Submitted by Pastor Reggie Koop, Watson Baptist Church

Galatians 5:1 – “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” If we look at the first amendment of the constitution to the United States, it will say, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Looking at the scripture, believers are free in Christ. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Before Jesus died on the cross, the people lived under the moral law of the 10 commandments.

Through His sacrificial death, Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, setting believers free from the law of sin and death. God’s laws are now written in our hearts through the spirit of God, and we are free to follow and serve Christ in ways that please and glorify Him.

Read through Romans 8:2-8 and Romans 6:14, “for sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Christian freedom involves living not under the burdensome obligations of the law but under God’s grace. God’s grace.

Paul explains that, when a believer accepts Christ, he or she is baptized by the spirit into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. At that moment, the believer ceases to be a slave to sin and becomes a servant of righteousness.

Because of religious freedom, mankind has the ability to choose. We are not robots programed to do certain things. God respects our choices, but we cannot go on sinning.

Freedom of religion is not about religion, but about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. We now know the truth and that truth has set us free (John 8:32).

Galatians 4:1-7 – ¹Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. ³Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: ⁴but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, ⁵to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. ⁶And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

So why, then, do so many Christians live as though they are still in bondage? For one thing, we often rebel against our master, refusing to obey him and clinging to our old lives. We hold on to the sins that once bound us to Satan as our master. Because our new nature still lives in the old fleshly nature, we are still drawn to sin.

The framers of the constitution were God-fearing men making a sincere attempt to establish a new nation on biblical principles, including equity, justice, and liberty. One of the liberties they recognized as “inalienable and sacred” was the freedom of religion. Praise the Lord for such wisdom.

Application: (1) Receive that God offers not a religion but a relationship. (2) Grow in the relationship. Attend church, attend Bible study, have a devotional time with God, pray, be with other believers. (3) Evangelize – tell others.