As I type this, fireworks are going off around my neighborhood. Next Tuesday is July 4, the day we celebrate our independence as a nation. All weekend people will be celebrating freedom, so it is fitting that we find ourselves in Galatians 5:7-12 this Sunday. Verses 1-12 are a unit so we will read the entire text, but we examined verses 1-6 last week as we saw the freedom which Christ purchased for us. Galatians 5:1 is the summary of the whole book. "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Last Sunday, we saw that salvation is all of grace or all of works. It is Jesus Christ by faith alone, or we must keep the whole law. The Galatians were being told that all they had to do was add circumcision to be saved, but Paul makes it clear - "Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you" (Gal. 5:2). Paul also showed us what "standing firm in freedom" looked like in verse 5 - simply waiting for the hope of righteousness. Now, in verses 6-12, Paul takes aim at those who are tempting the Galatians to trust circumcision. Here we find that standing firm in freedom also means standing against those who would hinder us from obeying the truth (Gal. 5:7). In this passage, we are called to be alert to anything that draws us away from walking in Christ alone, and Paul also shows us how seriously God views this. The command to stand firm in the freedom of Christ warns us of the danger of teachers, teachings, advice, and our own hearts which would tempt us to find our sufficiency in anything other than the gospel of Christ.

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