Free in Christ

Free in Christ

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in 1849 and immediately became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, returning south repeatedly to lead others out. When asked if she feared being caught, she said: 'I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.' She was asked once why those she was leading didn't go back when the journey got hard. She said: 'I had a rule. Once you started, you couldn't go back. Because if you went back, you would take too many others with you.' The freedom was real and it was costly. And it could not be compromised once received without endangering everyone else.

Paul wrote Galatians in passionate response to the creeping re-enslavement of believers in the freedom they had received. The false teachers in Galatia were adding legal requirements — circumcision, food laws, calendar observances — as conditions for full acceptance before God. Paul's response is fierce: Christ set you free. To add conditions to grace is to return to slavery. 'Do not let yourselves be burdened again.' The past tense 'has set us free' is a completed action. The present imperative 'stand firm' is the ongoing response. Freedom in Christ is given; it must also be defended — against legalism from without and from the legalistic tendencies within. What freedom that Christ has given are you in danger of surrendering?