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Freedom

An Expression of Freedom

by TerryLema

Yesterday I spoke about the true eternal freedom we have when the Son of God sets us free. While granted freedom through our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, that freedom can be taken away at any time, either through internal events or from outside sources.

But when the “Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”  That is a freedom that overrules every other freedom a government controls.

To me one of the most precious parts of that freedom is expressed by the writer of the Book of Hebrews. “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” [Hebrews 4:16 NLT]

We have the freedom, expressed with reverent confidence (boldness) to come to the Throne of our Gracious God. There we can present our requests and be assured that God’s mercy and grace will flow to us.

Yet, while I think of that precious part of freedom with great joy, I am saddened at times by how few really partake of the opportunities to pray. There are 168 hours in a week. Jesus once asked His disciples if they could spend just one hour with Him.

I remember holding one hour prayer meetings. Often it was just a few of us who came to pray. At times, I was the only one there.  That is a sad expression of our glorious freedom.

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Freedom to be Holy Before God

by TerryLema

Living in liberty requires an attention to inherent dangers. It is far too easy to become unbalanced, leaning too far one direction or another.

There is a danger for those who forcefully demand liberty that they can fall into undisciplined living (licentiousness).  “As God’s slaves, live as free people, but don’t use your freedom as a way to conceal evil.” [I Peter 2:16 HCSB]

I remember speaking to a man once who told me he was free to have an affair. After all, he said, he could just simply come back and ask forgiveness when it was over and maintain his Christian standing.

There is also a danger for those who forcefully limit liberty that they can fall into a legalistic lifestyle. “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?” [Galatians 3:3 HCSB]

These people become defined by what they are “against.” I remember visiting a gathering of churches where I was informed that I could not raise my hands during the singing because a certain member in the host church forbade such “emotional” worship.

The ultimate goal of freedom is to live a holy life that glorifies God, edifies our fellow believers, and maintains a good repute before unbelievers. Liberty neither hides iniquity (doing anything we want), nor does it restrict by rules or customs.

The only “rule” that we must submit to in exercising our Christian freedom is simple. Does what I am thinking, speaking, and doing, please my LORD and Master, Christ Jesus?

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Freedom to Serve

by TerryLema

One of the most interesting verses in Galatians 5, “Freedom of the Christian,” is verse 13.

“For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.”  [Galatians 5:13 HCSB]

The words Paul used for “free” and “freedom” are eleutheria and eleutherian.  Pretty much the same word meaning freedom, liberty, especially a state of freedom from slavery.  We were called through the amazing invitation of God to become His own. When we accepted God’s invitation to come to Him through the work of Christian Jesus on the cross, we were set free from slavery to sin, guilt, and shame.

Paul goes on to tells his readers that since they have been set free by Christ Jesus and are now in a state of freedom from slavery, they should “serve” one another.  Paul uses the word douleuó, which means to be a slave. It comes from the word doulos, which describes the basest of slaves. Doulos was someone who belonged to another, without any ownership rights of their own.

When Christianity got hold of that word, they converted it to one of the highest honor to describe believers who willingly live under Christ’s authority as His devoted followers. They voluntarily serve their LORD and Master with great delight. And they gladly serve each other through unconditional love (agape).

The USA is celebrating independence today. Many citizens think that means they are “free” to do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want.

God’s view of true liberty is being set free to willingly serve Him and others. It is freedom to love unconditionally as we are loved by Him. It is freedom to rejoice in a salvation that extends beyond borders and beyond time.

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Freedom From Slavery

by TerryLema

I am preparing a message about true Christian freedom for tomorrow’s service. I am studying many Scriptures and have many thoughts about freedom and liberty.

One of the passages I have been studying is Galatians 5, which is labeled in one of my Bible translations as “Freedom of the Christian.”

The chapter begins with a declaration: “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” [Galatians 5:1 HCSB]

Paul was writing because the Galatians were facing a crisis of theology. A group called Judaizers were insisting that Gentiles first convert to Judaism, get circumcised, and follow the Mosaic law to be eligible to be Christians. Paul wrote to counter this and proclaimed that true liberty is found solely in Christ.

The law had one purpose, to prove to fallen mankind that he could not be saved by keeping the law. It pointed ahead to the salvation that would come from God through the work of Christ Jesus on the cross. That salvation would be given by God’s grace and received (not worked for) by faith.  That salvation in Christ alone would set man free from the slavery of the law.

Once the law brings us to Christ Jesus, it has achieved its sole purpose. To go back under the law is to reject Christ’s work and fall from God’s grace.

“You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.” [Galatians 5:4 HCSB]

Why would anyone set free through grace want to go back to trying futilely to be justified by keeping the law? And yet many do. I, for one, cling to the grace of God and my freedom in Christ Jesus. 

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Independence

by TerryLema

Independence Day is right around the corner. The fireworks booths in our area have been open for a few days and already the nights are filled with the sounds of fireworks (both the legal and illegal types). I cannot say I am a big fan of, nor celebrator of our modern-day 4th of July events.

At the same time, I cherish American Independence Day. I was raised in Pennsylvania, so the American Revolution was taught and revered. Pennsylvania was one of the original Thirteen Colonies.

One of the greatest experiences of my life was to visit the National Archives and see the Declaration of Independence, written and approved in Philadelphia.  Nine Pennsylvanians signed the Declaration, including the most notable, Benjamin Franklin.

As flawed as some of the men who signed that document were, they risked everything — “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” — for the principle of representative democracy.

By their signatures on that document, they declared open rebellion against one of the world’s then-great military and political powers, Great Britain. They had everything to lose. And they had everything to gain. The result was the creation of a great influence for good in world history, the United States of America.

Still, as I contemplate the upcoming Independence Day, it pales in comparison to the true freedom we have in Christ Jesus. The freedom we have in Christ Jesus transcends American independence. It is far, far beyond any national or political freedom we claim as Americans. (More thoughts on Christ-given freedom this week.)

Luke 4:18-19: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” [HCSB]

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For Christ!

by TerryLema

“For it has been given to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I have.” [Philippians 1:29-30]

Oh, Paul, really, did you have to add that part about suffering for Christ?

No one likes to talk about nor endure suffering.  Still, suffering comes. Few people go through this life without some suffering or difficulties or trying circumstances. Some of the time we create our own suffering by our bad choices. Some of the time suffering is created for us by other’s bad choices.  But is that the kind of suffering Paul reminds us of in these verses?

No, it is not. The kind of suffering Paul refers to is specific. It is suffering “for” Christ Jesus. It is a suffering that is linked to our faith and our work for the Gospel. It is unique in its source and nature.

We have an enemy. He is our enemy because we belong to God and he hates God. All the evil aimed at the church and individual Christians is generated by him. He will use anyone or anything to aim his hatred of God against God’s beloved children.  He will not succeed, in fact, he is already a vanquished enemy – vanquished by Christ Jesus at the cross.

Still, he knows he is getting closer and closer to that awful lake of fire spoken of in Revelation 20:10 and he is seeking for as many to devour as he can. He has begun a campaign against the church in our nation. We would do well to remember that … and to remember that freedom gained must be diligently kept.

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Independence Day

by TerryLema

True freedom will never be achieved in this world until we are under the Almighty Rule of the Eternal Godhead. What we experience on this earth will always be but a shadow because it will always be tainted by the sins of mankind, the prejudices, the hatred, the arrogance, the greed.

Jesus says, however, that He has come that we might have freedom. In John 8, He was being questioned by the Pharisees following an incident when He was teaching on the Mount of Olives. They brought to Him a woman caught in adultery, hoping to catch Him in an offense that could be used against Him.

Before His revelation as the “Great I AM” at the end of the chapter, Jesus and the Pharisees discussed freedom. He reminded them in verse 36, “If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.”

I like the way the Holman Christian Standard Version translates that familiar verse.  “Therefore, if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.” [John 8:36 CSB]

We have been set free by the Son of God. It is a done deal, since only the Son of God can set us free from the bondage and guilt of sin. However, like all freedom, it must be defended because there is always someone out there ready to reduce freedom to enslavement, to impose oppression over freedom, and to vanquish the freedom of others.

We have to fight to maintain our freedoms in this natural world, and with the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we must fight to maintain our freedom in the spiritual world … looking forward to that day when we shall see our LORD face-to-face and experience the everlasting freedom which we know in part now..

“For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.” [1 Corinthians 13:12 CSB]

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by TerryLema

Freedom. Tomorrow is Independence Day. Perhaps this year it will mean more to us than fireworks and picnics. Perhaps this year, 2020, we will begin to understand the price so many paid for this nation to be born.

I grew up in Pennsylvania, one of the original 13 colonies. To me, the Revolutionary War is the most intriguing event in our history. I thrived on the stories of patriots, Patrick Henry, John Paul Jones, John and Abigail Adams, Mary Draper, Samuel Adams, Esther DeBerdt Reed, John Hancock.  These were men and women who sacrificed everything to bring about the end of the tyrannical rule of England and allow the colonies to be free to govern themselves.

As children we had to memorize the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. It begins: “When in the course of human events, it become necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the power of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respond to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

The next section is the one we so often hear:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

All people are created equal. Through the years we have struggled with that truth. We have gotten off course as a nation, but we have fought and died to correct the course when needed. The concepts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have never been easy to understand, nor easy to embrace, still Americans have proudly displayed their quest for them.

This is history. American history. And if you read through the early papers of the great American heroes who founded this country, you will see that they have pulled many of their truths from the Bible, and sought the Hand of their Creator God to fulfill their purpose.

“A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” [John 10:10]

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