Do You Want To Be Free

Do You Want to be Free -The Chain can be Broken ( Col. 1:13,14 )

Intro : Freedom! What a wonderful word to us. We all value freedom highly. We delight in being free. We long to live in freedom always.

One of the most encouraging and recurring themes in the New Testament is that Christians are free in Christ Jesus. This especially was good news to the Christians who first received this teaching from the apostles since many of the first believers throughout the Roman Empire were officially classified as slaves. The freedom that the apostles spoke about, however, was not a political freedom but, rather, a spiritual one. They spoke of an inner freedom that allows a person to live above his present circumstances.

This is a freedom that is no less important in our world today, when many people feel trapped in the bondage of addictions, depression, abusive relationships, and other oppressive situations. The world in which we live is not a godly world, and we each must experience the freedom that Christ offers to us so that we can live in the world, yet not be “of” the world.

To any person who feels as if he or she is in the clutches of something negative or evil, the encouraging word is, “You can be free!”

Text : Col 1:13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

Col 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Gal 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

To be free you must first realize that you are in bondage

Some of the things that put you in bondage

Biting and devouring each other,

sexual immorality,

impurity

debauchery; LASCIVIOUSNESS KJV term for an unbridled expression of sexual urges (Mark 7:22; 2 Cor. 12:21; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 4:19; 1 Pet. 4:3; Jude 4). RSV translated the underlying Greek as licentiousness; the NASB, as sensuality. Other translations used a variety of terms: debauchery; indecency; lewdness; sexual sin.

idolatry

witchcraft;

hatred,

discord,

jealousy,

fits of rage,

selfish ambition,

dissensions,

factions

envy;

drunkenness,

orgies,

The only thing that can set you free is the REDEMPTIVE ACT OF JESUS

What is Redemption ?

REDEEM, REDEMPTION, REDEEMER To pay the required price to secure the release of a convicted criminal, the process therein involved, and the person making the payment. In early use the idea and the words related to legal and commercial activities. They provided biblical writers with one of the most basic and dynamic images for describing God's saving activity toward mankind.

Old testament --Three Hebrew words express the legal and commercial use of the redemptive concept.

Padah was used only in relation to the redemption of persons or other living beings. For example, if a person owned an ox which was known to be dangerous but did not keep the ox secured and the ox gored the son or daughter of a neighbor, both the ox and the owner would be stoned to death. If, however, the father of the slain person offered to accept an amount of money, the owner could pay the redemption price and live

ga'al indicated a redemption price in family members involving the responsibility of a next-of-kin

to redeem or ransom the family land by paying the redemption price for it (Jer. 32:6-15). Such commercial practices easily passed over into religious concepts. God would redeem Israel from her iniquities.

kipper or "cover" came to extensive use in strictly religious concepts and practices. It is the word from which "Kippur" is derived in "Yom Kippur," Day of Atonement, or Day of Covering, perhaps the most sacred of the holy days in Judaism. The verbal form in the Old Testament is always used in a religious sense such as the covering of sin or the making of atonement for sin.

Religious redemption language grows out of the custom of buying back something which formerly belonged to the purchaser but for some reason had passed into the ownership of another. The original owner could regain ownership by paying a redemption price for it. In the Old Testament the terms and ideas are frequently used symbolically to emphasize dramatically the redemptive or saving activity of God

The New Testament centers redemption in Jesus Christ.

He purchased the church with His own blood---Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

gave His flesh for the life of the world---John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."