FREEDOM IN CHRIST (1)

LIBERTY AND LOVE #167

The truth will make you free if you know it (John 8:32). That is talking about knowing the truth about Jesus, which is the same as saying knowing Jesus. It is not about knowledge, it is about a person. Freedom is a wonderful concept. It reminds us that we do not have to worry about answering to those who would try to control us to enhance their own power. It reminds us of the fact that we are individuals. Everyone is a slave to something. A person who says that he is going “to do his own thing” is a slave to his passions. A slave to himself. When we give ourselves to God, we experience real freedom.

If the Lord Jesus Christ makes you free, you will be free indeed. Free indeed. Free from sin and free from the punishment that was due because of our sin. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A person who is free does not seek the approval of others. “If I still pleased men, I could not be a bondservant of Christ,” Paul said (Gal. 1:10). By giving ourselves to Jesus, we relinquish the rights of our lives as far as ruling and reigning in our own hearts. We take ourselves down off the throne of our lives and we put Jesus there. But we also take away the ability of other people to rule or control us.

When we love Jesus and when we seek to follow Jesus, that is when we have true freedom. Freedom to be what God created us to be. Freedom to live, to walk in the love of God. Jesus came to give us freedom. The liberty that God gives us is something that we are to hold on to and stand fast in. We are to never let it go. We are to never let it go.

Dewayne Dunaway