What is Christian freedom?
Romans 6:15-18
As Americans we claim to live in a “free country. We hear about freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion. We claim to believe that we are free to do whatever we want as long as we don’t break any laws, pay our taxes and don’t hurt other people. We generally understand that our freedom and rights are unlimited right up to the tip of another person’s nose.
So generally speaking we accept limitations on our freedom as being acceptable and a way of getting along in a free society.
The dictionary defines freedom as:
• the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints
• exemption: immunity from an obligation or duty
-- The dictionary definition does not seem to have the limits that we have when we define our freedom as Americans. So, I am led to wonder about the meaning of the word freedom. If we call how we live and act as good citizens’ freedom then we need to change the definition in the dictionary to match what the word means…limited freedom?
That general idea led me to ask the question, What is Christian freedom?
Is it limited by something? Does it require self restraint?
We are in the time of year when many people make New Year’s resolutions….when we do we are making a goal to make changes in our lives for something better. I found a list of the top resolutions:
Lose Weight
Get Fit
Eat Right
Quit Smoking
Drink Less Alcohol
More time with family
Manage Debt
Save Money
Personally I don’t really make resolutions because I tend to fail and get discouraged. As I look at this list I realized that I am not alone in identifying areas of improvement in my life.
In a way these resolutions are an acknowledgement to something we are enslaved too. When we do make a resolution, a decision, we are saying that there are things in our lives we prefer to change.
The process of making resolutions indicates an acknowledgement of a need and the goal to change habits we don’t like. They identify a need to improve elements of a person’s life and health.
The list I read is not and inclusive list of all the things that we can be made slaves to. In one odd detail, many if not most of the things that enslave us are not themselves sinful. It is only our desire and focus on the object, or action that make it inappropriate.
The question for this morning is “What are we enslaved too….what do we give our freedom, away too.
Matthew 6:24 describes a problem with two masters, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
That is just a relationship between two masters, in today’s culture there is a chance that our lives are ruled and controlled by many masters. Social calendar, financial goals, family needs and the list could go on for quiet a while.
Our scripture reading says it like this, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey”
Paul is writing to believers and he is starting a long discussion related to the process of sanctification. Basically, the process of God helping us to achiever/receive perfection. This passage is pointing to the need to make progress.
Let’s be clear about this, this passage has no value to non believers. They are bound to slavery to sin. This passage is for believers. The only difference between believers and non believers is choice. Because of the act of Jesus Christ on the behalf of believers our slavery is broken and we have a choice.
We have freedom….freedom to do what?
Folks, I suggest that we are all a little bit afraid of real freedom. We don’t know what to do or how to act when the bondage to sin is broken. Total freedom leaves us without a connection to a direction.
According to Jesus in John 8:32 , “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
The word free in our translation of the Bible is more accurately translated as “libration from bondage.”
Because of our faith in Jesus Christ we have been set free from slavery to Sin and it is even bigger than that….Free means free. We have the freedom to choose our master.
When Paul describes offering to obey someone, something, he is telling us that we become slaves to what ever we choose to obey.
We can’t handle real freedom and ultimately we will make a choice. If we give in to sin, we are slaves of sin. If we submit to God and serve Him we become His slaves.
"There is an old story that Abraham Lincoln went down to the slave block to buy a slave girl. As she looked at the tall, white man bidding on her, she figured he was just another white man that was going to buy her and then abuse her. He won the bid, and as he was walking away with his property, he turned to the young lady holding out some papers and said, ‘Young lady, you are free.’ She said, ‘What does that mean?’
‘It means you are free.’
‘Does that mean,’ she said, ‘that I can say whatever I want to say?’
Lincoln said, ‘Yes, my dear, you can say whatever you want to say.’
‘Does that mean I can be whatever I want to be?’
"He said, ‘Yes, you can be whatever you want to be.’
‘Does that mean I can go wherever I want to go?’
Lincoln said, ‘Yes, you can go wherever you want to go.’
The girl, with tears streaming down her face, said, “Then I will stay with you, and serve you until I die.” (Citation: Steve Brown, Preaching Today, #58)
When we came to faith ….Jesus set us free from our oppressive master and asked us to follow and serve him by choice. When we truly accept what he has done on our behalf and realize how undeserved it is…we have a desire to go where he goes and do what he does. The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives helps us to desire perfection in our life and relationship with the one that has set us free.
Paul says that this choice of master has made us “slaves to righteousness.”
Here is the problem that I end up with. If I have made myself His slave and He has provided me with the Holy Spirit and the Bible to guide me to righteousness ….why do I end up with more sin…more masters in my life.
I don’t believe that my freedom is a license to sin. I end up feeling guilty when I realize that most of my sins are not by accident. Too often they are simple choices to obey an old desire, to indulge a simple pleasure. Typically the old slavery that we submit ourselves too is pleasurable and comforting.
The comedian George Carlan once said “Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.”
Just because you make the choice to move away from sin does not mean that the temptations and the opportunity to sin is not still present in your life.
-- Just because you decide that you are done with sin does not mean that sin is done with you.
According to the scriptures you have been freed by that crucifixion of Jesus Christ. His receiving punishment for our sin has broken the shackles which bound us in slavery which could only end in death.
The hand cuffs binding you have been locked open, the cell door has been unlocked and the key thrown away.
Man that sounds so great. What a fantastic gift. The gift of freedom from any control over our lives. The gift of choice, real choice.
There is only one problem….we remember when we were slaves to the other master. We can still feel the shackles and how controlling they were. The sinful choices are still visible in your memory.
Paul talks about freedom all through the letters to the churches. He addresses lots of ways that the early Christians struggled with being free. A brief example would be from Galatians 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.”
When we have lived a life of bondage we have trouble knowing how to live when we realize we are free.
It seems that it is a common occurrence for free people to get confused and even fear the freedom that Christ has obtained for us. It is our nature to get involved in something. To find a set of rules to live by and since we are free to choose we often go back to what we know.
Out of habit Christians pretend that sin has power over our lives…We remember to power, we remember the pleasure, we forget the freedom…the circus is still in town.
What areas of your life is controlled even a little bit by sin.
--- If sin still controls parts of your life then it does so with your permission.
Sometimes we crave the comfort of the shackles that once held us prisoner. We actually fear freedom to the point that sometimes prefer the prison that held us captive because we knew the rules the limitations and the expectations. They often seemed less demanding that this whole relationship with God.
Do ya’ll remember the Otis character from the Maybury TV Show. His is a kind of illustration of a person that is comfortable with a prison to substance abuse. He would get tanked up on the weekends and head down to the Sherriff’s office. He put himself in a cell and hung up the key. He knew the penalty for his choice and locked himself up.
But like a Christian, he was not really locked in. He had the ability to leave because he had access to the key. He acted to be dependant because he liked how it made him feel.
Christians return to the burdens, the shackles and prisons because of the comfort of the familure, the pleasure, or the idea that everyone else it doing it. The continuation of our obedience to our former masters is simply a choice with an excuse…
All too often people become Christians and just add Jesus into our list of masters.
He is our Sunday master, which requires us to attend church and act spiritual. There is the work at the church that needs to be done and we submit to getting the job done. Then Monday comes along and we have the job or chores to get done. Perhaps there might be slavery to watch all the ball games or to surf the internet. Perhaps there is the slavery to be on the phone keeping up with the gossip and rumors.
Christian freedom means that we are free to choose one of two directions, one of two masters.
Over the next couple of weeks we are going to talk about how we limit our freedom.
40 to 45% of American adult make one or more resolutions each year.
In surveys people share how well they did in making the changes they wanted:
- 75% got past the first week
- 71% made it two weeks
- 64% made it through a whole month
- 46% kept their resolutions over 6 months
While a lot of people who make new years resolutions do fail to keep them, research shows that making resolutions is useful. People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t make resolutions:
Resolvers reported higher rates of success in their goals than non-resolvers; at six months, 46% of the resolvers were continuously successful compared to 4% of the non-resolvers.
I hope that you will be resolved to use the freedom that you receive through your belief in Jesus Christ to choose to move closer to Jesus as your master
Let me remind you of an important detail about our relationship with Jesus Christ. There is nothing you can do in your life that will ever make God stop loving you. No sin is too great, No choice too bad that God will not receive you into his presence.
Next week we will continue to talk about how we limit our Christian freedom.
All Glory be to God!
