“You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
The only place liberty can be found is in Christ Jesus; there is no liberty in Christianity, no liberty in religion, no liberty in the Church. Liberty can only be found in Jesus Christ, because He is the truth (John 14:6) and only the truth can set us free.
That begs the question, freedom from what? Essentially, He will set us free, if we allow Him, from our inbuilt inclination to rule our own lives and make our own decisions; from our propensity to turn back to the world like a dog returning to its vomit; these things are sin, and it is that from which He is able to set us free.
Too many people swallow the latter day heresy that Jesus came and died to free us from the penalty of sin; this is an absolute nonsense and puts man in the centre of the divine drama instead of God; Christ came to save us from the power of sin and, ultimately to save us from the presence of sin. While it is true that He can free us from the penalty of sin, this is peripheral to His plan of liberation and only occurs as, and if, we go on to reach that destination that He has called us to – sonship.
Firstly, He wants to free us from the power of sin, that bondage into which we are born, like slaves of a cruel master, born in shackles and destined to live our lives out in chains. This is not a task that can be accomplished overnight and depends, to a great extent, on our willingness to hear His voice and follow His instructions. It will take most people many years to cast off the shackles and learn to trust in Christ in every task, every thought and deed, every waking moment of every day. We stumble and fall, we pick ourselves up again and start forward once more, each step hesitatingly followed by another, until we learn the lesson that there is no other way to have peace with God except to follow Him in everything.
As we practice our new found confidence and walk uprightly, we will then be drawn into a deeper knowledge of God and a more intimate fellowship with Him; we will learn to abide in Christ. This is the only place in which we can be free from the presence of sin; in God’s holy presence, there is no presence of sin; in His presence, we too partake of His holiness. It is His holiness, not ours, but as we dwell with Him, we too, are holy.
Leave a Reply