Freedom In Christ

For the past 2 millennia the Christian church has endured an onslaught from Satan in order to undermine the good news of the gospel and create obstacles that prevent people from drawing near to God and experiencing his grace.  The tarnished reputation of the Church today offers little clarity for those seeking salvation and serves as a living testimony to the fallen state of man.  Errant religious dogma and traditions and hypocrisy have propagated fallacies and half truths that leave congregants wanting and religious institutions have found themselves mired down in scandal, devoid of moral legitimacy and focused on feel good messages designed to fill seats as churches are run as businesses.

The Christian Church today, for the most part, is a reflection of the people that participate in its activities rather that the image of Christ.  The Late Billy Graham once said, “If you find a perfect church don’t join it: You’d spoil it.”  Indeed, we are all imperfect and therefore incapable of achieving perfection by our own efforts.  Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”. 

The points of contention between religion and drawing near to God are nothing new and Jesus himself tackled the tension between religion and faith as he constantly admonished the religious leaders of first century Judea for putting up barriers between man and God.  His words in Mathew 15:8 resonate throughout the history of the Christian church, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”

Today, much of religion has become a man-made, self serving monster that encompasses many belief systems, corrupts the pure, perverts the vulnerable, deceives the innocent and builds wealth at the expense of the poor.  It undermines the fabric of faith, eats away at the sincerity of the heart and lays claim to righteousness obtained through ritual and ceremony.  Jesus had harsh words for the Pharisees that are recorded in the twenty third chapter of Mathew.  He said, “They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” Mathew 13:4.

In an emphatic indictment of their religiosity, Jesus continued, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces.  You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Mathew 23:13-14.

In verses 25-32, Jesus declares, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You clean the outside of the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”  Blind Pharisee!  First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.  And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets.’  So you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up then, the measure of your forefathers!”

Even with this passionate appeal from Christ, recorded for the Christian church, the established institutions of Christianity never learned a thing, and have the blood of the martyrs on their hands from hundreds of years of persecuting those who sought to preach the gospel and circulate Bibles throughout the populations.  If this were not the case, then the reformation never would have happened and thousands of truth seekers would not have been put in prison, tortured and burned at the stake.

In many churches today, the message of the gospel has been lost through the preaching of half-truths and platitudes that have disregarded the cutting words of Christ in favor of the gospel of inclusivity where sin is accepted along with the sinner.  Rather than being a city on a hill, shining its light into the darkness of society, many denominations have become hidden and indistinguishable from secular organizations.  Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Mathew 5:13-16.

So many churches have become impotent in the face of today’s subjective truth and moral values.  In an effort to be perceived as accepting, tolerant and progressive, they have become false in every sense of the word, nothing more than virtue signals without any comprehension of God’s truth.  Has the Church of Christ become the church without Christ?

Christians are not called out of the world to continue in bondage to the world.  The apostle Paul instructs us to stand firm in the Lord, forsaking worldly values because as Christians, we are now citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20).  As citizens of heaven, we are to set our hearts on heaven, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:2-4.

Paul also elaborates on the notion that the freedom we have in Christ is a fragile freedom we must protect and not take for granted, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8. 

In Colossians 2:20-23, Paul wrote, “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’  These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.  Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”

In Christ we have freedom from bondage to sin and religious constraints.  That makes us free so serve God through our love for him and each other.  Freedom in Christ is at odds with both religion and secular worldviews and releases us from stereotypical religious servitude and societal expectations to draw near to God through the simplicity of faith. 

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mathew 18:3.  In order to have the faith of a child we must accept Christ at face value and simply believe in him.  Believe that he died for us as atonement for our sins and was raised from the dead after three days and will come again with majesty and power as the Bible says.  Scripture tells us that we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) and that our faith is credited to us as righteousness (Galatians 3:6-9, Romans 4:1-3).  We are called into a relationship with the Living God that is maintained through our faith in him and his promises to us.

We shortchange ourselves terribly when we fail to claim the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.  We were created to experience a life that is so much greater than one of secular mundaneness or nothing more than participation in the proverbial rat race in pursuit of wealth that is only temporal.

Bob Sorge wrote, “God created man for the enjoyment of a walking relationship that involved companionship, dialog, intimacy, joint decision-making, mutual delight, and shared dominion”.  He goes on to say that God desires to have an intimate relationship of unbroken communion with us every day of our lives.  Paul advises us in Philippians 4:6 to involve the Lord in all things, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

The closer you draw nearer to God, the greater and stronger you will feel his love.  Replicating your response in love, you then find it exceedingly easier to walk in obedience to his precepts and become more tuned into the Holy Spirit dwelling within you.  The resulting immense certainty you feel gives you the confidence in your faith to surrender more completely to him.  As your will becomes aligned with his will you emerge truly free from the bondage to human nature and the sins that used to attract your attention and free to be the person he designed you to be. This is repentance in action.

This personal, heartfelt, sincere, honest, vulnerable submission to Christ is what sets us free to experience him fully, as we were meant to.  What religion has failed to accomplish, Jesus has.  When the temple curtain was torn the day he was crucified, Christ opened the door to a fellowship of faith for each and every one of us.  We can now approach the throne of grace with confidence knowing that Christ has paid the debt we cannot pay.  The freedom we now have in Christ is a legitimate freedom that leads to true salvation. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36.