Christ, the deliverer

Saturday January 29, 2022

Christ the deliverer

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore in this freedom and do not place yourselves again under the constraint of slavery. I, Paul, tell you : if you get circumcised, Christ will be of no use to you. Galatians 5:1,2

There are people who confuse you and want to twist the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:7

The word Christ means "Anointed One" or "Messiah." The Jews were waiting for the Messiah, the Christ (John 4:25) who was to bring them deliverance, freedom. Anna the prophetess praised God, and spoke of him to all those in Jerusalem who were waiting for deliverance (Luke 2:38).

The Jews rejected Jesus, their Messiah. It is therefore to non-Jews that the gospel of Christ, that of freedom, is announced, so that they may be delivered from the slavery of idolatry. Many pagans then abandoned their idols and attached themselves to a living and active Christ.

The Christians of Galatia (current province of Turkey) are among them. But Christians of Jewish origin arrive from Jerusalem and teach them that, to be saved, they must be circumcised as the law of Moses requires. To defend the gospel of the pure grace of God, the apostle uses in his epistle more than thirty times the name of Christ, because Christ brought freedom. Reading it, one feels Paul's anger against those who have troubled the Galatians and the ardor of his message for them to remain firm in the grace and in the freedom that Christ has brought them.

Today, Satan has not disarmed. He still finds Christians to continue his work of enslavement. These seek to compel their brothers and sisters to submit to the commandments of religious men, instead of inviting them simply to depend on Christ. They thus flatter the human tendency to seek merits in the eyes of God or men by performing rites and works.

So let us not be deceived ; let us be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1), the grace of him who freed us from the bondage of the devil (Hebrews 2:14,15), from sin (Romans 6:18) and the Law (Galatians 5:1).

Source (Pleasing the Lord)