Freedom Through Bondage

Freedom Through Bondage

There is a growing belief among many in the Lord's church that our freedom in Christ equates to freedom to live as we see fit. The belief that strict obedience to God's will is unnecessary is gaining an ever increasing following. I have had discussions with denominational people who have said they believe that strict obedience to the will of God is too burdensome. One of the arguments they use is that through the gospel, we have freedom in Christ and that this freedom releases us from God's law. The wording they use to promote this is deceiving. They say that our salvation in Christ is by grace through faith and that Christians have been set free from the bondage of law. Well, in the proper context, that is a true statement. However, that statement is used to promote the idea that strict observance to God's law is no longer necessary under the gospel. We have been set free from the bondage of the old law of Moses. We are not set free from the law of God as some are promoting. The purpose of this lesson is to examine what true freedom in Christ really is and what one must do in order to be truly free in Christ.

There's a story about a young boy who was playing with his new slingshot. He set up a target and practiced shooting stones from it. But after several hours, he was still unable to hit the target. Frustrated, he gave up and started walking back to his home. He happened to see some of his mother's chickens in the yard and took a random shot at one of them with his new slingshot. Sure enough, he hit one of the chickens in the head and killed it. Not wanting to get into trouble, he dug a hole, buried the chicken and went on about his business. Unknown to him, his little sister witnessed the whole affair but didn't let him know it at the time.

Later that day, after supper, the young boy's mother told his little sister to wash the dishes. She was setting next to him at the table and quietly whispered just loud enough for her brother to hear, "Remember mom's chicken". Then she announced to her mother that her brother had graciously offered to do the dishes for her. Not wanting to get into trouble for killing his mother's chicken, he reluctantly performed his little sister's chore. Later that evening the little girl was directed to pick up her dirty clothes and put them in the washing machine. The same low whisper in her brother's earshot to "remember mom's chicken" resulted in her laundry being done by her older brother.

For the next 2 weeks, the young chicken slayer was stuck with all of his sister's chores. Finally, he couldn't stand it any longer and decided that being punished for killing his mother's chicken was not as horrible a fate as doing all his little sister's chores for the rest of his life so he decided to confess the murder of the chicken to his mother. So with head hung low, he humbly went before his mother and told her the whole story.

His mother kneeled down and kissed the young hunter on the head and told him she already knew that he had killed her chicken. She explained that she watched him bury her chicken from the kitchen window. Then, she said, "I just wanted to know how long you would be a slave to your sister".

A few weeks ago, Bobby made a comment in a sermon to the effect that God's law does not restrict us, rather it liberates us. I agree with that whole heartedly. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be a great topic to study.

As I have experienced children growing up, my appreciation of this fact has grown considerably. As a young boy growing up, I felt that the rules I had to live by were restrictive. While I knew the rules were put in place for my own good, I did not appreciate them because they interfered with what I wanted to do. I saw rules of any kind as being a hindrance to my freedom. I didn't want any rules at all. I wanted to do what I wanted to do without any consequences. What I did not realize at the time, was that for every action, there can be consequences. And those consequences are more restrictive than the rules were. When we refuse to live by the rules, we make ourselves slaves to the consequences.

When we apply this principle to God's laws it's easy to see that our freedom in Christ is realized only when we are living in subjection to His will. By making some comparisons between the rule system we have with our children and the law of God, it is easy to see how true freedom is through bondage.