Paul said in Gal 5:1, “For freedom, Christ has set us free.” Jesus said, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (Jn 8:32). And, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn8:36). Freedom comes from and through the truth of God, through the Son of God. The Spirit of God was upon him anointing him to proclaim liberty to the captives. Through his cross and resurrection we are delivered from the bondage of sin and kingdom of darkness. Where the Spirit of the Lord Jesus is there is liberty, and where Christ’s Spirit has been sent into the hearts of those who repent of sin and believe in him, they can cry Abba Father, and are no longer a slave, but a son.
If we put these and other Scripture witnesses together we could sum up the NT teaching on freedom the way Peter Eicher did. “God’s choice is our freedom.” If we have freedom we owe it to God, and his choice, not to the choice of our own. Genuine freedom, as Eberard Bush explained, “Is the freedom that is granted to us as a gift by the grace of God in Jesus Christ!” If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. Water and rain go together, and so do freedom and Jesus Christ.
But freedom for what? Over the next few days I will attempt to give answers to that question. I’ll begin with freedom number one.
Christians are freed from the dictatorship of sin (Rom 6). "True Christian freedom is the freedom of the children of God – and that is not the freedom to sin, but the freedom from sin in Jesus Christ" -Kim Fabricius. Jesus Christ came to reconcile us to God, not to our sins. He came to destroy Satan and sin, not his Lordship. Jesus Christ does not make us more rebellious, greedier, or more hateful. He did not come to teach us to be alone to choose ourselves. No, he came to give us new life and crucify the old self. He took our guilty and sin which we loved and nailed it to the cross. We are unshackled from its bondage. Rom 6:4.
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