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.
First of all, why do we make rules for our children? The answer: because we love them. The rules we put in place for our children are ultimately for their own well being and/or protection. For example, we tell our children not to drink alcoholic beverages because we know that if they do they place themselves and others in danger. We know that the consequences for drinking is much more enslaving to themselves and others than the rules against it. Our rules for our children are to keep them and others around them from becoming slaves to the consequences of their actions.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:1-3, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 "Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise: 3 "that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth." Paul is tells children to be obedient to the rules made by their parents. He even points out that there is a promise associated with their obedience. Paul promises children that if they are obedient it will be well for them and that they will live long on the earth. Paul says obedience to parents comes with a promise of good things. Now these good things are not miraculous in nature. God isn't going to automatically bless obedient children with everything they want and grant them a longer life. What Paul means here is that children who live according to the rules of their parents will live a better life, free of the consequences for the bad decisions they can make. There is not one of us driving on the roads today that has not seen a roadside memorial for a child who died because of a bad decision by someone. You can often see the names of the deceased child or children on these memorials. They are slaves to the consequences for the bad decisions of someone. In this case, their bondage to the consequences is permanent. Someone broke the rules and set up a chain of events that prevented those children from living long on the earth. Our rules for our children are there for their own well being and protection. Our rules for our children are designed to prevent them from becoming slaves to consequences.
So what about God's laws? God is our spiritual Father is he not? Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia in chapter 3:26, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." We give our earthly children rules because we love them, so does God give us His law because He loves us? 1 John 5:3-4 teaches us, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome" (NKJV).
So, like earthly, fleshly fathers, our Spiritual Father in heaven give us rules which, if obeyed will protect us and those around us from the bondage of the consequences for bad decisions. We can see the love of God displayed in the laws He gives us. Let's turn to Galatians 5:19-21 for some examples, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;
"Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness," All of these are sexual sins. From these we have broken homes, disease, human sex slavery, human trafficking, children sexually molested, emotional pain and anguish, children growing up in broken homes. Sexual sin can be linked to all kinds of misery and God knows this. He knows that this kind of behavior lead to a bondage or slavery to the consequences. And this bondage is not just confined to the perpetrators either. This type of behavior places the innocent into the bondage of consequences as well. As Christians, we MUST be conscious of the effect that our actions have on others.
"Idolatry" Takes all kinds of forms. In the context of this study, the elevation any material thing above that which is right. For example, forms of entertainment such as TV or sports taking precedence over family obligations. Buying big boy toys and allowing one's children to go unclothed or unfed. The sin of Idolatry is not only offensive to God, it often leads to the neglect of oneself and others. It is self destructive. Idolatry is a sin which not only effects us, but effects others around us.
"witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies": All of these are not only self destructive, they are harmful to others around us. God doesn't just look at one's actions for how they pertain to themselves personally. He looks at how our actions affect one another. His law is for the well being of all. His laws, when obeyed, keep us from suffering the bondage of our own consequences and to keep us from hurting the innocent. Our sins have collateral effects on others.
"Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like": More sins which not only effect us, but have devastating effects on others. We need to understand and to see that God's laws are for the benefit of all. Our bondage to His law frees us and others around us from being slaves to the consequences of sin.
God gives us law because He loves us and wants us to live free from the consequences of sin.
Take a moment and imagine if you will a world where everyone in it lived according to God's law. If every one alive lived in accordance with God's law what kind of a world would we see? No more wars. No more broken homes through divorce. No more children growing up with their parents living in separate homes. No more thieves. No murders. No child abductions. No kidnappings. No rapes. No more racial bigotry. The list goes on and on. Our society is in a moral tailspin. Humanity as a whole has made themselves slaves to the consequences of sin. God's laws do not enslave us. They liberate us. They liberate us from the consequences of our own sin. They liberate us from the consequences of the bad decisions of others. All of God's laws are for the benefit of mankind.
The bondage of sin has a devastating effect on humanity. But the consequences for sin are further reaching than just our physical lives on earth. Sin also condemns mankind to eternal damnation in Hell, (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9) "and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power" (NKJV).
John 5:28-29, "the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation"
So we learn from these passages and many others that all who refuse to submit to God's authority on earth not only live as slaves to the consequences on earth, they will be condemned to the bondage of eternal damnation. The alternative to living in the bondage of the consequences for sin is to live in bondage to the law of God. Paul commanded the Christians in Ephesus to live as bond-servants of Jesus Christ in Ephesians 6:5-7, "Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; 6 not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart" (NKJV).
The bondservant figure is here used to represent someone who's debt has been paid by Jesus Christ. Christians do not belong to themselves. Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 that we were bought with a price and that we are not our own property anymore. We literally belong to Christ. He paid our sin debt thereby purchasing us from condemnation. We cannot repay that debt.
Christians are indentured servants of Christ.
Yes we are free in Christ, but not free to live as we see fit. And this is where a lot of folks get hung up. They refuse to wrap their minds around the fact that everything they have and everything they do already belongs to Christ. We have nothing to offer Jesus Christ which he does not already possess because he literally purchased our lives with His death.
Our acts of obedience and/or service already belong to Him. People today are all about what they want to do. They want their freedom in Christ to be freedom from Christ and that just isn't possible.
What many fail to realize is that this indentured servant/bondservant relationship is the source of total freedom. People get so hung up on self, they miss the benefits of living as a bondservant of Christ. A Christian's freedom is rooted in their service to Christ.
We need to get rid of self and come to the realization that our bondservice is our freedom. Paul taught in Romans 12:1 that we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God. God wants all mankind to live according to His righteousness. God knows that sin destroys life and out of His love for mankind, He has given mankind His law which if obeyed by all, would result in a world very much different than what we are living in right now. We should be able to look at the world around us and see for ourselves what the consequences for sin are. We should be able to see for ourselves that the world is living in the grip of the consequences of sin. The world is a slave to the very sin which is eating it up from within. Those living outside the body of Christ refuse to see it.
God has a remedy for war. He has a remedy for burglary. He has the solution for bigotry, hate, and for the death of innocent unborn children. He has the cure for sexually transmitted diseases. If every man and woman on this earth has one partner for life as God directed, STD's would disappear from the face of the earth in a single generation. God has the answer the world is looking for. The world is looking for freedom in all the wrong places. God knows where true freedom is really found. True freedom is found only through bondage to His law.
If we want to be truly free, then we must be slaves to God's righteousness. Slavery to God's righteousness means we must be diligent in it. Someone who is a slave to God's righteousness does not pick and choose through God's law and obey what is convenient and easy to obey. Slaves of righteousness obey all of God's law, no matter how inconvenient it may be or how trivial it may seem. Jesus taught in Matthew 5:19-20, "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
In 2 Corinthians 10:5, Paul wrote this: "casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" Paul used the word 'Captivity' for a reason. We are to be captives of God's righteousness. We are to be in bondage to the law of God if we want to be free from the slavery of sin.
Our slavery to Christ is where our freedom comes from. Now what we need to finish this lesson off is some scripture which says all of this. Does the Bible tell us anywhere that our freedom in Christ comes through bondage to Christ? Turn with me to:
Romans 6:16-23
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 — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I quoted from the NIV because it did a good job of bringing out the meaning of the original language in easy to understand terms.
Sin destroys life. Sin places mankind in bondage. 1 Corinthians 7:22-23 "For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave."
The only freedom that really matters comes from bondage to God.
http://www.granbychurchofchrist.org/Studies/Freedom-Thru-Bondage.htm
