What is Biblical Freedom?
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36 NKJV)
“But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.” (Romans 6:17 NKJV)
“And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” (Romans 6:18 NKJV)
Our Independent Spirit
Nobody likes to be told what to do. Yet, we submit to “bosses” all the time in the business world. Many people feel that they are the slaves of corporate America. When slaves were freed in the South in America, they had to feed themselves and their families. When they came North they took jobs in industries that treated them worse than many slave owners did. They became slaves of the industrial revolution.
When we get fed up and quit our jobs, are we really free? Do we have the option of making our “own” decisions? To some extent, yes, but often working for oneself requires more hours and effort than working for someone else. We are really enslaved again, even though we think we are free.
Biblical Freedom
Biblically, the truth sets us free. The truth that sets us free is the truth about the Lord Jesus. But what does it mean to be set free? Paul makes it clear that we are born as slaves to sin. The slave to sin is a slave to Satan. Often all he requires is an attitude of rebellion against the Lord Jesus. When we trust in the truth that Christ died for us, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit and we become slaves of righteousness. That is another way of saying that we become slaves of the Lord Jesus. In the Bible we are either slaves of “sin” or we are slaves of “righteousness.” When the Lord set us free, He set us free to serve Him. Paul says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2 NKJV).”
Leaving an Abusive Master
As a nation, we fought and won our freedom from the United Kingdom in 1778. However, it became apparent that the original 13 colonies needed some kind of government if they were going to stay united. So ultimately they ratified a constitution and then later the bill of rights. Freedom was not freedom to do as each colony pleased but freedom to voluntarily submit to a new government that was based on the new constitution. Freedom meant being delivered from an abusive government (the United Kingdom) to voluntarily submit to a new government that would involve democratic representation. So winning freedom from the United Kingdom set the colonies free to form and serve a new government. That is what happens when a person “gets saved.” They leave an abusive master to serve a benevolent one. The old master requires wages, the new one gives us eternal life. Again Paul says, “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:22-23 NKJV).”
Serving the God of Grace and Truth
I know that many are critical of the God of the Bible because of genocide in the old testament and because of the concept of eternal conscious punishment for unbelievers. There is a tendency to think that God should not and could not send people to the Lake of Fire simply based on belief (which should be translated trust). I understand these arguments, but I have trusted a God who sent His Son so that I might know a God of grace and truth. The truth has set me free from the arguments that keep many from trusting the Lord and has set me free to serve the Lord. He has been gracious to me and He expects me (as His slave) to preach the good news to others. I can do that by what I say and I can do that by how I live. My life should reflect the grace of our Lord if I am truly His slave.
If the Lord is our new Master, his requirements are really fairly simple. He asks us to love God which we don’t do by nature. That occurs when we realize we are sinners in need of a Saviour and when we find out that that Saviour is the Lord. Trusting the Lord is to love the Lord. Then we are told to love our neighbors.
Now that is what we are set free to do. We are not set free to make “our own” decisions.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of October 31, 2021