1st Sunday after Christmas
Text: Galatians 4:1-7
The Rev. Jerry Kistler
“Free At Last!”
As we approach the end of the twentieth-century, the century that has seen the most creative and the most
destructive energy in the history of man, and as we look back on the truly world-changing events of the past
one-hundred years, its not difficult to see why this century has been a century of great speeches.
Some of you, I’m sure, can still vividly recall the words that brought America into World War II - those very
poignant words of Franklin Roosevelt: “December 7th, 1941 - a date that shall live in infamy,” the day the
Japanese had “only awaken a sleeping giant.”
Some others of you who grew up in the sixties might more vividly remember John F. Kennedy’s words from
his inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you: ask what you can do for your country.”
But who could forget the speech given in front of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963: The “I have a
Dream” speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. I doubt there is anyone here (except for the little guys) who doesn’t
remember the closing line of that speech: “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
There is something so riveting and powerful about those words. And I think it’s just the fact that they appeal to
a concept that we in America so deeply revere: the concept of Liberty. We believe that all men are created equal
and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights: rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. That’s our national creed. “Give me liberty, or give me death” proclaimed Patrick Henry. Liberty is
the life-blood of this nation.
But I wonder. How many of us today really know what liberty is? How many of us really know what it means
to be free? I’m sure that if we were asked to define liberty, most of us could express fairly well what it means
to be free and to have liberty as citizens of this country. But how many of us would even think of our liberty in
terms of our relationship to God? How many today think of liberty as freedom from God rather that freedom in
God? I think perhaps all too many - and some are even in the Church.
The apostle Paul had much to say about liberty. As a matter of fact, he considered the topic so crucial that he
dedicated an entire book to it - his very first book no less. We call it the epistle to the Galatians. And the whole
message of the book of Galatians is about the freedom we have towards God in Jesus Christ.
Now when we think of freedom, we don’t usually think in terms of freedom in something, but freedom from
something: freedom from oppression, freedom from tyranny, from slavery, from bondage. And Paul thinks of
freedom in this way as well. But what Paul says is that if you are going to be from these things, you’ve got be
free in Jesus Christ.
We read this morning that, “when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.”
What does it mean to be under the law?
A father sent his son away to be tutored by the world’s smartest man. And as it is sometimes with highly
intellectual people, this tutor had very little tolerance and compassion towards those with lesser intellectual
abilities. In fact, he had none at all. And so he was constantly threatening and punishing the boy for not
measuring up. And no matter how hard the boy tried, no matter what strides he took, the tutor would only ever
point out the boy’s failures and threaten and punish more. There was nothing for the boy to do but to continue
to strive for the perfection his tutor demanded, but only for fear that he might otherwise suffer some worse
torment. And this went on for years and years, until finally the boy reached the point of utter despair and
simply died.
That’s what it means to be under law.
Paul says that the law of God was our tutor. And because the law of God is perfect, it demands our perfection
but has no compassion for our failures. You can strive with every moral fiber of your being to fulfill its
commands, and the law will only ever call you down for coming up short. And worse still, it threatens the
eternal curse of damnation to those who can’t keep up with it - even for the slightest transgression. And every
threat will be made good, unless you are freed from its bondage, unless you are redeemed from under its
tutelage, unless, in short, you are given liberty in Christ.
Paul says that God placed us under the tutelage of the law for one purpose: to drive us to Christ. That’s what it
means when he says that if we are lead by the Spirit we will not be under the law. If we are lead by the Spirit,
we will be lead to Christ and freedom from the bondage of the law.
The other Martin Luther - the sixteenth-century, German Martin Luther - had some pretty good words himself.
Said Luther, “The law does not make men better, but worse; that is, it shows them their sin, that by the
knowledge thereof, they may be humbled, bruised and broken, and by this means driven to seek comfort, and
so come to that blessed seed, Christ.”
The law beats us up. It batters and bruises our consciences because it only ever accuses and threatens us for
our sins. But though the law continues to cry against us: “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!” the Gospel answers back,
“There is no condemnation for these, for they are free in Jesus Christ!” The Gospel sets at liberty those who
through fear were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
But how does Christ set us free from the bondage of the law? Paul says that it is a freedom that could only
come through death. You see, the law demands the death penalty for sin, because every sin that we commit is
an act of treason against the majesty of God. And so the only way we could ever be freed from the curse of
the law would be to somehow suffer the death penalty, and yet come through it alive.
Imagine it this way: You’re sentenced to death by electrocution in the chair, and the time comes for the
sentence to be executed. It’s just before mid-night and they take you out of your cell and begin to lead you
down the corridor between the other cells. You’re a dead man walking. You finally come to the chair, and they
strap you in and fasten the electrodes to you body. And then they throw the switch. BZZZZZ. A few minutes
later the prison doctor comes in and takes your vitals and pronounces you dead. The Warden then signs the
official documents that declares the sentence to have been fulfilled, the execution completed. But then when
they go to unstrap your body and pull of the hood from your head, suddenly you jump up and say, “Hello, I’m
still here!”
The next thing that would happen (if you’re lawyer was worth his salt, and wasn’t passed-out on the floor) he’
d rush in and say, “Release him! The sentence is fulfilled! You can’t do anything more to him because you
made it official. You declared him dead and the execution complete. The law has no more claim to him. He’s a
free man!”
But you say, “How could that possibly happen?” Well, of course, by nature it couldn’t. But in Christ it can.
Paul says, “I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.” But Paul, how could that possibly be?
How could you die and live? “Because I was crucified with Christ. In Christ, I was dead and buried. My
sentence was carried out. The execution was fulfilled. And so the law has no more claim on me. I’m a free
man.”
It’s through our union with Christ in his death on the cross that we die to the demands of the law, and yet we
live. And so we’re free. We’re out from under the law. “There is now no condemnation for us who are in
Christ Jesus.” The curse has been lifted. The sentence fulfilled. Our debt has been paid, because, through faith,
we are in Christ who paid it all.
And so now may we sing, in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last, Free at last, thank God
Almighty, in Christ we are free at last. +