Matthew Poole and continuators on Galatians 5:1

1 STand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free , and be not intangled again with the yoke of bondage .

The liberty here spoken of, is a right which a person hath to action, that he may do, or forbear the doing of things at his pleasure, as he apprehends them suitable or not, without the let or hinderance of another: This is either in things of a civil nature, or of a Spiritual nature. The former is not understood here, for it is none of the liberty, with which Christ hath made us free, for subjects to be free from the lawful commands of Princes, or children to be free from the laws of their Parents, or servants to be free from the commands of Masters. There is hardly any book in the New Testament wherein Obedience of this nature, in things that are lawful, is not either exemplified as our duty in Christ and the Apostles; or urged by very strong Arguments. The liberty here, is that freedom from the law, of which the Apostle hath been speaking all along this Epistle: From the curse of the Moral Law, and from the coaction of it, and principally from the Ceremonial Law contained in Ordinances. This is the liberty which Christ hath purchased for us, and in which the Apostle willeth all Believers to stand fast.

Not being again intangled with a yoke, which God had taken off from their necks. The Apostles in their Synod, Acts 15.10. had called it a yoke, which neither they, nor their fathers were able to bear.

Marginal references: Joh. 8.32. Rom. 6.18.