God’s Value for Freedom Part 1

 

The church has been hungry to see the blessing that the Scripture talks about. We were meant for freedom! But freedom is not just freedom from oppressive, negative things, but freedom to experience the good things God has for us. 

However, not all freedom is godly freedom. We can also abuse freedom when we use it in ways that exploit others or ourselves. There’s can be a lot of grey and much confusion. So, let’s dive in!

Freedom is defined in Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary as:

1: the quality or state of being free: such as

a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or 

action

1. liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another  

c: the quality or state of being… released usually from something 

onerous

d: unrestricted use

e: ease or facility 

f: the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken

g: improper familiarity

h: boldness of conception or execution

2: a political right or privilege

Regarding the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action, sit with this:

You are not free not to if you are not free to.

You are not free to if you are not free not to.

God is Love, and love cannot be if there is no freedom to NOT choose love. Since we have the freedom to choose to turn our face/our hearts away from Love at any given moment, that is why we need to repent of all the ways we have chosen to turn away. We turn away because there are areas in our hearts where we turn away from Love because we don’t trust Him. 

The ultimate turning away is the turning of Adam and Eve away from God—Adam as the result of sin, and Eve as the result of deception (Gen. 3:6-7, Rom. 5:12, 2 Cor. 11:3).

But God is Love, and the only control He asserts is SELF, not OTHER control. Galatians 5:22-23 says, 

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

English Standard Version (ESV)

So, especially through our union with Christ, we CAN be empowered in our freedom to choose—to choose to operate in self-control so that love toward God, ourselves, and others is preserved.  

When it comes to freedom, there are two ditches you can fall into.

The first ditch is legalism, where there is overt bondage. This is where we are operating under the law of Moses and often mixing it with grace. The letter of the law of kills (2 Cor. 3:16). Romans 7:6 in the New International Version (NIV) says:

6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

This is the ditch of the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:29-31).

 The second ditch is the ditch of lawlessness. Following Christ brings freedom, but this does not equal being justified to do anything we want. Lawlessness lands us in a type of pig pen, often dragging others with us—the ditch of the prodigal son in Luke 15:14-19.

The truth is that we are freed from legalism (the law of Moses), but because God loves us and knows who we really are, we are still constrained under four laws, and these are HAPPY LAWS that bring life and freedom. These include: the law of Love, the law of Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit, and the law of freedom. 

The law of Love is the ultimate law and is seen in John 13:34-35, which says:

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

NIV (emphasis added)

Again, John 15:12 and 17 reiterates:

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

17 This is my command: Love each other.

NIV (emphasis added)

Other non-exhaustive references to the law of Love include 2 John and 1 John 3:23.

The law of Christ is the second law and entails loving as He loves, which causes us to carry one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2 and 1 Cor. 9:19-21).

Galatians 6:2 in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) says:

Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

(emphasis added)

 The third law we are under as new covenant believers is the law of the Spirit. We see this in Romans 8:1-2 in the New American Standard Bible (NASB), which says:

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (emphasis added)

Second Corinthians 3:17 in The Passion Translation (TPT) says:

 Now, the “Lord” I’m referring to is the Holy Spirit, and wherever he is Lord, there is freedom. (emphasis added)

When we yield to the lordship of Holy Spirit, we are under the His law of freedom. This leads us to the fourth law—the law of freedom. James 1:25 says: 

 25 But one who has looked intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and has continued in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an active doer, this person will be blessed in what he does.

NASB (emphasis added)

So, we see that we are neither under the law of Moses (or the law of sin and death), nor are we apart from any spiritual law. We are under the law of Love, which it all boils down to. The law of Christ Jesus and the Spirit are all the law of Love because each member of the Trinity is Love (1 John 4:8 and 16). The law of freedom is because we are operating in the Spirit and engaging with God Who is Love. 

 To put it another way, when we operate under the law of Love, law of Christ, and law of Spirit, we are operating one with God as sons and daughters created in the image and likeness of Love Himself.

We are operating from original design!

I hope this has helped clarify things. When we have clarity, we have empowerment—the empowerment to operate as truly free sons and daughters of God! 

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Much love,

Catherine