Set Free

At the cross we were set free.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us fee;

therefore keep standing firm
and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 5:1

Great question to ponder and consider:  What were you set free from and what were you set free to?

Most people think that they were set free from the Law.  That is not Biblical.  We were set free from the guilt of the Law.  The Law is good; it is God’s provision and protection for us.  It teaches us about the Lawgiver.  It shows us that we are not holy and righteous in our own flesh, and it shows us our need for a Savior.  As New Testament believers, we follow the New Covenant law that does not delete the Old Testament law, but sums it up in two laws:

1.       Love the Lord your God with all your hear, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
2.       Love your neighbor as yourself.  (Matthew 22:37-39)

God did free us from the food laws in Acts 10 when He lowered a sheet full of animals to Peter and told him to eat.  Three times Peter refused, but then God spoke, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unclean.”

 Jesus came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill the law.  He is our completeness in the law.  But He also knows human flesh, having walked on the earth for 32 years.  He made a way for us to remain righteous even when we mess up and break the law.  Confession and repentance is found in

1 John 1:9. 

The first century church struggled with this concept of being free from the Law and allowing too much grace.  They finally told Gentiles that were coming to know Christ to do just a couple of things: abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood and from things strangled, and from fornication.  Romans 8:1-2 is a great verse about grace:

                “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  A fourth century monk really struggled with this unlimited grace and he took part of verse four and put it up into verse one so that it reads in the KJV, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  See the condition?

Well, Paul has an answer in Romans 6:1-2 – “What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

Freedom from the guilt of the law is much different than being free from the Law.  The world wants to be free from all authority and responsibility.  Christians are under the authority of the cross and God the Father.  They are responsible as bondservants to follow Christ’s commandments.  Jesus sums up our freedom in John 8:32 – “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mind; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Don’t remain in the bonds of Satan.  Choose freedom this day and confess, repent, and move forward in God’s grace and mercy and great love.