Mike Focht 8/9/2024
The Christian is the only truly free person. No one is free until Jesus Christ sets them free. We have only bondage and slavery to sin and our flesh outside of Christ. But in Christ, we are free because we can finally begin to do what we are created to do—please God by knowing Him and glorifying Him.
Now, brothers and sisters in Christ may agree that they are free, but what that freedom entails becomes a wide-ranging discussion. There are vast differences in what Christians consider acceptable expressions of their liberty in Christ. Indeed, there is some leeway in the discussion. Still, unfortunately, most do not understand that they have strayed from the “middle-ground” Scriptures leave us because they are unaware of any boundaries God has drawn! If Christian freedom is a path, we had better become familiar with the stones it is paved with.
First, allow me to state from the Scriptures what our Christian freedom is from. Christ gives us freedom from the bondage of sin, the curse of the law, the power and deceit within Satan’s kingdom of darkness, and freedom from the bondage of corruption and an eternal hell away from God.
Secondly, allow me to state from the Scriptures what our Christian freedom is to. Christ has set us free to live as His sons and daughters, to access our Father’s presence, to live in the law of the Spirit, to love God and others, to walk in the light of truth, to live with no condemnation in our imperfect progress of sanctification, to embrace the law of liberty, to become servants of righteousness, to be transformed into what God was so pleased to see when He made us in His image and likeness.
In that description, you will notice that God does not leave us with the impression that our Christ-bought freedom offers us an opportunity to operate at a distance from Him. The Scriptures routinely tie our freedom to our life as His servants! Most wouldn’t describe their freedom in Christ as a new law to live under or as willing slavery, but God does.
And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
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 law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave.
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.
Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
So here is a critical question: Are Christians free to please themselves without displeasing God? Has God given me the freedom to do what I want with my life as long as I am not breaking any of His obvious laws? God forbid! Why not? Very simply because God did not set us free so that self could remain first. That self-first thought process is the cloak that hides the true abuse of our freedom in Christ. We need to repent of our self-life and shed that cloak.
In that previous question, you will notice that personal desire is before divine pleasure, and that will never do. We have been set free to do what God created us to do—please Him. Christian freedom is not a list of adamantly claimed legal “rights.” Paul explained this in his discussions over meat, feasts, and holy days. Paul warns the Corinthians: But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.
Christian freedom is an expression of new life under the law of the Spirit. It is the joyful life of a willing servant, surrendering all to follow a Master who came not to be served but to serve and called us to follow His example.
In the end, it might be easier to say that the line between Christian liberty and Christian license is better tasted than seen. Do we have an appetite for Him or the world? What is first in our desires? What tastes best to us personally? Our pleasure or God's?
By the grace of God, may we all live as Peter exhorted: As free, not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as servants of God.