Growing Together

The Release from the Obligation of the Ceremonial Law
Galatians 5:1 says, “Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Christ set us free to experience true freedom. Christian
freedom is freedom of conscience, freedom from a legal system that couldn’t be kept. It is freedom from
the depressing awareness that we can’t measure up to God. Christians do measure up in Christ. We have
been “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6).
The Galatians Christians had been adopted as sons of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and freed from
external ceremonial law. They were free in the Spirit to act out their own maturity and liberty from within.
That was Paul’s theme. Christianity is not slavery to a religious system; it is absolute freedom. Through
Jesus Christ we have been delivered from the tiring, relentless performance of religious ritual. The Old
Covenant law was external. It was given to demonstrate what true holiness is, and to show men that they
couldn’t make it. The ceremonial practices were symbolic lessons that taught sacrifice was necessary for
sin. They pictured the final sacrifice of Christ. Once the reality came, there was no longer any need for the
symbols.