Galatians 5:1

As if he had said "Since Christ by his death had purchased our freedom from the yoke and bondage of the ceremonial law, let us resolutely stand fast in this our Christian liberty, without subjecting ourselves again to circumcision, and the observation of the Mosaic rites."

Here note, 1. The servile condition of the Jewish church: they were under bondage, under a yoke of bondage. This servitude of theirs consisted in the vast number of their religious rites and observances, as to days and weeks, months, and years; in the multitude of their sacrifices of all sorts, which they were obliged every day to offer: in their frequent purifications and washings; in the strict distinctions they were obliged to make between clean and unclean meats; in the numerous rites and ceremonies they are required to observe at their marriages and burials, at bed and board, at home and abroad, nay, even in plowing, sowing, and reaping; so numerous were these observances, that they took up half their time, and were as burdensome as they were numerous.

Well might the apostle here call it. yoke of bondage, and elsewhere, a yoke which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. Acts 15:10

Note, 2. The happy liberty and freedom from this intolerable yoke, purchased by Christ for the Christian church: Christ hath made us free. He by his obedience and death, has purchased this happy freedom for us,. freedom from ceremonial bondage, from sinful servitude and slavery; not from civil subjection, not from the yoke of new obedience, but from the obliging force of the ceremonial law, and the curse and irritating power of the moral law.

Note, 3. The Christians' duty with reference to this privilege, namely, to stand fast in the liberty which Christ has purchased for them, without obliging themselves to observe any part of the ceremonial law, which was now. servility perfectly unprofitable, and nothing else: stand fast in it; that is, maintain and defend it both in judgment and practice.