
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…… for you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another….. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God…. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
(Galatians 5:1, 13- 1 Peter 2:16- John 8:36)
So in 5:1 Paul reminds we, who are called Christians that through Jesus Christ God has adopted us into the freedom of a child. We don’t have to work to get into the family. We don’t have to put ourselves in the position of slaves any more. We don’t do that, Paul says. Why do you want to be slaves again and treat God like an employer instead of a Father?
“But when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons . . . “
(Galatians 4:4)
So through God we are no longer a slave but a sons and daughters and if a son or a daughter then we are now heirs. We who are born again Christian’s have been called to live in freedom. Freedom, not fear. Freedom, not worry. Freedom, not anxiety. Freedom.
I hear some of you hesitating. some of you are looking at your circumstances, at the fear, worry, and anxiety. Yes, I’ve been there. Sometimes I still go there. But look at the Apostle Paul’s word in Galatians 5:1
“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.”
The words that most grabbed my attention in these verses are these: DO NOT LET YOURSELVES and this communicates CHOICE. You either choose freedom or fear, freedom or worry, freedom or anxiety. Freedom . . . or slavery. Does that make the choice easier to make?
The toughest decisions are the ones we know instinctively are the right ones, decisions based upon established, accurate, proven truth. That’s where our Bibles come in. “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.” (John 5:39)
Living in Christ Jesus is living a living life free from all that living in this world may throw at you because Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
And so if we believe what Jesus who spoke authoritatively, then our choice to living in freedom through Jesus Christ should become a priority every day, living in freedom as heirs because God gave us the liberty and not as slaves who feel they constantly have to earn freedom, it becomes obvious what the right choice is. The key is for us to start living it. Ask God to cleanse you from anything that keeps you down from not living out your freedom in Jesus Christ.