We often hear people speak boldly of "free will," yet the Scriptures say nothing about it. The Scriptures speak only of the Freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus. Why do we declare His Freedom insufficient to meet our needs? Does not the Freedom we have in Christ Jesus trump our human inclination to pursue our own way through the mythology of "free will."
We have the witness of Scripture, which declares this truth, Galatians 4:4-7 " 4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave, but God’s own child.. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir."
You are free in Christ Jesus, not to exercise your will against God, but to live! To live without the fear and uncertainty that pursuing your own "dark" way brings. What hope have we in our own way? Can we see beyond this very second of our lives? Can we, by the force of our will overcome the Chaos that rises up within us? The answer is "NO," The and completely "No"! Yet we have a Freedom which gives us Great and Marvelous Hope!
Freed From Enmity[1] = Free to Love!
Because this is true, God declares to us in Galatians 5:1, 5&6 "1So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love." God declares us free to live in Faith, Free to Love without the desire or need to condemn others. The Freedom we have is born of Christ and not of our own will. We have the blessing and benefit of living in Christ's freedom. Your separation from God has been handled by our elder brother, Jesus Christ.
Now we express our Faith in God through Christ by the Love we demonstrate and show through our relationships. We serve in Love; we forgive in Love, we hope for healing in Love, we encounter and engage other's brokenness in Love, all with the hope and expectation that God is working through us in LOVE. You are Free to Love, freed from the enmity which judging others bring. Listen to your freedom as expressed in Galatians 5:13-14 13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Freed From Death and Chaos = Freedom to Create!
God causes Paul to cry out in Romans 7:24&25, "24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind, I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature, I am a slave to sin." His cry is to our benefit. We hear the cry and should know that it is the cry of all the redeemed. We see in his outpouring that there is hope only in Jesus Christ for Freedom. You are called to live in Freedom. The challenge, the struggle is that we are empowered to do so in a world that is dominated by fear and slavery to Sin. Our minds are being sanctified, cleansed and yet there remain in us remnants of desire to will our own way.
Is there hope for us who are like the songwriter says are, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love..." "Yes! there is HOPE; THERE is POWER! " God continues through Paul in Romans 8:1&2 "1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." You are free from the control of Chaos and the death it brings. We are free because we have the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus who guides us and redirects us when we have failed in Faith to God by pursuing our own way.
We can say because of Christ, "Let us stoop and build again the things that have been broken with worn-out tools[2]." There is power yet to be experienced, joy yet to be felt, graces yet to be known, because we have been freed to create. Create to the Glory of God, a kingdom of the redeemed. Women and men whose lives were almost gone, who have realized that we cannot and must not boast in our own abilities, but make our boast in the Lord and through Him alone create a life for the dead to rise.
Freed From Fear = Free Live in Faith!
We are never so far from the Hope of restoration and recovery from our failings that we can be condemned because we are kept by the power of the Holy Spirit. We may feel the weights of life, and feel the downward pull of our worries and the fear they inspire. We may even be attacked and abandoned those we love and trust, but we must share the confidence expressed in 2 Corinthians 4:8&9, " 8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed."
Jesus Christ has single-handedly, without our permission or participation, opened the doors of His Kingdom to people who were fit only for the grave. Because He has made a path through the graveyard for us, we can live in Faith knowing that though death is part of our daily and ultimate experience, it is not the sum of our lives nor the end of our living. We live in Faith not in Fear. The power of Faith gives us the ability to look beyond the dark shadows of our circumstances and see the light of the Son, shining, calling us forward through the shadow to the marvelous light. The Chains of fear, death, chaos and hostility have been broken by the liberating hand of Christ and you Are Free Today and To Eternity! Amen!