's definition was that legalism is treating that which is good as though it were essential. Look at the ladder illustration again, where every rung is a genuinely good thing. What rungs are on your ladder right now?

Follow-up: how would you know the difference between doing a good thing out of gratitude and doing it to climb?

Verse 5 says we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness, and the sermon insisted hope here means certainty, waiting like you wait for a sunrise rather than a verdict. How should that truth impact the life of the believer?

Paul says a church that bites and devours ends up consuming itself, and the sermon connected that to keeping score. What is on our unwritten list, the things that quietly signal whether someone is really one of us?