It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5: 1
Our freedom was not free to Jesus nor to the many people who have fought to preserve it. We must be diligent, daily, to stand firm for those many blessings, including freedom, that Jesus and so many others have died to secure for us. Lest we forget . . . .
Blessings on this day of remembrance.
You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
Jesus came to set us free and it is the truth which will set us free but it is not any old generic truth. First, it is in knowing that Jesus is the truth (John 14: 6). The second but equally important part of the equation is that it is the truth that you know which will set you free.
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5: 1). You see, when we do not embrace the truth, then we subject ourselves to slavery. It is true. We fall victim to events in our past, lies we have believed, daily challenges, bad habits and on and on. We find it very difficult, if not impossible to rise above these situation which do, in fact, keep us bound to a life that is less than the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. We find ourselves repeatedly, falling short of our goals and dreams with few explanations. The ultimate reason our purposes are repeatedly frustrated is that there is a truth which we have yet to lay hold of. However, the great news of Jesus, our beloved Messiah, is that in him is the very truth which we need to experience the breakthrough which will catapult us into everything he died to give us.
You will know the truth and when you do know and, importantly, embrace the truth you shall be set free. Sometimes, though, it is quite challenging for us to embrace truth. We have been living with the lies so long that while they keep us bound, at least they are the known factor. We have grown accustomed to them. Facing the truth can be scary. My friend, Pat Richards, who is the chief Heart Physics coach at Impact Ministries (www.impactministries.com) calls this resistance. It doesn’t mean that we are not sincere in our pursuit of truth. It is just the case that as we close in on it, there is resistance in our hearts to hearing the whole truth. It’s frightening. So, we run away. We shield ourselves from the potential discomfort of facing the bare truth.
Honestly, the fear is much bigger than the reality. I am sure you know people who have never had the courage to face their realities. I find this sad because I know that what we fear is much smaller and less painful than what we make it out to be. The fear of the truth is more painful than the truth. When we finally take that courageous leap into truth the response is always the same, “Hey, that wasn’t as bad as I expected.” Being trapped in the past, in our injuries or any of the myriad of circumstances which hold us back is much more painful.
Jesus wants us all to be free. When you sense that fear of moving forward, when your reaction to a situation is overly strong, or when you keep going around the same old mountain time and time again, then that is excellent evidence that you are encountering resistance to the metamorphic truth that Jesus is attempting to reveal to you. Trust me in this, he is gentle and his yoke is light. If you will invest all of your trust in him, he will, with nurturing grace, lead you into truth. Only knowing the truth as it applies to you can set you free. The revelation of truth about someone else’s situation might inform you, even enlighten you but it will not set you free. It’s Jesus in you, in your life, in every one of your situations that frees. It is the truth about what binds and conflicts you that will break the shackles off your life.
Trust our Lord. Go into that quiet space with him and allow him to show you all truth. Allow him to nurture you into wholeness and peace. There is so much he has for you, so much he longs to do for you and with you. It is all there. Don’t let any of it pass you by. The resistance is a sign. Let it lead you into a peaceful and safe yet revelation filled time with the Lord.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free.
I recently read How to Stop the Pain by Dr. Jim Richards. Though my copy of this book is highlighted throughout and hand-written notes garnish every chapter, there was one page, one paragraph that was so loud to my Pastor’s heart that I determined I must share it with you.
It is from this premise that Jesus came to set us free that Dr. Richards writes, “Following Him (Jesus) wholeheartedly is the safest life in the world. It has the greatest peace; it has the emotional freedom we all desire. To follow Him wholeheartedly, though, requires that we trust Him enough to apply His truth to our lives” (P. 94). Therein lies the rub. The freedom Jesus bought for us on Calvary is wrapped in the cloak of trust. If we put on this cloak and enfold ourselves in it we will absolutely be protected from the storms but how do we trust Jesus to the extent that we are willing to take those first tentative steps? For some people it comes from desperation. When we get ourselves in a deep enough mess, sometimes that is enough to allow us to make that leap of faith. Dr. Richards continues, “We must walk in love. We must discard our former way of finding safety and happiness and follow His teachings.” This requires us to do things differently and that can be a challenge.
Truthfully, most of us are not making cognitive choices about our interaction with the world. We just do what we have always done or what we were taught to do. This freedom in Jesus requires us to abandon our ways and live according to his ways. Even if we know the difference rarely do we make contemplative choices. We live according to reactionary patterns. It is possible, though, for his ways to become so ingrained in us that they surface without cognitive thought. In order for that to become our reality, though, we must spend quiet, meditative time with Jesus and with his word. It is not enough for us to merely read a chapter a day. That is good and fine but what we are talking about here is that word getting down in your heart. Whatever is in your heart will come out when faced with a situation. Many times we do not even have the luxury of thinking about our choices. Sometimes we just react and those reactions come from whatever we have sown in our hearts.
Truly the freedom that Dr. Richards encourages is from following Jesus wholeheartedly. As we spend time with Jesus, talking with him and listening to him, and as we observe him through the scriptures we gain a new reality in him. His ways become our ways and the chains that he came to set us free from fall away. There is freedom in Jesus. It is in trusting him and following him. It is in putting our feet in his footsteps instead of following the ways we have learned in the world. Knowing Jesus, not just knowing about him but knowing him is to know freedom. Trust him and be free.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
We have heard this verse often enough but I wonder how deeply we understand it. People don’t come to Christ because they are “afraid” of what they will have to give up. In other words, they are afraid of the punishment if they call themselves Christians and yet continue in their lifestyle. That is all backwards. God doesn’t call people to the fold in order to punish them. The weight of their sin is on them now. Jesus came and died that their sin might transfer to him. They are under the judgment of the law now. Christ came to set us all free (Galatians 5: 1).
God is love and there is no fear in love. There is no fear in God and no fear in those who are in God. You have been set free from fear and death. Moreover, you have been freed from the curse of the law. You needn’t have fear of punishment. Being in the house of God is to be in the house of liberty. Christ has freed us from the fear of judgment by shedding his blood for our sins. The question is no longer about punishment but rather reward.
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11: 6). God is a rewarder of those who seek Him, not a punisher. He has saved you by His grace and Jesus’ blood in order to remove you from the bane of punishment and instead put you in the house of His good mercies so that He can pour out on you the rewards of His household. Can someone shout?
What we should learn and make known is that we haven’t given up a thing to follow Jesus. We have only gained. If we clean up our act a little bit, it is because we love God and want to be with Him. He does not require us to change in order to love us. However, I want good rewards and that is motivation, and much better motivation than punishment. “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done” (Matthew 16:27). Give me some of that! I want to see Jesus in all his father’s glory and I want to feel good about standing with him. He will love me regardless but I want to clean up and I want to follow him and I know you are the same way.
As the revelation of God’s love blossoms in our hearts, this will be our only perception. We will have no fear of any kind much less the fear of retribution from our Father. When we understand a love so deep that it is sacrificial, then there is no way we will concern even one cell of our brains with the fear of what God will do to us. He sent Jesus to save, not condemn so there is therefore no longer fear. There is no fear in love, no fear in God.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee, in God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?
Who among us is not faced with fear at some time? It is a common human reaction to challenges in life. The first mention of fear appears in Genesis 3. It didn’t take long for mankind to find fear. However, they only became afraid after succumbing to the devil. Before Adam and Eve followed Satan and ate the forbidden fruit they knew not fear. Interesting. Since that time people have been plagued by fear. However, there is good news. God has provided a remedy for everything which plagues mankind, including fear. His remedy for fear is trust.
“When I am afraid,” the psalmist writes, “I will put my trust in thee.” He doesn’t deny that he was afraid. He just determines not to let fear have him. We are not to abide in fear. We are to run into the arms of our loving father and envelope ourselves in an abiding, overcoming trust. Trusting Him is the solution for every fear. It seems, then, that overcoming fear requires a decision from us. It also requires action on our part. We must intentionally shift our minds and hearts from fear to trust in the Lord. That means you take your eyes off of that which frightens you and put them on the Lord of your salvation. Look upon Jesus and decide to believe Him and to believe in the Father’s love rather than to believe in that which frightens you.
Fear is slavery and Jesus has set us free from all of the shackles of bondage. If we allow fear to remain in our lives then we are effectively rejecting the gift of Christ. It is making his sacrifice of no effect. This is no place for Christians. Galatians 5: 1 reads, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” That seems pretty clear to me. It is a shout, a command that we should not allow ourselves to be victims of fear. We must stand firm against fear. Jesus came to give us abundant life, not a life shackled by fear.
The psalmist, David, gave praise to the word of God. It occurs to me that was another of his weapons against fear. He looked to the word and encouraged himself so that he could pronounce his faith in God’s saving ability. David trusted God and stood on God’s word. He determinedly put his trust in God and God’s promises and time after time God pulled him from certain defeat. Now David teaches us these valuable lessons. Let us declare as he did, “In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid.”
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
As we celebrate this Independence Day holiday we think of the many men and women who sacrificed their lives and fortunes to secure our liberty. Yet freedom is not won once for all. The call of freedom is one of vigilance. We must constantly be on the alert for those who would steal or limit our liberty.
There is no one who gave more than Jesus in the continuous fight for freedom. His calling was to set the captives free (Isaiah 61: 1). When all of humanity was in bondage he bore in his body the price of our freedom. Even as we think of the brave patriots who fought and died for a better way of life let us remember that without Jesus’ victory there would have been no liberty for us to pursue. He bought our personal freedom with which we were able to dream of political and religious freedom. Paul warns us, though, that liberty gained is transient if we do not stand firm resisting the yoke of slavery.
I cringe when I see all of the personal liberties we relinquish these days in favor of convenience, security, etc. Americans are giving away their liberty hand over fist. The single greatest reason seems to be fear but why should we fear? Are we not all children of the most high? People even argue today that individuals have no right to personal privacy. Not so many years ago that would have sounded completely ludicrous. It still does to me. But then look how we have subjected ourselves to bondage even though Jesus did set us free. Sometimes it is better to die than to pay the price of slavery.
We have made ourselves slaves to all sorts of substances, habits, television, leisure and so on. We have relaxed our guard even though Paul warned us not to and have become slaves again to sin and the fear of death. We have become prisoners of vain philosophies when the Word of God is the sword of freedom. We have allowed the lies of the enemy to imprison us in dungeons of sickness, poverty, brokenness and every imaginable impediment to liberty.
But Jesus stands at the threshold. He stands ever ready to show us the way to loose the shackles that bind us, he having already broken them. There is no shackle, no prison that has power over us. Jesus has set the captives free. Although prison doors have been splintered before the mighty arm of the Lord, they retain all the power we give them for if we do not arise and walk through the open doorway then we are every bit a prisoner as if the bars remained. We are only enslaved to the degree of our acceptance because the battle has been fought and won.
This 4th of July renew yourself to the freedom won for you by those who have gone before. Refuse to allow your personal liberties to be trod upon and give no quarter to the enemy who seeks to enslave you again to the yoke from which Jesus freed you. Renew your stance, standing firm against those who would trade liberty for convenience or governmental assistance. Determine that you will guard your personal liberties even as you stand with and for your neighbor. Freedom is precious but it is always under attack. Stand firm therefore.
