5 episodes
Freedom – what does it mean? As the Christian Church begins to grow and expand, the message of Jesus gets distracted by the baggage that both the Gentile and Jewish converts bring to this Christian collective across Asia. Paul through his letter to the Galatians addresses some of the rising conflict and with passion shows how Jesus is the only path to true freedom.
As Paul brings Galatians to a close his big idea is solidified: freedom in Christ means living by the Spirit. How do we live by the Spirit? What is the work that the Spirit wants to do in our lives? What does this mean for us as a Church and a community? How do we know the Spirit is working in us?
Jesus who was born under The Law came to redeem us who are under The Law so that we could receive His inheritance. We are no longer children of slavery but children of freedom. We have this freedom, like Isaac, we are children of promise and now live sons and daughters of God.
My freedom is never at the expense of another individual, if Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law, how am I to relate to it then? How does the law interact with God’s promises and our faith in Christ? What does it mean to live as one who is free?
In Chapter 2 Paul starts to address some of the religious leaders that are trying to revert the gentiles to the old way of doing things and he uses his confrontation of Peter as an example. Freedom does not mean we continue to live under The Law; but it is the renewing of us as individuals, families and communities. Not just one people but a multiethnic community.
The series opens in Galatians Chapter 1. In the introduction to the letter to the Church in Galatia, Paul reminds the Church that Jesus is the only way to experience true freedom. Paul draws on his personal experience of meeting Jesus and the call He places to illustrate how there is only one Gospel.