Galatians 5:13
You,
my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the
sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
One
of the foundational truths of our faith is God’s amazing grace toward us. By
virtue of our sinful nature, we all deserve God’s punishment, but, by His grace,
He offers us the exact opposite; Life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) The life
that God offers us in Christ is something we do not deserve, nor can we earn
it. It is an amazing free gift. For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by
works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesian 2:8-9) When we accept this gift
of God’s grace, we are set free from the power of sin. Sin is no longer our
master. Although sin still remains a reality in our life, it is no longer in
control. We now have the freedom to honestly choose how we will live. And that
is where the rubber meets the road.
People
understand freedom in different ways. Today, the dominant concept of freedom is
the right to do whatever I want to do without interference from anyone else. No
one has the right to define for me what is right or wrong. As long as I am not
hurting someone else, I have the freedom to define right and wrong for myself.
I am free! Or am I?
All
freedom comes with boundaries. Freedom without boundaries is anarchy. Freedom
without boundaries leads to death. A fish is free to swim wherever it chooses
within the boundaries of the ocean. It is not free to venture onto dry land. An
astronaut may be free to venture into space, but he is not free to leave his
spacecraft unaided. A driver is free to travel down whatever highway she chooses,
but she is not free to drive the wrong way or at excessive speeds. Genuine
freedom always has boundaries.
Paul
had to deal with this in his letter to the church in Rome. He had made the case
that because of God’s grace we are free from the obligations of the Law.
Because, no matter how well we keep the Law we cannot earn our salvation, God
has given us His grace. It is the grace of God that has set us free from the
demands of the Law. So, some took this to mean that grace removed all
restraints. In fact, they were claiming that the grace of God allowed them to
live however they liked. Paul had to quickly put an end to this fatal
misunderstanding. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may
increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or
don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the
Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:1-4)
Paul
wanted the Romans, and us, to know that God’s grace freed us from the power of
sin, not that it gave us the right to indulge sin. As Paul stated, we have been
set free to live a new life; a life of righteousness in concert of Christ. Paul
was making it clear that there are definite boundaries to our freedom. We are
free to live within the boundaries that God created for us. It is within those
boundaries that we experience the life of Christ.
With
freedom comes choice. With choice comes responsibility. Paul tells us that we
have a choice to make. Will we choose to live in God’s grace or will we choose
to abuse God’s grace? The way we live our daily lives matters. By the choices
we make, we are declaring to whom we have given our allegiance. Will we use our
freedom to honor Christ, or we will use our freedom to indulge our sinful
nature? This is a decision each of us must make every day, every hour, every
minute of our lives. Paul puts it into very practical terms in Romans 6:11-14.
In
the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore
do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do
not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but
rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to
life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For
sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Living
in God’s grace is not an intellectual exercise. Living in God’s grace means
actively choosing to follow Christ in everything that we do. It is choosing to
use our freedom to honor Christ with our daily lives. We will not always get it
right. There will be many times that we will stumble and fall. Many times we
will get off track. But that is where the grace of God steps in. We are like
children learning to ride a bicycle. We often lose our balance and fall, but
God is there to pick us up. And when we finally gain our balance, we are free
to experience a whole new dimension in life.
Ephesians 4:1
As a
prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling
you have received.
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