Freedom to do as we please without God’s control leads to slavery.
Freedom is not the ability to live life on my terms. Freedom can only come through life on God’s terms. Free will is a gift from God given to every human being. We were given that great power to choose by a gracious God for the purpose of freely choosing to love God. God wants to be in a personal relationship with Him – that requires choice. There are two sides to the free will story:
Freedom to reject or accept God
Whenever we choose to sin, we are rejecting God’s purpose for our lives. Sin is a willful violation of the will of God which is given in His laws and in His Word. We can sin by omission or commission and the truth is that we all sin, we all fail. That is certainly trouble because God tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23). The Bible also tells us that we are slaves to sin since we are born with a sinful nature (original sin). True freedom requires the cancellation of sin so that we can live life as free men and women. Freedom from sin NOT Freedom to sin. Galatians 5:1 tells us that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. God wants us to be truly free! Yes, we all sin but when we place our faith in Christ’s payment for our sin, He takes the consequences, He tasted the death that we deserved.
If we do not receive the forgiveness of the cross, we remain in sin and we must pay the consequences which include slavery to sin and death. This Gospel message is desperately needed by all. Do not use your freedom for selfish, sinful purposes, rather use your freedom to love God and one another.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:13-21
There must be bad news before we get to the good news. The Good News is that “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” and Christ died because He loves us. Romans 5:8
When we trust in Christ and receive eternal life, we are no longer under the law and we are no longer subject to condemnation for sin. Christ’s perfect sacrifice paid for all sin for all time so that we would no longer have sin as our master.
Please watch this 10 minute video and understand how God so loves us that He died and rose that we might have victory and true freedom!
