Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Corinthians 3:17
I hope that your Christmas was a good one, fun, time with family, and friends, and most of all a time to reflect why we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Freedom....Freedom.....Freedom..... a cry heard, shouted from the rooftops, in the waves of rioting people, and with those who have had past ancestors in slavery or bondage. Everyone wants Freedom! So do I! Even the Church speaks about freedom, about liberty: but, do you really know what is freedom, what is liberty? To a person who wants to abort a fetus is desiring freedom, a freedom to not be enslaved over having to deal with a child. An addict likes the freedom they get by being high and having an altered mind. An adulterer wants freedom to have sexual intercourse with another than their wife. Fornicators want freedom to have sexual conduct with another person. A car speeding down the highway over the speed limit is a person that wants freedom from the law of speed limits. Everyone wants Freedom!
What is the apostle Paul speaking about when he speaks and writes about freedom, or liberty (the Greek word can be translated either way)? Paul never speaks primarily about spiritual religion over against ceremonialism, rather, He speaks and writes as to the free grace of God against human merit. Let us take a look for a moment at those who believe in Pentecostalism, or Charismatic doctrines. You need not look very hard to see that "works" are foremost: i.e., speaking in gibberish sounds as some spiritual language, going about attempting, either by prayer or the laying on of hands to heal people, to be involved in some euphoric attempt at true worship. Even the music is played by men and women that look and act more like some atheistic rock band than to bring the Gospel in peace to the congregations (I think money has a play in their music). I am not one the believes that only the Psalms must by used in Church. In fact, there are many great songs, hymns, and spiritual songs that can be used in the Church (I think motive has much to do with what songs are used). Liberal Churches believe and teach that a person is free, free to worship as they please. Well.... in some way that is true but freedom to do what you would like to do is not freedom: it is to be in bondage to something else: i.e., speaking in gibberish tongues, shouting in some euphoric manner, to sway and swoon as though touch by the Spirit of God, etc., that is to be doing something even if it is not warranted by Scripture.
Freedom, freedom that the Bible speaks about is all about the grace of God and not by "works." The grace of God is something that liberal Churches reject. Oh...they may speak about such as the grace of God, but in actuality they perform what their doctrines produce: slavery, bondage, even bondage to the law of freedom. This is nothing more than an attempt to establish a person' own righteousness as a ground of acceptance by God. To be emancipated from the will of God will always involve a bondage to some worse taskmaster.
The Liberty that the Bible speaks of, is a liberty to be found only in the Gospel and is only a free gift of God, a gift that a Christian receives when reborn into the family of God. This liberty, this Freedom involves justification, that is, the removal of the guilt of sin and an establishment of a right relationship, or new birth, that makes a person a new creature. You cannot earn this gift of freedom of liberty it is not yours to acquire, it is yours only by the grace of God who will give you freedom, liberty, but only as it pertains to His will and commands. Salvation is not given because you have become free, to have liberty, no, you are free is you follow what you have come to accept: Jesus Christ, His precepts, His commands, His life, and in every way grow into His image.
It is a truth: many who have come to be saved and accept Jesus Christ as Savior do not live this freedom so the question may be asked: Are they really New Creatures? Does not seem so because they still look like the same old conditions of life before the believed and there is not an obvious change. What did you expect? When a person is saved they do not put on an incorruptible or immutable body, a new mind free from their old life. There is no outside change: but there is an inside change as become as Paul: "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. therefore, brethren we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:8-14).
There is no reason, no way to rationalize behavior that is not warranted in Scripture, not twisting of Scripture to meet a person preconceived God, or practice towards God. We are free, we have FREEDOM! We have a new life, we do not need to be in bondage of the old life. Yes, it will be hard for we are still not complete in this life as we will be when Jesus returns for His bride. We need not to be disheartened, we have the Holy Spirit within us and we can choose to be led by the Spirit of God. This is true freedom, this is true liberty. In this world you are in bondage to this world and whatever freedom it will allow you to have, but this is not so in Jesus Christ. We are not in bondage to Jesus Christ, we are free in Jesus Christ to live a life that follows His commands and follows His word as it has been handed down throughout the ages.
This time of year, Christmas to New Years Day, we often take the time to reflect. Well....reflect on this....are you living a free life in Christ?
Restore unto the joy of Thy salvation;
and uphold me with They free Spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors They ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
Psalm 51:12-13
Who holds your freedom?
Richard L. Crumb
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