Freedom in Christ means being set free from two things at once: from the guilt of sin, and from the exhausting effort to earn God’s approval by keeping rules. In Galatians 5, Paul says Christ set us free so that we would stand firm and not go back under a yoke of slavery, and that yoke can be open sin or a self-made list of religious performances. It is the freedom to be counted right with God by grace, and then to actually live by His Spirit.
“For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 CSB)
I think most of us hear the word freedom and picture only one kind of chain, the obvious one. The addictions, the habits, the sins we would list if someone asked what we were struggling with. That really is something we need freedom from, and Christ does free us from it. But Paul is worried about a second yoke here, one that looks respectable, even holy, and it traps sincere believers all the time. We need to see both, because you can walk out of one prison straight into the other and never notice you are still not free.
What is the freedom we are called into?
Paul calls it freedom from a yoke of slavery. A yoke is what you put on an animal to make it pull your load, and Paul says do not put it back on. But notice what he is not saying. He is not saying now that you are free, do whatever you want. The freedom of Christ is not lawlessness. It is freedom for something: the Greek word Paul uses is the freedom of one who is no longer a slave, freedom to finally live the way you were made to live, led by the Spirit of God instead of driven by either your appetites or your rule-keeping.
Here is the piece we forget. As believers we understand that the Old Testament Law could never save us. We understand it was never even designed to. But if the good law that God Himself gave could not make us right with God, how much less can a list of rules we invented for ourselves? That is the strange trap. We leave the sins behind, and then we quietly build our own private law and start pulling that load instead, sure that this is what pleases God. Real change was never going to come that way. It comes when a heart is changed by God’s love from the inside out, not managed from the outside by a longer list.
You cannot stand with one foot in slavery
Paul gets blunt (as he likes to do) in the next verses, using circumcision as the test case, because that was the specific rule the Galatians were being pressured to add to their faith.
“Take note! I, Paul, am telling you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law. You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.” (Galatians 5:2-4 CSB)
That is stronger language than maybe we are comfortable with. Paul says you cannot keep one foot in slavery and one foot in freedom. The moment you make any rule the basis of your standing with God, you have signed up for the whole law, all of it, and you have stepped off of grace to do it. It is not that the rule itself is evil. Bible reading and giving and gathering with the church are good. It is that the instant you make them the ground you stand on before God, you have traded the solid ground for sand.
Where does your justification come from?
So Paul’s question is about justification, a courtroom word that simply means to be legally declared not guilty. And it is worth letting that question search you honestly, the way David asked God to search him.
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:23-24 CSB)
Here is the searching question. If you were standing before God and He asked what right you had to be in His presence, what made you someone free from guilt and welcome in relationship with Him, is there any part of you that would start listing things you had done? Your Bible reading. Your giving. Your church attendance. Those are good things, but the instant they become your answer to that question, you have left grace behind. Paul says we are fully dependent on the grace of God for our justification. There is no value we add by performing. Jesus said the same thing in the plainest possible terms.
“So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.” (John 8:36 CSB)
Really free. Not free-ish, not free as long as you keep the streak going. And this is exactly what Jesus was getting at when He said our righteousness had to surpass the rule-keeping of the experts, because the righteousness that counts was never about the length of the list. To leave grace as the footing for your life, when grace is the one place you can actually stand, makes no sense. Why would you walk off of it?
Freedom is not a license to sin, and not a license to make rules
Now at this point, we should ask the obvious question: If there is no law holding us in line, what happens to how people behave? Won’t freedom just turn into a mess? Paul answers that question next.
“For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.” (Galatians 5:13 CSB)
Watch how carefully he says it. Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. And the flesh wants two opposite things. Sometimes it wants to sin. Sometimes it wants to build a new set of rules and feel superior for keeping them. Both are the flesh. Both are a way of grabbing the wheel back from the Spirit. Paul’s answer to both is the same. The goal isn’t to be an excellent rule-keeper. It’s love.
“For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14 CSB)
Then he tells us how that happens day to day, and it is the fundamental difference between the two ways of living.
“I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (Galatians 5:16-18 CSB)
Are you motivated by a list, checking your behavior against the rules to make sure you measure up? Paul says that is not freedom. Or are you letting God’s Spirit actually shape you, so that the character that God wants for you starts growing out of you—the way love grows when we walk with Him—rather than being forced on from the outside? One of those is a yoke. The other is the life Christ set you free for. Real character is the fruit the Spirit grows in a person, not the conduct a person grinds out on their own.
Keep in step with the Spirit
So what does freedom in Christ actually look like? Paul gives it to us in one short line.
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25 CSB)
Keeping in step is not the same as keeping a list. A list you can complete and then coast, or fail and then despair. Keeping in step with the Spirit is a relationship, a moment-by-moment following, the freedom to thrive and live the way God made you to live. And the ground under all of it never moves, because your standing was settled by grace before you took the first step.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2 CSB)
No condemnation. Not less condemnation, not condemnation held back as long as you perform. None. That is the footing you get to stand on, and it is the reason you can stop pulling both loads, the load of your sin and the load of your self-made rules. You were both saved and loved by grace, and grace is the one place solid enough to stand.
For freedom, Christ set us free. So stand firm. Do not pick the yoke back up, whichever one it is.
Frequently asked questions about freedom in Christ
What does freedom in Christ mean?
Freedom in Christ means being released both from the guilt and power of sin and from the pressure to earn God’s acceptance by keeping rules. In Galatians 5, Paul frames it as freedom from a yoke of slavery, and he counts both open sin and self-made religious performance as that yoke. It is the freedom to be justified by grace and then live led by the Spirit.
What is freedom in Christ according to Galatians 5?
Galatians 5 says Christ set us free so we would stand firm and not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Paul warns that trying to be justified by the law, even a good rule, means falling from grace, and he defines the free life as walking by the Spirit and serving one another in love rather than following a checklist.
Does freedom in Christ mean we can do whatever we want?
No. Paul explicitly says not to use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Freedom in Christ is not lawlessness; it is being freed from both sin and legalism so you can live the way you were actually made to live. The evidence of that freedom is love for others, which fulfills the whole law.
What is the yoke of slavery in Galatians 5:1?
The yoke of slavery is anything you put back on yourself as the basis of your standing with God after Christ has freed you. In context Paul means the Old Testament law, especially circumcision, used as a way to be justified, but the principle also covers any self-made rule we treat as the ground of our acceptance. Paul says do not put that yoke back on.
How do I walk in freedom in Christ?
You stop making your rule-keeping the basis of your standing with God and rest your justification entirely on grace, then you keep in step with the Spirit day by day rather than working a checklist. It is a relationship, a moment-by-moment following, rather than a streak you maintain or a list you complete. You’re going to learn how to do this over the course of your life with God. You can start by allowing the Holy Spirit to direct you, and by asking Him to show you what He’s doing in your heart and asking Him to help you join Him in His work. You’ll find that He’s growing certain character in you and leading you to think and act in more loving ways. Say yes to Him.
Isaac Henson
Taking care of home, pastor, science teacher, Bible reader