I want to ask you a question as we begin our study today in the final verses of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. What is your obsession? What do you think about the most, worry about the most, talk about the most, or pursue the most? What is it that marks your life as different from everyone around you?

I have a question for you: Who do you trust to help you when you need it the most?And when do you think that you are the most in need of help? Is it only when you need help moving from one house to the next or getting some bills paid? Or do you enjoy the kind of friendship that grows out of the fertile soil of speaking truth in courageous love, confronting sin boldly, and proclaiming grace and forgiveness as a fresh drink of water? Do you have this kind of friendship?

What do you think of when you hear the word “freedom”? Some of us inevitably think of the freedoms we have as American citizens (our God-given freedoms or rights as the statement goes) we have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom to bear arms, etc., etc. Others, when thinking of freedom, will think of a cultural interpretation of freedom where we are taught that we are free to do whatever we want, whenever we want, however we want, with whomever we want.

What stops you from obeying the truth of the gospel? This is Paul’s simple question to his Galatian audience today. As I said last week, Paul is going to hone in on what it looks like to live in the freedom of the gospel instead of living in religious slavery or legalism. In our text today, he continues with that central desire in mind – the desire to see Christians living in the freedom of the gospel rather than living in religious slavery.

The question we are going to wrestle with today is this: How do we live in spiritual freedom instead of living in religious slavery? We kind of stepped into this theme last week in verses 21 – 31 of chapter four, but this is actually going to be the main question Paul is trying to answer throughout the rest of this letter to the Galatians.

The book of Galatians has no shortage of complex passages to interpret and according to one author, the one in front of us today “happens to be one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament.”²

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is such a rich study to immerse yourself in because it constantly drives home the importance of living our lives centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and returning.

We are living in difficult times. I do not think I need to list all of the difficult things we are living through as a church family. If I have done my job well enough, then I know, and you know that I know at least some of what most of us in this room are trying to endure. The question that I think we are all asking – and that I think Paul may be asking in the subtext of our text today is this: “How do we remain on the highway to eternity?”

I want you to write down these words: Do not use the law to shave with! We will come back to that in a few minutes, but for now, I need to confess on the front edge here that this passage is super intimidating!