Set Free

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

This letter to the church in Galatia set up the fact that: salvation is the gift of God – it is a gift of grace – it is a gift of freedom.

It is a gift that we are not worthy of receiving.

We cannot earn this gift.

We are justified with God by His grace and by our response to His grace through faith.

Through His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus has paid the price for our pardon, --- something we could never do – on our own.

It is a common fact that many people have considered Christian Freedom to be a license to keep on sinning – to keep on living the same way they did before coming to know Christ as Lord.

But Christian freedom is not that at all.

Christian freedom requires that we begin a process of working it out in our daily living.   

Paul teaches this truth in his letter to the church in Philippi. Hear his teaching on this matter of Christian freedom and working it out in daily living.  

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;Philippians 2:12           

The burden of the Law has been removed; the cross has been accepted; and life becomes a rhythm of dying and resurrection.

Christian freedom makes us slaves of Christ.

The only way to use this freedom is to invest ourselves in the lives of others for the sake of Christ.

We must continually die to those things to which Christ died, and then we must continually produce fruit – the is resurrection – of His Spirit in us.

The freedom – or liberty through Christ that has made us free is the pivotal concept in Paul’s letter to the church in Phillipi.

The theme is grace – God’s grace alone, by which we can be saved.

Christ is our source of Grace – and Freedom is the result of His grace in our lives.

So, now, let’s look at the nature of that Freedom.

I.                It is the Freedom of Release

To redeem those under the Law

To understand Christian freedom, we have to understand the destructive nature of sin and evil.

Sin is not limited to only the person who does sin.

Sin affects all of the universe.

Sin reduces us to a pathetic slavery; that is, sin places us in bondage.

God had to act against sin. How did He react?

He sent His Son. The great sin of the world broke the heart of God.

All of humanity is in bondage until God’s gift of grace is received in faith to release us.

II.              Reconciliation is another expression of Christian Freedom.

In our human state we are in sin – being in sin means that we are fully cut off from God.

          We can be cut off inside ourselves.

          We can be cut off from others.

          We can be estranged from others.

          We can be separated from others.

But there is hope that we can become released from this cut-off condition.

Reconciliation is the work of Christ – above all else.

We were made to be friends in fellowship with God.

But disobedience and rebellion have caused us to be alienated from God and, in the process, to be alienated from one another.

But, God had a plan to redeem lost mankind,

He would allow His Son – the Savior of the world – to die.

What would that accomplish? To our human minds it doesn’t make sense --- to allow your Son to die to save all the people of the world?

But, God is God, and He knows better than our human minds can comprehend.

The death of His Son will restore the lost relationship between mankind and our God.

Relationships between His Son and the Father; and relationships between the lost world and our Father can be restored through the death of the Son.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ brought forth a New Vision.

That new vision takes us from our past into a release and reconciliation .

Look at Luke 4:18-19 – this is actually a quote from the Prophet Isaiah: 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set free those who are oppressed,

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

This word speaks of the recovery of sight for the blind. Sin is blindness.

But the freedom of the Word brings sight and vision to those who seek freedom in Christ.

And so, once the resurrection from sin has been accomplished, there is potential for growth.

We all know our physical bodies have physical limits.

And we know that when our human lives have not been redeemed our lives are like restricted – just as a blind person or a lame person would be.

But we are not without hope.

The Gospel brings light and vision to us.

The Gospel releases us from the bondage of and the Law.

The Gospel gives us a new vision of life that is not restricted by the laws of nature.

With this new vison of life, we belong to God.

Luke 4:7 – “...if you worship before Me, it shall all be yours.”

We are not slaves, but we are sons and daughters, heirs to the promise of salvation through, and by the work of Jesus Christ to accomplish our salvation.

So, Release and Reconciliation are the beginning of the Journey, not the end of the Journey.

Freedom is not only the exodus from every form of slavery, but it is also the entrance into a new life of the freedom of belonging to Jesus Christ.

We belong to Him, and because we belong to Him, everything He has belongs to us.

And so, we need to cling to Him – let go of the world – and the letter of the law.

We need to exercise the freedom that is ours in Christ

The man who makes law the principle of His life is in the position of a slave; whereas the man who makes grace the principle of his life is Free.

The power of God’s love can keep us doing right if we yield to that power.

The free Christian will be found doing these:

          Serving in spirit, not in the letter of the Law –

for he who has died is freed from sin.Romans 7:6

          Seeking the mind of Christ – doing what he knows will please Him.

In serving Christ as our Savior, we must exceed the boundaries of the Law – that is, we must exceed the boundaries of right and wrong.

Matthew 5:46-47: “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brother, what more are you doing than others? Do not event the Gentiles do the same?

As we sum all of this up the Christian life must be one of constantly experiencing “growth pains”.

We can never come to the point where we can say, “I have done enough.”

And, in our admission of that truth, we must continue on toward that perfection, which we will reach at the end of life, or when Jesus returns to take us all home.