LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

LTR XV (Academic Year 2002-03): 88-91
SERMON:
“CHOOSE FREEDOM” (GAL. 3:23-29) 1
William Mundt
W
ho would choose to be a prisoner when you could be freed The
answer may surprise you. In matters of faith millions choose the
slavery of the Law over the freedom of the Gospel. What is even
more frightening is that these are the groups that are growing. What is this
fascination people have for enslaving themselves to what the Bible calls the
“weak and beggarly elemental spirits of the universe” (Gal. 4:9,3). What
makes people so eager to be “tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). The drive to be a slave always seems to be
stronger than the desire to be free.
Of course, most people do not see it that way. “There is a way which
seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death”, Scripture says (Prov.
14:12). And what seems right is the notion—natural only since sin entered
the world—that God will be happy and justice will be served if we just try
our best; that God indeed helps those who help themselves. What a
comforting thought to be persuaded that God did not really mean it when He
said “The soul that sins shall die” (Ex. 34:7b) and that there is indeed no sin
as long as one is sincere!
That kind of thinking is what makes and keeps one a prisoner, confined
within the walls of man-made rules and rites, “holding the form of religion
but denying the power of it” (II Tim. 3:5). People must like walls; they keep
building them. The Bible tells us that among other things, Jesus came to
break down the
dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law of
commandments and ordinances ... and might reconcile us both to God in one
body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And He
came and preached peace ... for through Him we have access ... to the Father”
(Eph 2:14f.)
Unfortunately, by nature we build more walls, higher walls, or find other
ways to keep God out of our lives.
It happened in Galatia then. It still happens in St. Catharines, Edmonton,
and everywhere people live. “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched
you” begins the chapter from which we take our text today. Don’t you see,
it asks, that freedom is definitely a possibility Jesus declared it: “If you
continue in My word, you are truly My disciples; and you will know the
1 Preached at Faith Lutheran Church, Dunnville, Ontario, 8 July 2001.