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In “How to Embrace Your True Freedom in Christ,” Nate Roten explores Galatians 5:1-6, emphasizing that Christ set us free to live freely. The article contrasts the old covenant of law with the new covenant of grace, using the illustrations of Hagar and Sarah to highlight the difference between slavery and freedom. It urges readers to stand firm in their faith, reject the yoke of the law, and let their faith work through love. By focusing on Christ’s finished work, believers can maintain their freedom and live a life rooted in grace and love.
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How to Embrace Your True Freedom In Christ
Nate Roten / Galatians 5:1-6 | May 4, 2025
Main Idea
We were saved for freedom, but we must learn how to walk in it.
Last week, we discussed the summation of Paul’s arguments and theological truths in a simple illustration from Israel’s history:
· 2 mothers
· 2 locations
· 2 descendants
Hagar, the slave woman, represents Mount Sinai and the old covenant of law: a system rooted in human effort, external obedience, and spiritual bondage. Her son, Ishmael, was born through man’s impatience, not God’s promise, and reflects what is produced when we rely on our own strength to secure God’s blessings of salvation and justification. This covenant cannot produce true heirs; it leaves us enslaved under the weight of the law. Paul even likens present-day Jerusalem, still clinging to the law, to this spiritual slavery—earthly, conditional, and powerless to save.
In contrast, Sarah symbolizes the new covenant of grace, freedom, and divine fulfillment. Though barren and beyond hope, she gave birth to Isaac through God’s supernatural intervention. Isaac—the child of promise—came not through effort, but through faith, and serves as a picture of what it means to be born of the Spirit. His story reminds us that inheritance in God’s kingdom doesn’t come by status, effort, ethnicity, or law-keeping, but by God’s sovereign grace alone. It is only those born of the promise—through grace and by the Spirit—who are the true heirs of God’s kingdom.
Passage
Galatians 5:1–6 CSB
1 For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Take note! I, Paul, am telling you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. 3 Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.
I – For Freedom…
The reason we have been set free is to live free! While we learned last week that Paul summarized his arguments and theological truths in the illustration of the two moms, mountains, and sons, this verse serves as the application summary of everything he has said thus far!
Christ has freed you for the purpose of living freely. Upon your salvation, you were born free, should live free, and will die free. Freedom is a defining aspect of the Christian life. That is why Paul repeats himself in 30 different ways—the Galatian church was set free by faith in Christ, and Paul was teaching them how to walk in that newfound freedom. Now, to his dismay, they are willingly returning to slavery. So what does he do? He encapsulates his arguments in a quick one-liner and then provides ways to reject slavery, embrace freedom, and remain in freedom.
In chapters 3-4, Paul didn’t give many commands because he was laying down theological foundations. Now, he is telling them to act on the information they have just learned from him. Today, there are three commands to discover and embrace:
1. Take note
2. Stand Firm
3. Don’t Submit to Slavery
Let’s dive in with the Galatians and discover how to do the same.
II – Take Note!
Great! I am ready… I’ve got my notebook and favorite pen in-hand… but what am I taking note of?
Paul goes on to talk about circumcision, justification by law, hopes for righteousness, and other topics. While these are certainly part of the immediate context, I believe the issue is broader. Remember that 5:1 is a summary statement following a summary illustration. Therefore, Paul urges you to recall the points he has made to better prepare you for the application. In short, note the flow of thought from the beginning to understand how to apply it.
Take note of:
• The deception of the false teachers
• The distortion of their gospel
• The divisive nature of their gospel
• The nature of the true gospel
• The way I (Paul) nurtured you
• How I was taught and commissioned by the risen Christ, Himself
• The inability of the law to make you righteous
• The purpose of the law as a guardian and mirror that reveals sin
• The outcome of trusting in the law for righteousness leading only to imprisonment
• Now… take note of the impact your next decision will have on you.
III – Don’t Submit to Slavery
Again
Don’t miss this word… it is significant. This one word explains the core nature of their past and their future, should they trust in the law for righteousness and justification. How, you might ask? Think about this… what were the Galatians before accepting Jesus as the Messiah (and what were all of us before our conversions)? Were we not lost in darkness and enslaved to sin? They came from various pagan backgrounds. Maybe you did too, or perhaps you came from atheism or even a lifeless cultural Christian environment. That is where you were.
Where are you now? You are freed from the bondage of sin and brought out of darkness! When you receive Jesus as Lord, you are set free to live freely. There is no condemnation and no enslavement to your past carnal desires. No more broken relationship with God. Now, you are growing in that freedom and Christlikeness.
Where are you going? Back into slavery? Why? Weren’t you relieved to be freed from your previous prison? Why are you okay with going back in? Don’t you know that the law can be just as enslaving as your previous lifestyle or beliefs? How can that be, you ask? Because only Jesus can set you free. If you do not trust Him for freedom, justification, and inheritance… then you are trusting in something that does not have the power to give freedom. If it doesn’t free you, it will enslave you.
Think of your trust as a large package. You need to place that parcel somewhere, and before you are two containers big enough to hold your trust. One is the law, and the other is Christ. Those are your options… but it can’t be both. You cannot divide your package… it is one large, securely taped package. If you place it in Christ, it cannot simultaneously be in the other container labeled ‘law.’ The same is true if you place your trust in the ‘law.’ If it is there, your trust has no relation to Christ.
Yoke
The main image Paul associates with slavery is the yoke—not an egg yoke (which is delicious and nutritious)—but a yoke designed to tether an ox to a plow. The clear implication is:
1. The ox cannot escape from the yoke. It is locked in place.
2. The yoke ensures that the person behind the reins is the one in control.
3. The yoke goes on when the taskmaster wants the ox to carry out the laborious tasks.
The yoke, however, is not inherently negative. This imagery was widely used regarding a Rabbi’s teaching to his students. Jesus is no exception. He said that His yoke was easy and its burden light. Therefore, the burden of a yoke (or a Rabbi’s teaching and expectations for application) was expected and anticipated. It’s not a matter of “will there be a burden,” but of “how burdensome is it,” and “where is it directing me?”
A yoke that steers you toward freedom is a light yoke, but one that guides you into slavery is indeed a harsh one! When we connect the yoke imagery to what we have learned about the law, we understand why. This yoke comes with the unbearable burden of keeping all of God’s laws perfectly to earn righteousness, and if Israelite history has taught us anything, it is that this is an impossible load!
What then is the solution? Don’t submit to that yoke! If you willingly put it on, you must bear its burdens. So if you want to maintain your freedom, don’t bow your head to receive and submit to it in the first place!
But you might then ask the question, “What does the yoke look like?” Or, “What burdens does it come with?” Paul has an answer for you.
The obligation of circumcision
Circumcision is mentioned four times, highlighting its significance for Paul and the considerable trap into which the Galatians were about to fall. Remember, these individuals are primarily Gentiles, not Jews; the false teachers were telling them that if they wanted to be saved and considered part of God’s covenant people, they had to willingly adopt the sign of the covenant as a part of obeying the covenant law. One clear issue with this declaration is that it undermines the sufficiency of Jesus’ work on the cross that redeemed us and paid the penalty we owed. This introduces another necessary requirement for being made right with God (or being made righteous), which lies WELL outside the boundaries of orthodox belief. And, as the previous illustration pointed out, Jesus is of no benefit whatsoever to you because the fullness of your trust is in the law. If your trust is fully in the law, it is fully absent from Jesus, and thus, you don’t benefit from anything He has to offer.
Secondly, and just as destructively, it obligates you to the yoke and the impossible task of pulling the weight of the law throughout your entire life, just as an ox must pull a heavy plow. Similarly, just as your trust (or package) is one unit, so is the law. You don’t have the option to bear part of the law or a piece at a time, allowing you to build your strength and stamina to then pull the entire load. It isn’t optional or partial. Once you permit that yoke to be placed on your shoulders, you are locked in, and the grueling task of works-based righteousness begins… and never ends.
As R.C. Sproul says, to do this, “It is to return again to the dominion of sin and the law’s curse.”
The fallout of justification by the law
Alienated from Christ. This literally means to cause something to come to an end, abolish, wipe out, sever, or, quite literally, “reduce to inactivity.” Therefore, if you place your trust in your justification (being innocent before God) by the Law, then you are effectively “severed” from Christ, and your close relationship with Him has been rendered inactive. This is an emotional response, and it’s vital for us to see that Jesus isn’t the one who is alienating us… we are alienating ourselves by removing Christ from the equation. In embracing the law, we are rejecting Christ. We are the ones who hold up an outstretched hand and say, “Thanks, but no thanks. I have all I need right here in the law.” When you distance yourself from Christ in that way, what do you think would happen next?
Fallen from grace. Imagine that upon your conversion, you are placed on a platform high on a mountaintop in God’s presence. You don’t have to climb or exert any effort to get there. His grace places you there. If you notice the platform you stand on, you will see that it is only wide enough for you. God desires that you do not move away from Him in any direction, but that you remain close. Here, on this platform, you have everything you need as you trust in His sustaining presence.
What do you think would happen if you took matters into your own hands and decided to trust your ability to move around on that platform? That’s right… you would likely fall off. That is the picture Paul paints here. You are in right standing with God (justified) because of His grace. He cleansed you and clothed you in white garments. He drew you to Himself. He placed you in Christ’s ‘container,’ so to speak. The Galatians wanted to be in the Law’s container, which means they took a giant leap backward away from Christ. They didn’t just put distance between themselves and God; they were falling… hurling downward away from His grace.
This isn’t a picture of last salvation, but it signifies a loss of the freedom Jesus purchased for them and an entanglement that leads back to the unbearable burden of the Law’s yoke. If it’s impossible to earn your salvation, it is equally impossible to un-earn it. If you are constantly turning to the Law and trusting in its power to save you, you might want to reflect on whether or not you genuinely received Jesus to begin with.
Paul’s warnings to the Galatians serve as a sober reminder for us today that begs the question: Are we truly taking Scripture’s cautions to heart, or treating them as optional advice? The call to fully embrace our freedom in Christ is not just about avoiding sin—it’s about surrendering our whole selves to Him rather than dividing our devotion among lesser things. When we trust in our own efforts instead of Christ’s faithfulness and sustaining power, we unknowingly enslave ourselves to what cannot save. Worse still, each time we do so, we drift further from the One who lovingly redeemed us.
IV – Stand Firm
This means exactly what you think it does: to be firmly committed in conviction or belief, to stand (maintain), to hold one’s ground. If you have ever studied the armor of God in Ephesians 6, then you might have learned that the shoes Romans wore in battle had spikes on them, like cleats on steroids. This feature enabled them to remain grounded and made them difficult to push back. Because they were literally rooted to the ground, they could stand firm against enemy attacks.
This is battle language. Take your stand and be immovable. Paul exhorts the Galatians now, just as he will the Corinthians later:
1 Corinthians 16:13 CSB
13 Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.
The reality of living in a country or kingdom is that others will always want to take what you have. That is why nations maintain armies and why God’s people are called to be warriors. In this case, the Galatians were being targeted (though they didn’t perceive it that way) by false teachers and false teachings. Paul calls them to recognize it for what it is and to stand their ground. But, as before, we need to know what they are supposed to stand firm IN. Consider the following to be the spikes on your battle boots that keep you planted and standing firm.
In Freedom. We’ve discussed this already, but it bears repeating. We are no longer enslaved to our sin or to the law that produces a performance-based relationship. We don’t have to submit to the impossible burden of the law’s yoke. In Christ, we are free to enjoy our great God and all that He has for us.
In Christ’s Purpose. Take heart knowing that when Christ purchased you with His own life, He bought you for a purpose. He didn’t casually purchase you like a wealthy person might buy a painting they like on a whim to have something to hang on the wall of their second home, which they visit only once every other year. Christ has a purpose for your life. Stand firm in that reality!
In faith. The only way we can live the Christian life is by faith. Stand firm in Christ’s finished work and let your actions be an overflow of your relationship with Him, not an effort to appease Him or to remain in right standing with Him. The righteous will live by faith and will receive the blessings and inheritances of Abraham by faith. If you need encouragement in this, read Hebrews 11.
In Love. The faith you have in Christ operates through your love for Him. Remember, you can love Him only because He first loved you, and as you have been adopted as a son or daughter, there will never be a time when you lose that love. Now that you have experienced God’s love, you radiate God’s love.
In Grace. It was God’s grace, motivated by love, that caused Him to draw you to Himself in the first place. Grace isn’t earned; it is given. If it is given, then you can stand firm in the knowledge that God was the first to take action. Like His love, if you did nothing to earn it, you can’t do anything to disqualify yourself from keeping it.
In the Hope of Righteousness. Hope isn’t wishful thinking; it is confidence in a future outcome. In Christ, we are made righteous, but while we are still in this body, that fullness is not yet realized. However, there will come a day when we will be made new; the corruptible will be made incorruptible, and when we see Jesus, we will be like Him in a completed state of sanctification.
🔥 Application Points:
1. Stand Firm in the Freedom Christ Won.
Freedom is a gift—but it must be guarded.
Don’t drift back into performance-based religion or old patterns of slavery.
➤ Reflect: Where am I tempted to rely on my own effort instead of resting in Christ?
2. Don’t Submit to a Yoke You Were Freed From.
Any trust placed outside of Christ becomes a burden too heavy to bear.
Refuse to take on religious expectations that Christ already fulfilled.
➤ Challenge: What “yoke” am I willingly putting back on that Christ already removed?
3. Let Your Faith Work Through Love.
True faith expresses itself—not through rule-keeping—but through love rooted in grace.
Let your obedience flow from relationship, not requirement.
➤ Act: How can I live out my freedom this week in a way that lovingly reflects Christ?
FAQs
1. What is the main reason we have been set free by Christ?
- The main reason we have been set free by Christ is to live freely. Christ has freed us for the purpose of living freely, and this freedom is a defining aspect of the Christian lif.
2. How does Paul’s illustration of the two mothers (Hagar and Sarah) relate to our freedom in Christ?
- Paul’s illustration of the two mothers represents the contrast between the old covenant of law (Hagar) and the new covenant of grace (Sarah). The old covenant is rooted in human effort and external obedience, leading to spiritual bondage, while the new covenant is rooted in faith and divine fulfillment, leading to true freedom.
3. What is the significance of circumcision in the context of Galatians 5:1-6?
- Circumcision is significant because it represents a sign of the covenant law that the false teachers were urging the Galatians to adopt. This would obligate them to the yoke of the law, which is impossible to keep and would lead them back into slavery. Circumcision undermines the sufficiency of Jesus’ work on the cross and introduces another requirement for righteousness outside of orthodox belief.
4. What does it mean to be “alienated from Christ” in Galatians 5:4?
- To be “alienated from Christ” means to cause something to come to an end, abolish, wipe out, sever, or reduce to inactivity. If you place your trust in justification by the law, you are effectively severed from Christ and your close relationship with Him has been rendered inactive.
5. How does trusting in the law for righteousness lead to a loss of freedom?
- Trusting in the law for righteousness leads to a loss of freedom because it introduces an impossible burden. The law cannot make you righteous, and trusting in it means you are turning away from Christ’s grace and back to the unbearable burden of the law’s yoke. This results in a return to the dominion of sin and the law’s curse.
6. What does it mean to “stand firm” in Galatians 5:1-6?
- To “stand firm” means to be firmly committed in conviction or belief, to maintain one’s ground. It involves recognizing the enemy (false teachers and teachings) and standing firm in the faith, freedom, Christ’s purpose, faith, love, and grace. This means remaining grounded and immovable, like the spiked shoes of the Roman soldiers, to resist the attacks of false teachings.
7. How can we ensure we are not drifting back into performance-based religion or old patterns of slavery?
- We can ensure we are not drifting back into performance-based religion or old patterns of slavery by reflecting on where we are tempted to rely on our own effort instead of resting in Christ. We must stand firm in the freedom Christ won and refuse to take on religious expectations that Christ already fulfilled.
8. How can our faith work through love in a way that reflects Christ?
- Our faith can work through love by expressing itself not through rule-keeping but through love rooted in grace. We should let our obedience flow from relationship, not requirement. This means living out our freedom in a way that lovingly reflects Christ, such as by radiating God’s love and standing firm in the hope of righteousness.