You’re really free. Be glad.

Steve Brown:
You’re really free. Be glad. Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers, because life’s hard for everyone, grace is for all of us. Our host is seminary professor and author, Steve Brown.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. I hope you had a great weekend and I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. If you’re just joining us, we’re, and we’ve been doing it for a long time. We’re studying the book of Galatians. That’s my favorite. Well, I’d have to say maybe Romans and then Galatians, my most famous books, favorite books in the entire Bible. And the book of Galatians talks about grace and freedom. And it is so clear, so crystal clear, that it’ll cause you even if you’re not charismatic and I’m not, to speak in tongues. Okay. And what we’re gonna do, beginning today is that we’re going to look at a particular text. We’re up to the fifth chapter of Galatians verses 13 through 25, that’s the end of that chapter. And we’re going to, we’re going to talk about freedom, but in just a little different way. And I’ll explain as we get into it, but first it’s our practice to pray before we study, so let’s do that. Father, sometimes we are so thankful that you wrote it down. We would have gotten it wrong and our neurotic attitude would mess up the truth of what you have given us. And so you wrote it down and we praise you for that, for your Word, for its truth, for the stable anchor that it is in our law lives, when the world is everything but stable. Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you also for your love, for your forgiveness, for your mercy, for the gift of your son. You are an awesome God and a good God and awesome and good all the time. Father, you know the people who are listening to this broadcast right now, and you know how hard it is for some. And you know the rough road that some are walking, the pain that they feel, the sleepless nights. Oh Father, you are our only resource sufficient for every need, come and meet those people at the point of that need. And then Father, for others of us, we rejoice, because it’s pretty good right now. Remind us that you’re a God who laughs and mingles your laughter with our laughter. And then Father, as always, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast, forgive him his sins, cause there are many, we would see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Alright, if you have your Bible, open it to the fifth chapter and I’m going to begin at the 13th first. If you’re driving, you keep your eyes on the road. You scare the spit out of me sometime, but I’m going to start at the 13th verse of the fifth chapter of Galatians in our continuing study. Paul writes.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For 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 prevent you from doing what you would. But if you were led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party, spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like.

Oh my.

And I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love. joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. For if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by this Spirit. Let us have no self conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.

Now we’re going to talk about freedom, but first I want to go down a side road, a clarifying side road, and it’s this. Paul is not, and I repeat not talking about work salvation in this text. I mean he talks about all the bad stuff. And if you don’t find yourself in there, in at least two or three of them, then you’re probably not reading it properly. But this is not, you do good and you get saved, and you don’t do good, and you’re going to be lost for all of eternity. How do I know that, because the entire book of Galatians is about that subject. And if you’ve been listening to me, and you never listen to me, you know, that the book of Galatians says we’re not under the law. And that we are saved by Jesus, by grace, by faith and nothing else. And whenever he adds something to it, or take something away, you’re messing with God’s word, which clearly teaches what I just said. So then you go through the book of Galatians, and you’re dancing in front of the throne, and you’re so pleased, than you hit this text. And this text will knock you for a loop, and the legalist love to use this text. They like to take us, and beat us over the head with this text, without any context. And as somebody has said often.

A text without a context is a pretext.

Well, I’m going to give you the context. And I’m going to teach this text and the way, that I sincerely believe, and every Bible scholar I know, who’s faithful to the word knows, this is not a works salvation text. Now I’m going to say some things later on, as we begin to get into this text, about freedom. And I’m going to give you a definition of freedom, before we finish today, but it’s very, very important that freedom is understood as freedom. Freedom to do it right, freedom to do it wrong, freedom to follow or not follow, freedom to love or not love, freedom to be a obedient or not be obedient. None of that, as important in so far as it references your salvation and you got to get that, or you can’t get this text. You, if, if you don’t have that at the very heart of what you believe about your faith, about the Bible, about the book of Galatians specifically, then you’re going to miss what this thing is all about. Okay. This is a good working definition. I maybe stole it from somebody. I just don’t remember who, so it’s, it’s mine. I actually think I did write it.

Freedom is that state in which a child of God is accepted by God forever, on the basis, and the sole basis of Christ’s finished work on the Cross. It is always accompanied by God’s Spirit and the life of the child of God, whereby the fear of failure is replaced by freedom, and a desire to succeed in the obedient and Godly life.

Now, I don’t have a lot more time in this broadcast today, but we’ll get in it tomorrow. But you know sometimes, you can understand something by understanding first what it’s not. And when we’re talking about freedom, that’s certainly true. You know, you can make freedom, and Paul mentions it, and we’re going to get into it. You can make freedom into licentiousness or license. You can take the freedom and say, and we’re going to see the differences as we study this text. You can take the legitimate and honest and real freedom we’ve been talking about, and you can use it to hurt people, to destroy what is God’s, to commit evil, and to do it with an easy conscience. If you do that, that’s not Biblical freedom, but don’t forget that you’re free, thank God almighty free at last. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. That was Steve Brown, teaching us through Galatians 5:13-26. There’s a lot to unpack here, and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing the rest of the week. Sure, hope you’ll join us. You know, our language is funny, you can get your pet fixed, but that’s different than fixing a broken lamp. If you’re from the South, you could be fixing to do something, including fixing someone’s wagon, which has nothing to do with repairing anything. But there are times when we just can’t fix it. Maybe someone has hurt you, maybe your kids are in trouble, maybe it’s a spouse who isn’t a believer. Well, what do we do then? Well, that’s exactly what Steve speaks about in an article appropriately titled You Can’t Fix It. You can find that article in the new 2021 edition of Key Life Magazine, along with other great pieces by Robin DeMurga. Chris Wachter and Chad West. Grab your free copy, right now by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email [email protected] and ask for the magazine. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

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