The Price Of Freedom

1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

1 Corinthians 7:23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

The Apostle Paul is saying we no longer belong to ourselves, we have been bought and paid for. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. We should use them to glorify God.

As believers, whether we totally understand this or not, we belong to Christ completely. When we acknowledged the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we understood the fact that there was a price that had to be paid for our redemption. We could not redeem ourselves, only God could pay the price that had to be paid. We have got to recognize this fact in order to begin walking in the light of this new creation, and everything that means.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

We must begin to become spiritually conscious of this accomplished fact. You belong to Him, you don’t have to fight to get it, you don’t have to pray to get it, and you don’t have to work to get it. We can only gratefully receive this incredible gift. In order to do that we have to learn from His Word what these great promises are.

The Apostle Paul said in Ro. 10: 8-11. But what does it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart that is, the word of faith which we preach: that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the Scripture says, Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.

It is the confession of this acknowledged fact of the Lordship of Jesus Christ that brings you from death into life. You are acknowledging and confessing His Lordship and turning from Satan’s lordship. We often struggle to get something that has already been given to us freely. Many will fast and pray thinking maybe God will give them something if they do enough penance or good works. I want you to please understand what I am saying, I am not in any way trying to diminish the importance of prayer or fasting. I am trying to make the point that our redemption has already happened. It is in the past tense. We have been purchased with a great price, this will not happen sometime in the future, it has already happened. Our works could never be good enough to obtain the great redemption that Jesus paid such an incredible price for. This is the whole purpose of grace.

Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5. even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved,

Since this legal act of redemption has already taken place, we can not be bought again. Jesus doesn’t have to redeem us all over. When we do as Ro.10 says, we take on the life and nature of God. Believers often fail because of a clear understanding of who and what they are in Christ Jesus. This is not religion but relationship. This is not legalism, it is life. This life is ours legally as children of God to walk in, but we must come to a place where we know who and what we are in Christ Jesus, if we are ever going to walk in the light of it. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to do this. We will never do it on our own. This is also an ongoing process that really never ends. Revelation knowledge builds upon itself just as natural knowledge does. You can’t understand complex mathematics if you have not first learned the basics can you? The same is true in spiritual things. Revelation knowledge builds upon itself. The more you know, the more you can walk in the light of your redemption. What is legally ours must be comprehended and acted on in order to see the reality of this redemption manifest in our lives. As we begin to walk in this reality we begin to be transformed by the power of God.