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Galatians 2:4 reveals that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the sphere of freedom. In this verse Paul speaks of “the false brothers, brought in secretly, who stole in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into slavery.” Such strong negative terms as false brothers, stole in, and spy out should impress us with the fact that freedom in Christ is a great and precious matter. Here we see the contrast between freedom in Christ versus slavery under law. The Judaizers perverted the gospel of Christ by secretly bringing the observances of the law into the church, and they troubled the genuine brothers in Christ in order to bring them into slavery under the law (1:7). The Judaizers were slaves under law; they did not realize how much they were suffering under the slavery of law. Christ is the Emancipator of the Jewish people. Exodus reveals that Christ, typified by Moses, delivered the children of Israel from the slavery of Pharaoh (3:8; Heb. 3:2). In the New Testament, Christ came to release them again from another form of slavery, the slavery of law. In Christ the believers have freedom from the slavery of law.
Freedom in Christ has at least four aspects. First, freedom in Christ implies liberation from the bondage of the law. Because we are free in Christ, we are no longer obligated to the law, its ordinances, practices, and regulations (Gal. 2:19). Anyone who tries to keep the law makes himself a debtor to the ordinances, practices, and regulations of the law. Because we all have human shortcomings, we cannot fulfill the requirements of the law. Throughout history, only one person — the Lord Jesus — has kept the law (Matt. 5:17). The requirements of the law are too heavy for us to fulfill. Hence, if we try to keep the law, we will come under the yoke of the law, place ourselves under the slavery of the law, and serve the law as a slave (Acts 15:10). Freedom in Christ, however, liberates us from all such obligation.
Second, freedom in Christ includes satisfaction with a rich, supporting supply. If we are free outwardly but do not have anything to support us or satisfy us, this freedom is not genuine. Proper freedom is not only liberation from obligation; it is also full satisfaction because of an adequate supply. In contrast, under the law there is no satisfaction because there is no supply. The law makes demands, but it offers no supply to meet those demands.
Third, to be free in Christ is to enjoy true rest without being under the heavy burden to keep the law. If we strive to keep the law, we will not have true rest because our efforts to keep the law place us under a heavy burden. But in Christ we have true rest.
With slavery under law, it is not possible for us to be at rest. In Matthew 11:28 the Lord Jesus said, “Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” This promise was spoken especially to those who were trying to keep the law. It refers in particular to the labor of striving to keep the commandments of the law and religious regulations. To have rest here means to be set free from labor and burden under law and religion. In making this declaration, the Lord indicated that those who are striving to keep the law and are burdened under the law should come to Him so that He would set them free from the yoke of the law and give them true rest in Him.
Fourth, freedom in Christ implies the full enjoyment of the living Christ. Those who place themselves under obligation to the law have no satisfaction, rest, or enjoyment. But because we are free in Him, we enjoy all that He is.
If we would have a proper definition of freedom in Christ, a definition that matches our experience, we need to see that such a freedom involves liberation from obligations, satisfaction through the Lord’s rich supply, genuine rest, and the enjoyment of Christ. Those who have this kind of freedom are not enslaved by anything. Although Satan may sometimes put us into a difficult situation, we can still be at rest. We need not be enslaved by any situation. Instead, we can enjoy the Lord. This means that we are free in the depths of our being. This is our freedom in Christ.
Freedom in Christ is a treasure. Satan, the subtle one, sent in the Judaizers to spy out this freedom and to deprive the Galatian believers of this treasure. He wanted to take away their liberation from obligation, their satisfaction, their rest, and their enjoyment of Christ.
Those who strive to keep the law do so not by the Spirit but by their flesh (Gal. 3:3). For this reason, they do not participate in God’s promise and have no enjoyment of life in grace by the Spirit. Life, grace, and the Spirit have nothing to do with the keeping of the law. The law does not have life, does not give grace, and does not depend on the Spirit. Hence, in the keeping of the law we have no life, grace, or Spirit. Instead, we have only our striving in the flesh.
As we consider the matter of freedom in Christ, we need to see that Christ as the life-giving Spirit imparts life by grace. Grace is God processed to be our enjoyment. In 1:15 Paul says that God called him through His grace. This indicates that when God called us, He called us by Himself as the One processed to be our enjoyment. Christ as the life-giving Spirit imparts life into us by the Triune God who has been processed to become our enjoyment. As a result, we have been united to the Triune God. In this organic union we are absolutely one with the Triune God and released from slavery under law. In this union we enjoy the freedom that is ours in Christ.
We should praise the Lord for our freedom in Christ. We are not in slavery under law; we enjoy freedom in Christ. We are free from obligation, and we have satisfaction, rest, and enjoyment in Christ.
In Galatians 2:16 Christ is revealed as the means of justification: “Knowing that a man is not justified out of works of law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we also have believed into Christ Jesus that we might be justified out of faith in Christ and not out of the works of law, because out of the works of law no flesh will be justified.”
Fallen man cannot be justified by works of law. In 2:16 Paul says, “Knowing that a man is not justified out of works of law.” At the end of this verse Paul declares, “Out of the works of law no flesh will be justified.” The word flesh in 2:16 means fallen man, who has become flesh (Gen. 6:3). No such man will be justified out of works of law. Furthermore, in Galatians 3:11 Paul goes on to say, “That by law no one is justified before God is evident.” In these verses Paul tells us clearly that no one is justified out of works of law.
The New Testament says that if we keep all the commandments except one, we transgress the whole law (James 2:10). Romans 7 proves that we cannot keep all the commandments. In verse 7 Paul refers to the commandment about coveting: “Neither did I know coveting, except the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’” Then in verse 8 he goes on to say, “But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind.” The more Paul tried to keep this commandment, the more he failed. This indicates that it is impossible for fallen man to keep all of God’s commandments. We simply do not have the ability to keep the law. As Paul says in Romans 7:14, the law is spiritual, but we are fleshy, sold under sin. Therefore, out of works of law no flesh will be justified.
Under God’s New Testament economy we are not to keep the law. On the contrary, we are justified through faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16). Faith in Christ denotes an organic union through believing. The faith in Christ by which we are justified is related to our appreciation of the person of the Son of God. In our preaching of the gospel we must present Christ as a treasure. We need to present Christ as the most precious One to people. The more we describe Him and speak of His preciousness, the more something will be infused into the being of the listeners. This infusion will become their faith, and this faith will cause them to respond to our preaching. In this way they will appreciate the person we present to them. This appreciation is their faith in Christ. Out of their appreciation for the Lord Jesus, they will want to possess Him. The Christ who has been preached to them will become in them the faith by which they believe. Faith is Christ preached into them to become their capacity to believe through their appreciation of Him.
The genuine experiential definition of faith is the preciousness of Jesus infused into us. Through such an infusion, we spontaneously have faith in the Lord Jesus. This definition of faith matches our experience. The teaching of doctrine did not impress us with the preciousness of the person of the Son of God. But one day we heard a living message filled with the preciousness of Christ. When His preciousness was infused into us through the preaching of the gospel, we spontaneously began to appreciate the Lord Jesus and believe in Him. We said, “Lord Jesus, I love You. I treasure You.” This is what it means to have faith in Christ.
This faith creates an organic union in which we and Christ are one. Therefore, the expression out of faith in Christ actually denotes an organic union accomplished by believing in Christ. The term in Christ refers to this organic union. Before we believed in Christ, there was a great separation between us and Christ. We were we, and Christ was Christ. But through believing we were joined to Christ and became one with Him. Now we are in Christ, and Christ is in us.
This is an organic union, a union in life. This union is illustrated by the grafting of a branch of one tree into another tree. Through faith in Christ we are grafted into Christ. Through this process of spiritual grafting, two lives are grafted and become one.
Many Christians have a shallow understanding of justification by faith. How could Christ be our righteousness if we were not organically united to Him? It is by means of our organic union with Christ that God can reckon Christ as our righteousness. Because we and Christ are one, whatever belongs to Him is ours. This is the basis upon which God counts Christ as our righteousness.
Just as a poor woman is united in marriage to a wealthy man and thus participates in the wealth of her husband, through our organic union with Christ, we share whatever Christ is and has. As soon as this union takes place, in the eyes of God Christ becomes us, and we become one with Him. Only in this way can we be justified before God.
Many Christians have a mere doctrinal understanding of justification by faith. According to their concept, Christ is the just One, the righteous One on the throne in the presence of God. When we believe in Christ, God reckons Christ to be our righteousness. This understanding of justification is very shallow. In order to be justified by faith in Christ, we need to believe in the Lord Jesus out of an appreciation of His preciousness. As Christ’s preciousness is infused into us through the preaching of the gospel, we spontaneously appreciate the Lord and call on Him. This is genuine believing. Through such a believing, we and Christ become one. Therefore, God must reckon Him as our righteousness.
When we heard the gospel, we began to sense the Lord’s preciousness. This gave rise to the living faith that joined us to Christ organically. From that time onward, Christ and we became one in life and in reality. Therefore, justification by faith is not merely a matter of position. It is also an organic matter, a matter in life. The organic union with Christ is accomplished spontaneously through the living faith produced by our appreciation of Him. This is to be justified through faith in Christ.
