Glorious freedom
Sir Alex Paterson
"You cannot train a man for freedom under conditions of captivity".
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John 8 v 31-47
This is true discipleship: If you hold to my teaching, you will know the truth and this truth will set you free. Out of this flows all discipleship.
Jesus is being very clear in this discourse:
• you're not hearing me because you want to carry on being a slave to sin and therefore hearing the lies that satan keeps speaking to you
• satan is a murderer and he wants to keep people enslaved to sin
• if I set you free you will be really free
• whoever belongs to God hears what God speaks.
Everyone who sins is a slave to sin but we, as sons and daughters, have a permanent home in God's family. That's why the Spirit within us cries "Daddy" because we have seen set free from the curse of the law. This is proof of being really free! The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom 8v16).
1. You're free - don't get bound up, or stay bound up
Galatians 3 v 13-14 ; 5v1
Gr: Picture here is what took place among the Greeks. When a slave was set free the Greeks drew up a legal document according to which the slave to be freed was purchased by a god. As the slave could not provide the money the slave master - the owner of the house - paid it into the temple treasury in the presence of the slave, and the document which was drawn up contained the words "for freedom". As a result no one could enslave him again as he was now the property of the god.
It is "for freedom" that Christ has set us free
Sin's power to hold you and me in its grip has been broken once and for all time. It has no legal hold over us. We now belong to Father God because Jesus smashed the curse of the law and of sin and death. It's in pieces. The legal contract that Satan held over us has been shredded! God's written a new written and sworn by Himself called 'for freedom". So now we have to learn too walk away from it. Our difficulty is that we’ve been trained to live under its curse. That's why we have to be transformed in our minds so that the way that Holy Spirit leads us and what He speaks to us can be lived out in our life. There is now no guilt that can effective in our lives from our past life.
Rom 8v1; 12 v 1,2
2. Don't let our freedom be an excuse for license to sin
Paul talks in the letter to the Galatians (5 v 13) about not allowing our freedom to indulge ourselves, but rather to serve one another humbly in love. As he said, the entire law is fulfilled in keeping the one commandment "love your neighbour as yourself".
Freedom is not a lack of restraints or obstacles - that leads to anarchy. Freedom is:
1. Understanding, and then living according to the boundaries that God, in his infinite wisdom, has put in place for humankind - both physically and spiritually
2. It is living, singing and dancing in the large, broad place that our heavenly father has designated to us.
Freedom has limits because it has a design and a purpose. The secret to freedom is that when we use it according to its design, its limits do not diminish our freedom but cause it to flourish and prosper.
Gal 3v13-15 (The Message)
This means that we have to learn ourselves first! This is loving yourself as your heavenly Father loves you.
We have to learn to give up lesser gods in order to discover that only He can satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts. This is freedom!
We ‘choose‘ not to sin because we love our freedom, and we want to please our lover. As we love Him more and more so we want to offend Him less and less. This is called holiness.
Romans 8v1-17 (The Message)
Questions:
1 To which 'native language are we tuned? The language of condemnation and guilt that holds me in its grip, or the language of life and freedom from our past and current life that sets me free to be an effective disciple?
2 How can you 'tune in' more effectively to hear what Holy Spirit is saying to you?
3 In what ways do I not love myself as my heavenly Father loves me, and what is the antidote!?
