Freedom in Christ
Course 6 of 6

Thanks for sticking with this series so far. The objective has simply been to examine God’s word without being loyal to any religious group or practice. We have seen that Jesus is the Son of God; His sacrifice on the cross provided the blood that washes away sin; faith, repentance, and baptism are involved in our obedience to the will of Jesus; and that the church was bought with His blood with the New Testament revealing a clear pattern for that church.

All of this leads to our being “free” in Christ. But even freedom has responsibilities.

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32.) In this series we have tried to emphasize the “truth” for Jesus said it will make us free. Following the truth means to follow God’s word (John 17:17) for it came from God. God Himself said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, Hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5.) Listening to Jesus is important yet many say that everybody just understands the Bible differently. Is it fair to say that we are not capable of understanding truth or that we need a creed written by a so-called “educated clergy” to understand it? Jesus said that we would “know the truth.” Truth is absolute and not dependant on what we think it should be nor do we just agree to disagree. The truth can be understood by all who seek it.

Notice:

By removing our prejudices and opinions, the word of the Lord stands clear. We know THE truth and that makes us free to just be a Christian.

“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life” (Romans 6:22.) Being set free from sin we become servants of God. The dirty little secret is that we serve somebody—by choice. “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves 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 you were the 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 the slaves of righteousness”(Romans 6:16-18.) We are not sinners by accident. We made the choice to do what is against God. Those who live for self, saying they serve no one, are deceived for they have presented themselves to obey Satan. Sin is a “transgression of law” (1 John 3:4) and those who “know to do good and do not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17.) It is by choice according to Paul.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23.) Satan pays wages—just what we deserve. However, God has given us the precious gift of salvation. Jesus died for all to pay the price for our sins. Yet Paul makes it clear that we have to “present ourselves” to obey God (see verse 16.) That begins by obeying that form of doctrine described in Romans 6:3-7. When we are baptized, we kill the old man of sin, leave it buried in baptism, and rise to walk in a new life of serving God just as Jesus died, was buried and arose from the dead. That is the “form of doctrine” Paul spoke of. Remember, baptism is where God put the blood of His son that washes away sin (See lesson 4.) Now we are free from the old man of sin and no longer under condemnation. We have taken God’s gift and made it ours.

Our choice is to now serve God and that means we will bear the fruits of holiness (v.22.) We study the Bible to learn how to grow in the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ to become mature Christians. Being set free from sin doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13.) Sometimes Christians will find they have in fact sinned before God. Peter was a hypocrite once (Galatians 2:11-14) and Simon wanted to buy the Holy Spirit for unholy reasons (Acts 8:19-24.) Christians make mistakes but can always go to God repenting and praying for forgiveness. “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1.) It is a walk.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1.) The Galatian brethren had a problem with false teachers coming among them teaching that they had to keep the law of Moses and faith in Christ to be saved. Many were believing this (Galatians 1:6-10.) Paul reminds them they were set free from that law to serve Christ and that it was dangerous to incorporate the old law into their faith. “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4.) Christians can fall from grace and one sure way of doing so is to use the law of Moses to justify Christian practices. Grace and truth come by Jesus Christ (John 1:17) and to use the law as authority for our practices denies grace.

Today, many seek to justify their religious practices by using the law. Tithing is commanded in the law (Deuteronomy 14:22) but many religions teach it as a commandment today. The New Testament teaches Christians to give “as you have been prospered” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2) without regard to specific amounts. Good people often appeal to the Old Testament to authorize instrumental music. Instrumental music was commanded to be used in Old Testament worship (2 Chronicles 29:25) but the New Testament only speaks of singing (Ephesians 5:19.)

Fact is there are many practices done in religion that folks justify by using the Old testament. We must be careful about doing so because we are fallen from grace for so doing. Jesus fulfilled the law (Matthew 5:17) in in so doing removed it from force (Colossians 2:14.) We are free from the law.

“who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14.) As noted earlier, Christians are those who have made the choice to serve the Lord and no longer are involved in ‘lawless deeds.” Instead we do GOOD works.

The subject of works is much debated in religion today. But we must learn to distinguish what the New Testament means by works. As noted above, works of the law of Moses will not justify us today. Neither will our trying to work by ourselves for entrance into heaven. This is what Paul means by saying, “not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9.) A person boasting of his own works is trying to do it himself without God.

However, there is a difference in doing our own works and doing the works of God. Jesus said that faith is a work (John 6:29) and certainly we must have faith to be acceptable to God. Baptism is a work but one that Jesus commanded (Mark 16:16.) Not lying, loving others, repenting, worshipping, etc are works of God that we should be engaged in. What a better place the world (and the church) would be if everyone was doing the works of God.

This course has been introductory in nature and by no means exhaustive. Further study will be needed to arrive at what God has said but it is not hard if everyone is of a mind to put prejudices and opinions aside. We don’t want to be loyal to any group. We want to be loyal to Jesus Christ and pattern a local congregation after the New Testament pattern.

We believe this is what Jesus wants. Just before the Lord died, he prayed, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they al may be one, as you Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they all may be one in Us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:20-21.) As the Lord was facing death, He was thinking of us. We all have to agree that Jesus and God spoke the same thing. God didn’t say one thing and Jesus something else. They are one. So should the followers of Christ be— ONE!

Jesus said that our being “one” will let the world believe that God sent Him. Today, the religious world is so divided over teaching and practice, how could anyone believe in Jesus. All they can believe in is that group’s “teaching.” By simply using the New Testament revelation about the kingdom of Christ, Jesus makes us free to just be Christians. What a feeling! Unshackled from centuries of man made creeds to see the truth for what it is. Our desire is for all to say, “Speak Lord, your servant hears.”