Free Indeed!

Without the church, liberty becomes license. Liberty is the precondition to love and service. License is the precondition to bondage. It is bonding because when we believe we deserve anything in this world, then our abundance is based upon rights rather than blessings; it leads us inexorably into worship of false gods.[1]

So If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed    (John 8:36)

We seek freedom in so many different ways. The problem is most of those ways only lead us into greater bondage. In seeking to be free from “restrictive” moralism, we become enslaved to our own lusts and passions. Claiming that “No one can dictate what we do but ourselves,” we become spiritual, moral, and philosophical orphans with no home or foundation.

The more laws we create, the more we must agree with the Apostle Paul that we are slaves to the law and not free men. I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[2] The law can only identify sin. It cannot, by its very nature, abolish it.

It is only through the work of Jesus Christ that covetousness, adultery, lying, stealing, murder, hatred, prejudice, and idolatry, once identified by the law, can be eliminated.

Yet, we try to bind Christ more and more to the church building, and the church building alone. When we do this, we only drag ourselves into greater and greater bondage. We become chained to what we hate and isolated from all hope, peace, love, forgiveness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Let us submit to the Son and become free indeed.

Pastor Craig

[1] Laverentz, Eric (2012-05-08). Is Caesar Our Savior? (Kindle Locations 2116-2118). First Edition Design Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[2] Romans 7:7