Galatians 4:3-5, 7, 9 (CSB), “…we also,…were in slavery under the elements of the world. When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons….So you are no longer a slave but a son…But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?”
The context of Galatians 4 and 5 refers to man’s bondage to the world and the Jew’s bondage under the law. Jesus’ sacrifice has freed believers from both aspects of slavery. Romans 8:2 (ESV), “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
One purpose of our freedom is to give us liberty to serve God in the spirit. Romans 7:6 (NASB), “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”
The spirit of the Law is love. We are not to use our liberty to serve our fallen flesh or to return to the law. Those actions would enslave us to the world or to the law again.
“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”…if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law,” Galatians 5:13-14, 18 (NKJV).
