Grace That Sets Us Free

This weekend, we’ll celebrate the freedom our nation enjoys. And while I’m incredibly grateful for that freedom, there’s another freedom that has been ringing in my heart lately—the freedom we have in Christ.

This Sunday, we begin a new series called Grace Upon Grace: Legacy Continues. The passion behind this series is to lay the foundation of the message that has defined Eagles Way Church as we prepare to celebrate Mom and Dad’s 50 years of ministry on August 16. That message has always been simple: grace and love.

I’ll be sharing a message from Galatians 5 titled Grace That Sets Us Free.

The churches in Galatia had begun to complicate the Gospel. Surely it couldn’t be this simple. The good news couldn’t be that good. So Paul writes these powerful words:

“So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law…” (Galatians 5:1)

Paul goes on to explain that if we’re trying to make ourselves right with God by keeping the law, we’ve missed the entire point of the Gospel.

We’ll never do enough to earn right standing with God.

We don’t receive His grace because we’ve kept all the rules or checked all the religious boxes.

Grace doesn’t depend on our worth. Grace gives us worth.

When Paul says, “You have fallen away from God’s grace,” he isn’t talking about losing your salvation. He’s talking about drifting away from living in the reality of God’s grace and slipping back into a performance-based relationship with Him.

God never intended for us to live by striving. He invites us to live by trusting.

The Christian life isn’t powered by our willpower. It’s empowered by His presence.

It’s less about trying harder and more about depending deeper.

That’s the grace God invites us to receive.

Paul closes the chapter with these words:

“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” (Galatians 5:25)

Notice what Paul doesn’t say. He doesn’t tell us to manufacture the fruit of the Spirit. He says the Spirit produces it.

We don’t produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control through sheer determination. The Holy Spirit grows those things in us as we learn to walk with Him.

We don’t have what it takes to make ourselves righteous.

He does.

It’s not about following a list of rules.

It’s about following Jesus.

As we depend on Him, His life begins to flow through ours, transforming us from the inside out and impacting everyone around us.

I love this statement from Andy Stanley:

“The Christian life is the life of Christ lived through us, not by us.”

That’s exactly what Paul meant when he wrote, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

That’s the Gospel.

That’s grace.

That’s freedom.

My prayer is that this new series transforms us from the inside out—that it changes the way we see God, the way we see ourselves, and the way we love others.

May it make our lives and the lives of those around us richer and better.

Because that's exactly what this kind of freedom does.

Blessings to you,

Dusty Takle