FROM FREEDOM TO NEW FREEDOM 

JOHN 8:31-36 

Though we who are Christians often quote this verse when we are dealing with those who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior, Jesus himself was speaking to Jewish disciples who believed in Him.  These disciples had difficulty receiving what Jesus was saying because they were free men not slaves to the Romans. They fell to understand that Jesus was not talking about physical slavery, but rather mankinds inability to control himself and not participate in sinful actions.  He was speaking of the nature in humans that drives us to sin and our inability to control that nature.  So Jesus explains to them that who ever practices a lifestyle of sin is a slave or servant of sin.  However, just as a servant can be freed by his owner, so mankind can be freed from sin by the Son of God.  Freedom is available, but the person who continues to practice sin remains a slave to sin.

            Some would ask, “What is sin?”  Though we can list many things that we all know to be sin, we can not list all sins.  Therefore, it is better to give a more general definition of sin.  Sin is anything not conforming to the will and ways of God.  The Bible teaches in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned.  In fact the Bible teaches that man is born with the nature to sin, but through Christ we can be freed from the power of sin over us. 

ROMANS 6:16-18

            We humans hate to think of ourselves in terms of being a slave or a servant and we, like the Jews find it difficult to see ourselves as a slave to sin.  For many of us, it is only after we come to know Christ as savior that we understand the grip that sin had on us.  If you are having difficulty seeing yourself as a servant to sin, I challenge you to try to stop sinning.  Stop doing anything that you know or believe to be wrong.  I doubt that you will make it for more than one week.  You will find that sin has a grip on you.  But Paul in these verses reminds these Christians that they were once servants to sin, but have now been freed from the power of sin.  How were they freed? He said they obeyed from the heart the doctrine that he preached to them.  In other words, they accepted the Gospel that Paul preached.  What is this Gospel preached by Paul?

I CORINTHIANS 15:1-4

            Paul preached Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified for the sins of the world, buried and resurrected back to life again.  Why death and why Jesus.

ROMANS 6:23

            The penalty for sin is death.  Each man is responsible for his own sins and thus each person is responsible for paying his own penalty.  The death here is not just natural death, but also eternal separation from God.  God could not bear to have all mankind eternally separated from him so he devised a plan where mans penalty could be paid and still allow for the possibility of a relationship between God and man.  However, the plan still required that someone die for sin.

I PETER 3:18

            Whoever was going to pay for man’s sins had to himself be perfect so that his death would not be in payment for his own sins.  To get such a perfect one, God had to send his own son, for all humans are born imperfect.  What this boiled down to is that God the Father covered God the Son in human flesh and sent him to the earth for the explicit purpose of dieing to pay the death penalty for man.  This is the Gospel that Paul preached.  When we accept this Gospel with all of our hearts we can be saved from our sins and delivered from sins power over us.  Though His death, Jesus Christ purchased freedom for every person who will receive it.  However, to receive the freedom each person must choose to surrender their heart to God.  God will then activate a new nature in man; a nature that seeks after true righteousness.

Does that mean that once someone accepts Jesus as savior they will never sin again?  No, of course not.  What it means is that God Himself will began to lead that person along the right path and that God will with time and dedication teach each saved person how to exercise power over sin and thus how to live righteously.

            If you are present here today and not saved, you have just heard the truth and if you will accept that truth, Jesus today will set you free.

            Since Jesus purchased our freedom over 2000 years ago, why is there a need for new freedom? 

GALATIANS 5:1-13

The Galatian Church was a Gentile church that Paul established on his first missionary journey. These Galatian Christians, like many gentile Christians were being bothered by Judiazers who believed and taught that covenant relationship with God was for the Jews only. In this case, these were Christian Jews who believed that all God’s gifts were for Jews only. They thus taught that if a Gentile wanted to become a Christian, he must first become a Jew. This meant that he must be circumcised and take the whole burden of the Law upon himself. To these Gentile Christians, Paul says in Galatians 1:6-7, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: [7] Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. In other words Paul says I am astonished by how quickly you have allowed someone to come in a pervert the Gospel that has been taught to you. In Chapter 3 he calls them foolish or unwise, saying that they were bewitched or confused resulting in there questioning salvation by grace and seeking to establish a relationship with God through the works of the flesh. After explaining the error in this false doctrine that they were being taught, Paul comes to Chapter 5 and encourages them to stand firm in the freedom that Christianity allows, having already been delivered from the slavery of heathenism do not become tangled up with the slavery of the Law. These Galatians were so confused that they were considering submitting to the teachings of these Jew and being circumcised. Paul’s response to this is: 

Read Verses 2-6 - Paul argues that if a man were circumcised he put himself under an obligation to do the whole law to which circumcision was only an introduction. In accepting circumcision and the law, a man turns his back on grace and for him it is as if Christ never died. Paul teaches that the Christian is not bound by the Law of Moses. He has received relationship with God by grace through faith. He told the Ephesians in Ephes. 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.  So salvation Paul says comes not by keeping the law, but rather is God’s act of grace and mercy and the work of the Spirit of God in the heart of man. This relationship, Paul teaches has bought Liberty for the Christian.   With this in mind look at  

2 Cor. 3:17

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. In other words, a life led by the Spirit of God is a life of liberty, not of bondage to the Law. Paul’s doctrine of grace and liberty was felt to be dangerous by many Jews and enemies of Paul. They feared that if Christians were free from the Law, they would live wicked lives. Many wanted to use the Law to control the Christians.  

Though most who are saved today recognize that we are no longer bound by the Law of Moses, many still look to methods other than the Spirit of God to control one another. Some and I dare say many ministers are afraid to teach on Christian liberty, and choose rather to teach on do’s and don’t in the scriptures and when they can’t find specific don’ts, they pull together a group of scriptures, often out of context, to support their view point. But I am here to today to tell you that there is liberty in Christ. Christianity is not based on laws but on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is not founded on a book, but rather on a person; Jesus Christ. The motivation of a Christian lifestyle should not be obedience to any law, but rather love for Jesus.

Some also use religious doctrines to control other Christians.  Some church doctrines are so stiff that they do not allow the Spirit of God to lead the believer.  There are so many rules and church doctrines that now hinder the people of God from doing the work of God as He ordains for their lives.  God calls and equips us for service, but now it seems that we must seek out the approval of some other man before we can do what God is telling us to do.  But where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.  I believe it is the responsibility of every believer to seek God for him or herself and being led by the Spirit of God, walk in the calling that God places on your life. 

I Tim 1:9-10

The righteous should not need a bunch of laws, rules or regulations. Why? Because we are to develop such a relationship with Jesus and the Spirit of God, that we are being led by the Spirit to walk in the will of God. Yes Christians must grow to learn how to walk in the Spirit and to know the will of God. But I believe as ministers and mature Christians we often hinder this growth process in young Christians. As ministers and mature Christians, we have a tendency to instill in them a reliance upon us to interpret scripture and to set standards for their lives. We will even go so far, as to make standards for what we ourselves call “gray areas’. By this preoccupation with rules, laws, do’s and don’ts, we downplay the need to develop a lifestyle that is led by the Spirit of God. In fact we, through our judging of one another do not allow room for many to gain confidence in their ability to hear from God, and to be led by the Spirit of God. What am I trying to say. We are often so sure that we know what God is saying to someone else on a particular issue, that we judge them in error, less holy, rebellious, etc., because they do not respond in the manner that we think they should. We should ask ourselves, “Who made me Jr. Holy Ghost”. We must allow people to follow the Spirit of God as he is leading them, especially those who are serious about their Christian walk. Now I am not concerned with those who are playing with God and not serious about a relationship with Him. They will give an account for that. Yes, even those who are serious about their walk with God will make some mistakes. They will hear wrong, and make bad decisions, just as we did and if we entrust them to God, they will learn in the midst of their bad decisions, just as we did. 

What will be learned?

I Cor. 6:12

 They will learn temperance and self-control. Not everything that is lawful and acceptable for me to do is profitable to my Christian walk. They will learn that Christians must restrain themselves from doing even those things that are lawful and acceptable when they hinder spiritual growth and development. 

Another thing that will be learned is that liberty in Christ is not without responsibility. Though salvation by grace and through faith has made us free from the bondage of law, it did not eliminate our responsibility to God and to one another. 

I Cor. 10:31-33 (Do all to Glory of God). 

Rom. 14: 5, 13-14, 23 (be fully persuaded, don’t be a stumbling block, whatever not of faith is sin).

 Gal. 5: 13 (Our liberty is to be used in service to one another not as an opportunity to sin. 

As Christians, both young and mature, we are no longer under the law and our focus should not be on a list of do’s and don’ts, but rather on a lifestyle that is led by the Spirit of God. Our liberty should not be taken as an opportunity sin. We must always remember that our freedom was purchased with the blood of Jesus and that we have been charged in liberty to act responsibly towards God and one another.