Christian Freedom

Opening Scripture:

2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Google dictionary defines freedom as: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

Wow, that sounds great. We all value freedom, the power or right to act, speak or think however we want. “Without hindrance or restraint”? How great would that be? And yet in this human existence we can immediately think of a few hindrances or restraints that are just part of the human condition, and which put some definite parameters on our freedom. Maybe we’d like to live for a thousand years. But our bodies don’t tend to last that long. Even Methuselah did not make it to that mark. We might go to the edge of a cliff and flap our arms and try to fly. But the law of gravity does not give us that freedom. You can try, but could be quite a letdown.

Maybe one day you wished that you were free to not go to work, or not have to make school lunches every day. And suddenly your wishes came true. And then it became clear that what looks like freedom can have some not-so-free aspects to it.

Anyway, back to Christian Freedom. When we talk about Christian Freedom it doesn’t mean a freedom where you can fly, or you’ll never have to work, or make a lunch, or deal with another interruption ever again. So what then is Christian Freedom? Freedom from what? Freedom to do what? Freedom to be what? What kind of freedom is this?

Romans 8:1-2 starts to nail that down for us.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 

That passage identifies two things that we need freedom from. The first is “condemnation”. The second is “the law of sin and death”. Condemnation speaks to the fact that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every one of us has done stuff that we know is wrong, that we knew was wrong before we did it, and we did it anyway. And afterward we felt that guiltiness, we felt that feeling of condemnation. We knew we were not right with God, and very often, not right with ourselves and not right with others. When this happens, when we don’t do right, or when we go ahead and do wrong, we know in our hearts that this is not ok. And somehow deep inside we are aware that it has big and eternal implications. We feel condemnation.

But right in the first two verses, Romans 8 brings to us a powerful piece of good news – that there is now no condemnation to those who are “in Christ Jesus”. So the first freedom is freedom from condemnation, freedom from the condemnation of God for our sins, freedom from the penalty and punishment for those sins. But wait, there’s more – the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. There are a couple of ways we can understand this.

To begin with, the law of sin and death means that when we sin we die. When we sin we separate ourselves from God, who is literally, life. A further way to understand this is that there seems to be a law that applies to all of us humans: that we will sin and as a result we will experience physical and spiritual death. But the Spirit of Life which is in Jesus Christ makes us free from that law, free from that inevitability of sin and death.

Through the power of the Spirit of Life living within us, we don’t have to sin. The desire to sin does not have dominion or rulership over us any more. And the fact that we have sinned does not have to result in death – because Jesus chose to give his body as the payment for our sins. The sins of every one of us. So when we are baptized into Christ, we become part of that body that has already been offered to God and accepted by God in payment for sin.

Our part is to honestly believe that, to have faith in that fact. Faith enough to act on it, and be baptized into the body of Christ. This is so important, not only because that body has already died for sin; but that body has also been resurrected, to live forever. Being baptized into the name and identity of Jesus Christ puts us into the body that has carried our sins, and conquered death, and lives forever.

Let’s anchor all of that with the word of God, from John 1:12-13.

“…as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

So that’s how we have freedom from condemnation, freedom from the law of sin and death. By receiving Him, believing Him, and in so doing we are being born, not physically but spiritually. We are born of God. We are free from the necessity to follow our earthly nature. We are free from being bound to a destiny of sin and death. We are free to live as Jesus did, to be vessels of God in this world. And we are free to live beyond death, beyond the boundaries of this human body and this present world. Those are the simple and powerful foundational facts of Christian Freedom.

Does Christian Freedom mean I can do anything I want, with no guilt or condemnation. To use the words of Paul from Romans 6:2, God Forbid! “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Galatians 5 goes into this some more. Verse13 tells us: 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. Down to verse 16: I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And verses 24&25: And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

In this human existence, freedom is never absolute. For example, you’re free to breathe as much as you want. But that is limited, your lungs can only hold a certain amount of air with each breath. Unlimited freedom does not exist for us, in these bodies, on this earth. The key question is, what will we do with the freedoms we do have? Ever been on an airplane, back when people used to travel, and a few minutes after takeoff there’s a message: “You are now free to move about the cabin.” At this point you can choose what to do with that freedom. You can stay in your seat and sleep, you can get something out of the overhead compartment, you can go check out the bathroom if you want. But that freedom is not absolute. You’re not free to smoke, or punch a hole in the side of the aircraft, or go take over control from the pilot. You’re not free to go take someone else’s seat. Your freedom ends where other people’s safety and freedom begins. The point of life is not how much freedom can I have, but what will I do, what do I do, with the freedoms I have?

When we were reading in Romans 8, all the wonderfulness of being free from the law of sin and death is directed toward a particular set of people, described as those “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”.

So we each have to ask ourselves the question: Am I one of those? My thoughts and feelings and conversations and actions and entertainments and ambitions and all of that – are they mainly about this world, this flesh, the next material thing, the next pleasure that I want to enjoy?

Or do I find that something different is happening with me? I’m moving toward God more and more, actually becoming a different kind of person. My thoughts and feelings and interests and relationships, and how I spend my time – they’re leaning in a different direction. Moving more toward the life of the Spirit.

Recently, a few people have said to me, that that is what their heart and mind are reaching for. They’re feeling more and more the pull of the Spirit. Maybe that’s you. This doesn’t always happen as one sudden change, but it is a definite shift in direction. It’s a shift in desire, a shift in what you really want, a shift in where you find satisfaction. Are you becoming one of those people “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”?

If so, you know that it feels great. It feels freeing. A lot of stuff that used to matter sooo much does not matter so much anymore. And you’re seeing the hand of God at work in your life, taking care of things in ways you couldn’t possibly have done yourself. Maybe you see an opportunity to help someone, which of course you don’t have time to do. But you do it anyway, and God takes care of some other stuff in your life, which would have taken up your time. Or you choose to just let some of that other stuff go. And you get your time back, you get your mind back, and you feel so free!

One day Jesus summed up a lot of his teaching in what we now call the “sermon on the mount”. You can read through it in Mathew 5&6. For many of the people listening and maybe for us too, that sermon was like opposites-day. Much of what Jesus was saying was the opposite of how we usually view things, the opposite of how we tend to live.

For example, one of the most frustrating things in the life of a Jewish civilian at the time was the fact that a Roman soldier could interrupt what you’re doing at any time and force you to carry their backpack or duffel bag for one mile. Like a mule. That was absolutely not freedom. That was life under Roman occupation. But check what Jesus said. After you’ve carried it for the mile that you’re forced to by law – then go ahead and carry it another mile.

How does that make any sense? Maybe it doesn’t. Or not to us. How did it make sense to Jesus to say something like that? Maybe what Jesus wants us to get is that, that second mile is a mile of freedom. A mile you choose to do because now you realize can make that choice. A mile you can give to someone to whom you don’t naturally want to give, because he or she is usually taking.

What’s true though, is that second mile changes all the dynamics in the situation. Deciding to do it would definitely require something to change inside you. And we don’t know what effects it might have inside the soldier as the walk continues on. A mile with a heavy pack takes a while to travel. A lot of thinking can happen.

Did you put yourself into that situation? At various points, what would you be feeling? Fact is, we’re all going through life with some burdens that we chose and some that we didn’t. Our freedom as humans includes the freedom to choose how we feel. We don’t always realize that, but it’s true. We get to choose how we feel about everything that we experience. The apostle James took up where Jesus left off, in giving us some strange-sounding advice. He began his letter to Christians by saying “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4 NKJV

Count it all joy? To do that requires a special kind of freedom. It’s a freedom for our inner life to be not determined by our circumstances. For sure, sometimes our circumstances are extreme or unfair. Sometimes they are truly trials and testings, and go on for much too long. And yet within that, there is a freedom that we can enter into, the freedom of knowing that nothing that happens to us can remove us from the active love and caring and presence of God. We can know that every trouble is meant to produce treasure in us. That makes us free to experience something more than stress and strain and pain. In fact we are free to rejoice. James is saying that we are free, in the face of everything, to Count It All Joy.

In life there are all kinds of needs that are clamoring for our attention. Not bad things, not temptations, but actual needs. Humans have a range of really important needs, and when they are not being met, it’s hard to think about anything else. An American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, arranged these needs into a hierarchy of what we need first, what we need next, and so on. It looks like this:

These needs are real, and exist in all humans. What Jesus was saying in the sermon on the mount is that God wants us to feel free to come to Him for all of this. He did not discount or diminish our human needs, in fact he said “your Father knows that you have need of all these things”. Jesus knew that looking to God for every type of need would not be easy for us to accept. So he basically said, look around, God meeting needs is happening right in front of you.

Consider the lilies. Solomon, with all of his wealth, could not manage to dress like one of these. The lilies were clothed in chlorophyl, which was making energy and food for them every day, and giving gifts of oxygen to everyone around.

Consider the ravens. They’re kind of ugly and most people don’t like them. But they’re free to fly and make their noise and live their lives, because God feeds them. And meanwhile they provide a mobile, airborne clean-up service, reducing the risk of disease in the community.

With that word “Consider”, Jesus is inviting us into the freedom of trusting God for everything.

Earlier on we considered the first few verses of Romans 8. Now let’s go further on into the chapter:

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

With this knowledge, with this truth, we are free to live. Free to smile at storms. Not to say they’re not real; the storms are real. They will beat against your house, your life. But still, we are free to smile when we know we have a firm foundation. II Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

Freeing yourself from the rulership of sin brings the freedom to be confident about the rulership of God in every part of your life. Whatever might be happening at the time, when we know that we are seeking first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, then the pressure is off. We know that God is faithful. We know that He will provide for us anything that we need.

There’s a lot of power included in Christian Freedom; God’s power. We are free, in fact we are invited, to go beyond just having a form of godliness, and actually get into the power thereof. We are free to reach out with the hand of God, the voice of God, the heart of God, to meet the needs of people that He brings our way. We are free to pray in Jesus’ name, to invoke the presence of God into a situation, and know that all the power of heaven is brought to bear, through the simple act of prayer.

We are free to live, and we need to live, not after the flesh but after the Spirit. More so today than yesterday, and a little more tomorrow. We are free to live in the realm of miracles, and we need to. Our world needs the power of God to be working with us and through us, confirming His word that our mouths have spoken, with signs following.

Christian Freedom is in other words, Christlike Freedom, freedom to be like Christ. We can sum it up by saying: As he was in this world, we are free to be. Especially at this time in the world, these things that we are free to do and be, we need to do and be.

Let’s close with the words of Jesus from John 14.

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 

This is not something for us to just play with as a theory or a Sunday morning thought. We need to put these words of God into action. We can make every day a day where we deliberately pray and ask for God’s direction. We can make every day a day where we ask God to set us free from stresses and conflicts and other people’s expectations, to set us free from focusing on our own needs and fears.

We can make today a day where we don’t run or hide from other people’s needs. But we look for a way to meet them, even though that will absolutely require the power of God. Because we know we can call on that power. We are free to bring peace and hope and healing and redemption into every situation God puts us into. In fact He’s counting on us to do so.

When you and I put our Christian freedoms into action, somebody around us gets to experience the presence of God and His power. The candle comes out from under the bushel. There’s light, there’s warmth, there’s salvation, and healing, and deliverance. Somebody’s life gets changed forever. Including ours.

God Bless You!