As we began to approach this Independence Day weekend, I found myself needing to prepare a Sunday lesson for the teens at church. I’m a sometimes helper and fill-in for that group. They’re not normally my target audience, so I usually have the benefit of teaching from an already-prepared lesson that goes with a theme. This week, though, I needed to come up with something on my own that would be a break in their current theme.
I gave it some prayerful consideration and decided that this would be an ideal time for a lesson on freedom. Not political freedom. Real freedom. The freedom Christ died to give us. I began to dig into scripture and other reference material. As I did, the Spirit began to press on me that it isn’t just teenagers who need this lesson. All of us, myself included, need the occasional reminder that the freedom Christ offers isn’t about doing what we want to do.
The Apostle Paul talks about this freedom in Galatians. In verse 5:1 (NIV) he said, “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.”
Paul was reminding the church that Jesus was the fulfillment of the law. The false teachers who were pushing religious law at the time were off base. The rigorous laws that God put into place in the Old Testament were simply not achievable for sinful humans. People were slaves to sin with no way out. The law couldn’t save them then and it can’t save us today.
Thus, the need for Jesus. Christ does what the laws can’t. He saves. He took our sin so that we don’t have to live in slavery. When we choose to accept His sacrifice, His gift of freedom, then we are free from the penalty of sin. We have freedom from trying to achieve what is impossible.
This is freedom that the well-known verse John 8:36 refers to. It says, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
This freedom doesn’t mean we do whatever the flesh wants to do. It means that we are free to be reconciled with God and to have a direct and personal relationship with the Lord. It means that we are free to have faith and to do our best without the need for perfection. This is the earthly life that God intends for us.
Paul continues in Galatians 5:13-14, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
The freedom that Christ provides should spur us to want to be more like Him. It should ignite us to want to love others in the same way so that they, too, can experience that freedom. The freedom Christ provides is for everyone.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so, he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”
Friends, I have good news. No matter what country you live in or the politics of said country, real, eternal freedom has already been provided for you. No government, no law, no congress, no court, and no leader, can save your soul. Jesus alone does that. We do not have to live in slavery to our sinful nature. We do not have to be perfect to meet some set of holy requirements. We just have to accept what Christ came to give us.
Jesus died to give you that freedom. All He really asks is that you love Him and love others. That’s something worth celebrating every day.
Photo: Kristina V./Unsplash
