Happy Memorial Day to those of you in the States. It's a holiday set aside to celebrate those who gave their lives for our freedom. Everywhere you look today, that's the word that you see, freedom. Freedom is a precious gift to be celebrated. But sometimes people talk about it like freedom is a blank check to just sort of do

whatever it is you want. You know, wake up in the morning, do whatever you feel like, no rules.

But of course, doing whatever we want will eventually leave us feeling empty and trapped and

regret our decisions that we made under the influence of freedom. So it's a good time to

be reading Galatians together because Paul

wants us to talk about freedom in totally different ways than the world does. Today on Ask Pastor

John, the freedom that kills regret. Pastor John, providentially, we're in Galatians 5 in our

Bible reading plan right now in time for this question from Vicki in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Pastor John, thank you for this podcast. I write because in Galatians 5-1, and then again in verses 13 to 26, Paul teaches that Christians are called to live in the freedom that Christ has won for us, a freedom not to indulge in the flesh, but to live by the spirit.

So if you are struggling to live free, what do you think it means to be set free in Christ?

How does freedom in Christ differ from the freedom of the world,

which is basically to do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it?

And what does it mean that we are freed in order to love in Galatians 513?

So I hear three questions. Let's take them one at a time. First, what do you think it means

to be set free in Christ? Now that phrase set free is taken from Galatians 5-1, and so we can

get our answer from the context.

Here's verse 1. For freedom, Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

So what's the yoke of slavery that we were set free from?

And here's the next verse.

If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by

the law. So what does it mean when he says, if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no

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