Galatians chapter five opens with a rallying cry that could hang on the walls of every Christian heart: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Paul writes these words like a freedom fighter, reminding newly liberated captives not to return to their chains. I once read that after the Civil War, many emancipated slaves in the American South became sharecroppers—technically free but practically bound. Out of fear and habit, they submitted to the same oppressive systems that once owned them. The Galatians were doing something similar. Though set free by Jesus—the greatest liberator in history—they were allowing the Judaizers to drag them back under a system of religious slavery. Paul shakes them awake: Stand firm! Don’t go back to a life of bondage disguised as devotion.
The first command is clear—stand firm in liberty. Hold your ground on the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. Paul knew how relentless legalists could be. They would guilt you, shame you, and spiritualize the handcuffs until you believed bondage was holiness. Some Galatians were starting to wilt under the weight of religious pressure, exchanging joy for rule-keeping. But true believers owe nothing to legalism. Christ has already paid it all. As theologian Robert Gromacki puts it, “The shackles of sin and selfishness were removed. The power of the gravitational pull of the sin nature downward has been conquered. The believer is now free to become and to do all that God, in His wisdom, wanted men to be.” That’s real freedom—not the right to sin, but the power to live whole and fully human, body, soul, and spirit.
Paul then warns against slipping back under the “yoke” of slavery—the crushing weight of the Mosaic law. Peter described the same burden during the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15:10, asking, “Why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” Jesus offers a better yoke, one made not of rules but of relationship. In Matthew 11:28–30, He invites the weary and religiously exhausted: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase in The Message captures it beautifully: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life… Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” Legalism weighs you down. Jesus lifts you up. The world offers religion with shackles; Christ offers freedom with rest. True discipleship is not a treadmill—it’s walking in step with the Savior who teaches us how to live “freely and lightly.”