LIBERTY

Written 7/2/2011

In a couple days we'll be celebrating Independence Day. We celebrate the independence of our nation from the tyranny of another. We celebrate our "liberty". We have a statue of liberty standing tall for all to see that we are a people who believe in liberty. So today I've been thinking about liberty. Do we really have it? Can it be taken away from us? What is it?

Man has something inside of him that cries for freedom! Yet men have been enslaving men throughout the centuries, and today our freedoms again are in danger of being taken away and there are those who consider themselves elite in the world who wish to enslave us to serve them and give up our freedoms once again to the control of government. Don't worry; this is not a political message. But it is a message about our freedom in Christ.

(Isa 61:1) The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Jesus came to "proclaim liberty to the captives". He came to set free all that were bound. But how can we be free if we do not understand what binds us? Men will again allow themselves to be brought under slavery, even thinking that those who are doing so to them are going to make their lives better and easier. They will allow another to rule over them if they think it will benefit them, yet they will not allow Christ to rule their hearts and lives. They will also allow sin to bring them under bondage because they think their lifestyle is what will make their lives happier and richer and better and freer in this world. They believe that independence from God will bring freedom to do whatever they want. Is doing whatever we want freedom? Those who follow their heart, or their passions, or get for themselves all they want will always end up enslaved somehow still, if their hearts are not filled with the Lord. We've heard the saying, "Your possessions possess you". Anyone who has owned a house, a car, a boat, etc. will understand how that can happen! People who abuse their freedom find themselves enslaved by it also.

(John 8:36) So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

How does the Son set us free? Even as Christians, we can find ourselves feeling in bondage, or enslaved. We can find ourselves enslaved to people, or to things, or to circumstances. Yet the Lord gives us a liberty that is a true liberty. We so fear surrender to Him because we want to hold onto our will, our liberty, our right to choose for ourselves. But we don't see in doing so, that is the very thing that enslaves us. Each of us as believers in Jesus Christ, born of His Spirit, are called to an absolute surrender of our will in faith to Him. This is our struggle, ongoing, with our flesh. In Christ, we are His children, chosen to be conformed to His image. We are a new creation in Him. Yet we have a sinful nature--the will of our flesh--that wants to rise up again and again and have its way (Romans 7), until we are redeemed from this body of sin and death fully. Yet we have been given a new "will", that of Christ in us, our hope of glory. Our spirit has been made alive by His Spirit living in us and His will lives in us, our new heart. Our will has been renewed by the Holy Spirit (see colossians 3:10 and Titus 3:5). Webster's 1828 dictionary definition of regeneration is, "That change by which the will and natural enmity of man to God and his law are subdued, and a principle of supreme love to God and his law, or holy affections, are implanted in the heart."

We've been given liberty from sin and its bondage. We are no longer slaves to sin. This is true liberty. Yet we think liberty is freedom to do as we wish. So our will is always struggling with God's will in us--the flesh against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh (see Galatians 5:17). We almost feel schizophrenic at times. We only truly find freedom, whether slave or free in this world under men, as we give it up under God for the true liberty only He gives--only by entirely yielding ourselves to that new creation He has made us, in faith, entirely dependent on Him. So to be truly independent, we must be entirely dependent on Him, Who died to take away the source of our bondage and give us the freedom of His righteousness. There is no greater tyranny than that of our own fleshly passions. Consider the following Scriptures...

Rom 6:13-23
(13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
(14) For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (no longer under slavery but freedom--see also Galatians 4:21-30)
(15) What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
(16) Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
(17) But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
(18) Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
(19) I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
(20) For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
(21) What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
(22) But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
(23) For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I think of Bob Dillon's song "Gotta Serve Somebody". Surrender and faith, this alone is God's freedom. It seems contradictory. Many reject Christ and His salvation simply because they believe to become a Christian is to be in a bondage to the demands of a holy God. They don't understand that they are under bondage to the demands of their own sinful passions that will destroy them, and that they truly do not have the power over. Even if they find a sense of self-control over certain things, they are in a bondage in other areas that they are blind to. The end of it is still death. Outside of Christ, they are "under the sway of the spirits of darkness in this world", which blind them, and they don't even know where there being led--to their own slaughter. They think they are under the power of their own freedom but they aren't.

But "he whom the Son sets free shall be free indeed". If we are imprisoned for our faith, if we are oppressed by men, if we are held captive in any way by others in this earth, we are still free. As we are free from ourselves to be His, to be filled with His life, to live unto Him, nothing can enslave us. He Himself is our freedom. Our bodies may be enslaved but our Spirit is free and the hope and promise of freedom from even these bodies of death is ours, and we know that nothing can separate us from His love, and His purpose being fulfilled in us. In fact He uses all things in this life that happen to us, who are called to be His, to fulfill His purpose in us and bring us ever closer to that complete liberty of all--our own will, our bodies of death, and this world of evil. Nothing in the life of a Christian can take away from that! (See Romans 8:28-39)

The more we realize our liberty in Christ, the more we should use it to freely serve Him in love, and one another. In doing so we find a joy and purpose that we were meant for. Too often carnal Christians think their liberty in Christ means they can do what they want without consequence. They still live for themselves, and don't see their calling to the love of God. They think they are free, but still don't see their bondage hasn't been entirely given up. They still cling to it.

(Gal 5:1) Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

(Galatians 5:5-6)
(5) For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
(6) For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

(Galatians 5:13)
(13) For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

(1Co 7:21-23)
(21) Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.
(22) For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.
(23) Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

Many, putting themselves under the tyranny of men or government, will think they are finding freedom in their dependence on man to take care of all their needs. But only in our dependence on God, and freely serving Him in love, do we find everything we were created to be and enjoy in Him.

In love--God's love--there is liberty, truth, and every good thing. May the Lord grant that we walk in His liberty daily, experiencing it more and more until that day when we are free completely in His everlasting kingdom!