The Reality of Freedom // You Have Been Set Free, Part 7

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

You know sometimes I come to the realisation that really, I’m a bit spiritually thick. Spiritually, I’m something of a slow learner. Maybe that’s why God has to take me through things over and over again, so that finally, I get it, that it’s all about His grace.

A good friend will always tell you the truth. In fact, I love the saying that a friend always stabs you in the front. There are plenty of people out there who will tell you nice things to your face and then go behind your back and whisper things about you, right? You have those people in your life; I have those people in my life. But a true friend is someone who stabs you in the front, someone who tells you how things really are. We don’t always like it, none of us likes criticism, but as you read in Proverbs chapter 27, verse 17:

Just as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

I have just a handful of people who do that for me in my life. I trust them, I know they have a good heart, I know they have my interests at heart. And so when they come to me and they have something difficult to say, as much as I’m like the next person, as much as I don’t really like criticism all that much either, I sit down, I listen, I evaluate and I take to heart what they have to say to me.

That’s the sort of relationship that the Apostle Paul had with the church in Galatia back there in the first century AD. I mean, he loved those guys; he’d been there at the beginning. He’d been the one who told them about the amazing grace of God through Jesus Christ.

But it wasn’t long until some Jewish Christians came along while Paul was away elsewhere, to convince the Galatians that this whole idea of grace was a nonsense. After all, all these freedoms that Paul had taught them about leads to loose living, no, no, go back to the old Jewish law. To circumcision, to tithing, to all the things you have to do to appease God.

After all, in many respects, you look around at all the other religions in the world and they’re all about appeasing one or more Gods. So Paul writes this to them: Galatians chapter 4, verses 8-11:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now however, that you’ve come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years. I’m afraid that my work for you may have been wasted.

Let me hit you right between the eyes. Is that what you’re doing? Having heard about the grace you have in Jesus Christ, have you returned back to the old ways of following a bunch of rules? Because if you have, the work of Jesus Christ on that cross for you is being wasted. Completely wasted. When you think about it, what the Apostle Paul is trying to do, is to get his friends in Galatia to wake up to the truth.

There is such power in the truth and today I want to share something incredibly important with you about the truth. The truth. You see, in this world, people often don’t want to hear the truth. The truth often is incredibly inconvenient. It cuts across vested interests. We all struggle with the truth; we all want to sweep things under the carpet. The problem is that that doesn’t solve anything. In fact, often it just makes things worse.

When you think about it, Jesus was in the business of telling the truth. He told the religious leaders about the hypocrisy in no uncertain terms. And to common, ordinary folk he spoke about the truth that is all about setting us free. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Have a listen to the way Jesus puts it. John chapter 8, verse 33:

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.’

A number of times, Jesus makes the point that he comes to set us free. And the place where you find that freedom is in the truth. In hearing his word, knowing his word, and taking it into our hearts as the truth.

Here’s the thing: you and I, we’re masters of self delusion. We’re all too ready to criticise others, come on, we are. But we want to cut ourselves plenty of slack, we want to make excuses for ourselves when deep down we know that what we’re thinking or saying or doing is wrong.

And when we get into that guilt trap then all of a sudden we find ourselves caught up in that whole cycle again of feeling unworthy. So we peddle harder to do better and there you have it, there you have it, you’re living a life trying to appease God by following a bunch of rules. Jesus died a gruesome death on the cross so that you and I wouldn’t have to do that. Jesus paid the price of all of our sins and mistakes. Colossians chapter 1, verses 13-14:

He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption: the forgiveness of sins.

I receive so many emails from people around the world who watch or listen to the programs that we produce here at Christianityworks. And one of the most common things I hear over and over again is that people don’t feel that they’re forgiven. They’re not experiencing God’s forgiveness and so they can’t forgive themselves for the things that they’ve done wrong. What an incredible burden to carry around all your life. And it’s that burden that Jesus came to set you free from. That’s the truth, but the question is, "How do we actually lay hold of that freedom?"

Well, as well as the word of God, there’s the Spirit of God. Freedom is such a precious thing. I talk about it a lot because so many people are caught up in the yoke of slavery. Slavery to their old ways, slavery to their sins, slavery to the things of this world, slavery to the expectations of success, slavery to that sense that I’m just not good enough and what’s more I never will be, slavery to well, just about anything. And yes the truth is important. That’s why Jesus said that if we continue in his word, if we believe what he says, that we will know the truth and that truth will set us free.

There you have it: freedom, great. But have you ever read those words in the Bible and thought to yourself, "Well, I see the words on the page, I can read them, I can even repeat them over and over again, but somehow they’re not real for me. They’re not penetrating my heart. I want to be free, I want to believe but it’s just not happening." Have you ever felt that? Well, you would be alone. The Apostle Paul was writing to his friends in Corinth this one time about this very thing. People, he said were getting caught up in the letter of the law but they weren’t experiencing what God was doing for them. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 17-18:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces see the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

Where do you find freedom? In the Spirit of God, in the Holy Spirit who is given to each person who believes in Jesus. Listen up, if you believe in Jesus then the Holy Spirit dwells in you. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there, right there in you, is freedom.

Father God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would bring that freedom to life in each one of us. Lord we know the theory but we long, we hunger, we yearn to experience your freedom. Dear Holy Spirit, make that sense of freedom real in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

I’m believing with all my heart that God is about to do a mighty work in you. A work of freedom, a work of revealing to you, deep in your heart of hearts, the freedom that you have in Christ. Freedom isn’t a concept, it’s not a theory, it’s a reality. Jesus died to purchase that freedom for you. He rose again so that you can live out that freedom in your new life in him.