We have been talking about how all of us begin in spiritual bondage. Some find spiritual freedom. This devotion concludes our look at what that spiritual freedom entails.
Nuggets
- Jesus came to save everyone.
- Jesus is Truth, but we don’t gain freedom until we know him, not just know of Him.
- God adopted us.
- The worldview is wrong when it argues that we are trading one bondage for another.
Devotions in the What I Believe series
Devotions in the Religious Freedom category
After looking at spiritual bondage, we’ve started in the last devotion to look at spiritual freedom. We didn’t get through the list. Let’s remind ourselves what we talked about in the Context #2, and then go on.
The foundation of these devotions was taken from the Sunday School Times’ sermon entitled Bondage and Freedom.
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I am going to take a little deviation, though, from the sermon. The next point is freedom through Christ. I am going to save that point for the Jesus the Liberator devotion. So, let’s go on.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Freedom is, according to the Holman Bible Dictionary, “the ability of a person or group to be and do what they want instead of being controlled by another.” It is also referred to as liberty.
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We talked about liberty before. We said that it runs the gamut, hitting all the things the worldview stresses.
• We do what we please with no authority over us.
• We make our own choices.
• We don’t have to follow rules or limits.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Let's Put It into Context #2
- God is the one who sent Jesus to the earth to secure our spiritual freedom.
- We don’t have to worry that God will give up on us as we continue to battle sin.
- God calls us to spiritual freedom for a purpose – to further His kingdom.
- God gives us His Spirit so that we can accomplish the work that He has for us to do.
- Satan is going to try to capture us so that we don’t obey God.
- Obeying God means Satan has less and less influence over people.
God sent Jesus to the earth to secure our spiritual freedom. He has to hack the sin out of each of us – and keep hacking – even when we have ABCDed. We don’t have to worry that God will give up on us as we battle sin.
God calls us to spiritual freedom for the purpose of furthering His kingdom. He gives us His Spirit to accomplish the work that He has for us to do.
Satan is going to try to capture us so we disobey God. If we are disobeying God, Satan doesn’t have to go after us.
Satan’s control over this world is obvious. The division and chaos all come from him. Non-believers don’t see it because they are blinded by Satan’s lies.
But we don’t see it just by opening our eyes. We have to open the eyes of our hearts.
Freedom Through the Gospel
“The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled’ (Lk. 4: 17-21 CSB)
We just talked about this passage. The passage shows Jesus’ mission and details how He is to interact with society. First, it gives Jesus’ qualification for His mission.
Jesus’ message was He came to preach to the poor. However, it just isn’t the economically poor. Jesus came to save everyone. We were all poor in spirit because we were spiritually dead.
Jesus’ purpose was to preach to the brokenhearted. It is reassuring to know that our Savior stands ready to comfort us.
Jesus’ message is for all people. Regardless of socioeconomic status. Regardless of race. Regardless of ethnicity. Regardless of anything.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Brooks noted Jesus’ sermon held the following messages.
• Atonement
• Forgiveness
• Emancipation
• Inheritance
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Jesus’ message is for all.
- “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3: 16 NIV).
- “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Rom. 5: 8 NLT).
This message sets us free. No, most of us don’t have the the modern version of the Roman Empire keeping us in chains.
We are enslaved by sin. Irving listed two biggies for this day and age: lust and anxiety.
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Lust, more than just sexual lust, can be translated as desires. We want something, even though God has forbidden it. When we are anxious, we don’t put faith and trust in God.
Faith is the belief that the doctrines stated in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them. Trust is assurance that the promises of God are true.
Freedom Because of the Truth
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8: 32 CSB).
We’ve established that Satan is a liar. “… He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him …” (Jn. 8: 44 CSB).
We’ve also established that Jesus is Truth. “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV).
Jesus is Truth, but we don’t gain freedom until we know him, not just know of Him. It is more than just head knowledge. It is heart knowledge.
We have to admit that we are sinners, believe Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer, and confess God as Sovereign Lord.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
God is going to make sure we hear the truth. We’ve got to choose for or against it.
Only thing, God is not going to force on us to accept the truth. We have to use our free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
Zabriskie and Stowell gave us a list of from what truth frees us. This is just some of the list.
- Ignorance
- Error
- Superstition
- Death and judgement
- Ritual
- Prejudice
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Isn’t it wonderful that we can learn the Truth!
Freedom Through the Spirit
“For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Rom. 8: 15 CSB).
Oh, man! This is a rich verse.
God adopted us. Adoption is the act of grace where God accepts us into His family when Jesus redeems us and changes to be spiritually alive like God. Roberts acknowledged that we feel part of the family.
Glossary
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That means we are not only set free from bondage, but we are also included in the family.
Spurgeon argued there is some sense of bondage through the a Holy Spirit. This incites fear.
- Conviction
- Punishment
- Works of the law
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I love how Beddome described the spirit of bondage. He said that is was “a distressing apprehension of danger, arising from the conviction of sin, which is one of the first effects of the law upon the conscience.”
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Isn’t that description? It is an apprehension. We get a feeling. We feel the wrong of sin.
But it can be a good feeling, too. We feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, yeah. Conviction is probably going to hurt.
But it proves God loves us. “For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights” (Prov. 3: 12 NLT).
This apprehension is to inspire us to do better. It is get bet us back to being obedient.
By God adopting us, He gives us freedom — He breaks us out of the bondage. We gain freedom from the consequences of sin. Satan no longer has power over us.
Freedom to be Enjoyed
“But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification — and the outcome is eternal life!” (Rom 6: 22 CSB)
The worldview is wrong when it argues that we are trading one bondage for another. God’s spirit of bondage — which is really adoption — bears good fruit. Bradley spelled them out for us.
- No more guilt over sin.
- No more consequences of sin.
- No more dominion of sin.
- No more sin present.
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Even better, we start navigating the sanctification road. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul beginning with regeneration and ending with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
• Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
• Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
• Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
• The perfected state indicates the combination of the spiritual graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
• Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
I really liked the “coherent whole” part. That is what salvation is. Salvation is a whole package from God. If we have genuinely submitted ourselves to His Sovereignty, we get the whole.
But God works on us in minute degrees. We don’t go from sinful to perfected in a blink of the eye — yet. We have to work out our salvation.
It is going to feel like we have fits and starts. It may even feel like we run out of gas.
Eventually, we will get to the other end of the continuum. We will “… all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (I Cor. 15: 51-52 KJV). Then, we will be perfect.
The end goal is eternal life. We can start enjoying the thought of that now!
Vaughn explained it this way. He wrote, “If I have received Christ into my heart, I am a pardoned man, I am a happy man, and I know and feel that I owe all my happiness to Him — therefore I love Him; I cannot choose but love Him; and my first desire is to please Him; to follow Him; to be like Him; to be with Him. My life is to become a life of love.”
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We can bask in God’s love.
Making the Connections
“For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5: 1 CSB).
This was last point in School Times’ sermon. But Perkins summed it up nicely by suggesting a couple of verses.
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- “We have been rescued from our enemies so we can serve God without fear” (Lk. 1: 74 NLT).
- “Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted” (Ti. 1: 15 NLT).
- “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5: 2 ESV).
- “Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect” (Heb. 10: 9 NLT).
God has already rescued us. So, we need to try to remain pure. Praying will help us do that. We really want to do that, because Heaven is waiting for us.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
If we are thinking of us on the sanctification road, that takes a lot of self-discipline. We may think it is a mindless road, but it isn’t. We have to make conscious decisions to obey God and keep progressing forward.
We’ve been looking at defending our beliefs when we are witnessing. That means we have to be secure enough to convince someone to accept our beliefs.
Our questions should still serve us to determine on what we need to focus.
- What does the Scriptures say?
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe the same/differently than the Scriptures?
- What are the talking points when witnessing to a non-believer?
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How Do We Apply This?
The great thing is all we have to do is accept. Salvation is a gift through His grace. All we have to do to accept this gift is accept the plan of salvation.
If you have not admitted that your relationship is not right with God,
have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior,
and have not confessed your sins,
please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
Then, we, too, will have spiritual freedom.
Dad. You are Sovereign God — yet You are Dad to Your children. You love us so much that You give us the gift of salvation free of charge. You just ask that we become like You. Help us as we navigate the sanctification road so that we can just that. Amen.
What do you think?
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