Chain Versus Freedom

Christ’s Spirit or Fleshly Desires

Even though the presidential election is more than a year away, it seems that it dominates much of the evening news. Each person running for office tells us what our problems are and how they will fix them. While, I wish the winner’s success, I see America’s problems as deeper than politics: We need Jesus back in America. I see our problems, our decline as a society, as linked directly to the decline of America’s churches.

We have less than half the number of churches in America that we had a hundred years ago and yet the population in those hundred years is three times what it was then. There are 310,000 Protestant churches in America and 80% of them are showing a decline or no growth in attendance. More than 4,000 churches close their doors every year because 3,500 people are leaving the church every day. Our society reflects the decline in our churches. Sixty percent of men and forty percent of the women who use the internet regularly watch pornography. Here in Virginia in just the last two years we have seen the loosening of abortion restrictions, the legalization of marijuana and the growth of illegal drugs use. Few churches are on fire, and it shows.

I believe the following scripture describes America’s Churches today. In Revelation 3:15-18 Christ speaks to this, “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." Therefore, I want us to ask ourselves, does Spirit of Christ govern Americans or do fleshly desires govern our Nation?

Paul says in Romans 8:6-10 that we are governed by fleshly desires. “6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. 9 …10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” These two short passages describe two states of mind: literally, "The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God...But if Christ is in you...the Spirit gives life because of righteousness." I say chains hold you either to the flesh or to the Spirit. I say chains to illustrate how powerful our attachment is to one or the other, flesh or Christ. Chains are strong, hard to break. Like chains, if the bond to the flesh has you, it is difficult to break. So too is the bond of the Spirit once you permit it to fill you. These two quite distinct mindsets lead to two differing choices of lifestyle, two different states of mind.

These two states of mind influence our present circumstance and control our destiny, whether “death” or “life and peace”. Genesis 2:17 tells us that death arose from rebellion against God and has left man in a state of flesh-serving carnality ever since. Adam had but one law to keep. His failure ushered in "the law of sin and death". Sin and death are chains, strong chains. Jesus came to free us from sin and death, to free us from our chains.

How many of you have ever heard of a movie/play entitled “The King and I”?

The movie version starred Yul Brynner and Debra Kerr, and has been popular for decades. However, many people do not realize the movie and play tell the true story of a widowed Englishwoman named Anna who accepted the position of governess for the King of Siam (Thailand) in the late 1800s.

It seems that one day, while on an errand, Anna got lost. “She found herself in a dark alley, from which the only exit appeared to be a door of polished brass in a high brick wall. Half-afraid that she was trespassing in some forbidden place; she pushed open the door, then stepped over the sill into a paved courtyard. The courtyard contained a garden. Near the center of the garden was a small pond of water; there a woman was sitting on the ground, chained to a post. She was nursing a naked child about 4 years old.”

In a conversation with this woman, Anna discovered that her son’s name was “Sorrow”. She explained that she had been born a slave, but an Indian merchant who had fallen in love with her and desired to marry her had purchased her freedom. Under Siamese law, the transaction was legal, and the woman began a life of happy freedom.