God's Glory Church

“Christ has set us free for freedom. So stand firm in it.” — Galatians 5:1

I grew up in Texas, where there are many African-American churches. Every year on June 19, they organize festive processions and picnics. But only at the age of nineteen I learned about the origin of this holiday. It began to be celebrated in 1865 when enslaved Texans learned that President Lincoln had given them their freedom by signing the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier! They continued to live in slavery because they did not know about their freedom.

You can be free, but live like a slave. In the Epistle to the Galatians, the apostle Paul wrote about another type of slavery – living under the oppression of religious rules. In one of the key verses of this book, he says: “For freedom Christ has set us free. Therefore, stand firm in it and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). Christians were freed from ritual restrictions, such as what to eat or who to associate with. However, many of them, as before, lived as if in slavery.

Unfortunately, this can happen to us as well. But the reality is that the moment we turned to Christ, He freed us from living in fear of the many demands of the law. Freedom has been announced! Let’s live in His power!

Have you had to fall into the trap of religious rules? How did you realize your freedom in Christ?

Lord Jesus, thank you for freeing me from the burden of the law.

Author: Lisa Samra