Free From Guilt

Galatians 5:12-13 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! 13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
 
VERSE 12 is one we’d like to avoid. Paul’s language seems very vengeful, even hateful. But his severe words point to the great challenge of our relationship with God: the law does not cleanse guilt from the human heart.
    With those hard words, Paul was essentially posing a question: “If circumcision is required to be righteous before God, how soon would castration be required?” Such rigorous pursuit of release from one’s guilt was not just a thought. This behavior was a tragic reality among some pagan cults whose priests were eunuchs. To them, the highest level of devotion was marked by this severe mutilation. How else could they completely please their gods? Or could they? They would never be assured would they?
    Accusation is Satan’s main weapon. He wants us to believe we are never acceptable in God’s sight. That’s why restrictive and physically harmful rules in meaningless worship have marked mankind’s disobedience to God throughout history. The worship of Baal and Molech in the Old Testament demanded child sacrifice. Priests of the pagan gods would perform brutal physical rituals on themselves and their subjects in the hope of pleasing their gods. Christian missionaries who have traveled into isolated regions in the world find cultic worship requiring self-mutilation. Some shamans and witch doctors mutilate themselves annually to be deemed worthy.
    And even in church history there are accounts of people who thought they could express their devotion to God with extreme self-abuse and deprivation. The reformer Martin Luther was first a monk who found no satisfaction in confession. He lashed himself for his sins. Then the Holy Spirit revealed God’s grace through Galatians. He learned the guilty heart is only satisfied in Jesus’s redemption.
    The Pharisees, too, had “emasculated” the Jews’ hearts with countless rules and rituals. Instead of pointing the Jews to God, the rules formed a hopeless despair.  
    That’s why Paul confirms to the Galatians, “You, my brothers, were called to be free.” With faith in Jesus’ work on the cross, they are free from self-condemnation. They are free from wondering, “Am I good enough?” The Galatian believers are free of death because Jesus is risen. They are free of vengeful and prideful attitudes. The faithful church is free to love God and love one another because the sin guilt is satisfied.
   Then Paul warned, “But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” As he wrote earlier, Paul teaches that God’s grace is not a license for sin. Instead, we are free to be as Jesus. Jesus-followers are free to seek his truth. They can walk in his teaching to learn to love as he did. Sin no longer hinders a Christian’s access to the throne of grace. Our High Priest does not require you mutilate your flesh but that you spiritually give him your heart: Hebrews 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
    Jesus suffered the physical sacrifice. Be assured, your faith in the afflicted Savior will remove your guilt.