Free indeed

Published 2:43 pm Thursday, October 26, 2023

Each July 4th we celebrate our independence as a nation. Also, we celebrate the rights guaranteed in our Bill of Rights. But not everyone in our country feels free. and I will admit our freedom, our rights, are being eroded more and more by intrusive government. But we are still free enough to exult in it and celebrate it.

However, there is a freedom far more valuable than any that most people of the world ever experience. and that is spiritual freedom that we acquire through God’s grace through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 makes this perfectly clear when it tells us, “For by grace are you saved through faith (in Christ) and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Grace, of course, is unmerited favor from God the Father. He offers us a chance at heaven free of any cost.

This means that God, in His love for man, has provided His grace to all who will have faith in His Son, Whom He sent to earth to die on the cross so that we might live eternally in heaven. The Apostle Paul reminds us, “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 6:19-20.

All Christians are rightfully slaves of Christ, though most never act like it. Paul also asks us, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” Romans 6:16-18.

So we see from these verses that not all forms of slavery are bad. Slavery to Christ is not only the duty of Christians, it proves that a Christian truly is saved and a child of God. Some will always object by saying, “I don’t want to be anyone’s slave. I want to be a free thinker.” The truth is that slavery in Christ is the greatest form of freedom. But being a “free thinker” is very dangerous because we are all so vulnerable to the evil influences of Satan and his demons. We need to humbly stay tuned into God and the leading of the Holy Spirit.Our independent thinking, apart from God, is mere foolishness, regardless of how bright or intellectual we may be. Our intellect is very limited. We know this because there are so many things of the Spirit of God that we cannot ever understand on earth. Examples are all paradoxes. These are seemingly contradictory things that are still both true. A good example is election and free will. For example, God has previously elected (chosen) some to be saved and go to heaven. Some He has passed over. Yet Peter reminds us that God is unwilling that any should perish 2 Peter 3:9.

The natural (unbelieving) man will scoff at the very idea that both of these ideas can be true. Yet we know that they are because they are both in God’s Word (the Bible). The natural man has put far too much confidence in his own intellect and ability to reason and understand. So he may never accept much of God’s work. All we can do is pray for these unbelievers that they might one day come to believe in Christ and be saved.