From Bondage to Freedom

Galatians 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

March 17/13 - My Pastor's sermon this morning was based around Galatians 5:1 and a few verses in Galatians 3, where Paul is rebuking the Galatian church for having fallen under the influence of those who would shackle them again with the chains of religion.  Even in today's modern church, there are those who feel that Salvation in Christ brings them into a legalistic list of do's and don'ts rather than into an intimate relationship with the God of the Universe.  There are those who preach a "Salvation by works" doctrine, inspite of the fact that God says in Ephesians 2:8-9  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  9  Not of works, lest any man should boast."  James mentions in James 2:17-18  "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.  18  Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." Some call this an oxymoron, a contradiction, and claim this doesn't make sense.

The understanding here is that there is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to become worthy of the righteousness required to please God.  The Old Testament laws show us that without question.  Scripture says in Hebrews 11:6  "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Faith is not something we can do, it is something we choose to believe, it is refusing to doubt and believing that God is who He says He is, does what He says He'll do, and won't renegue on His promises.  We are told that with the heart, man believes unto Salvation, and with the mouth, he confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 

Romans 10:9-10  "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Philippians 2:9-11  "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:  10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;  11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

The act of Salvation is an act of belief, not of effort or works.

Mere belief however does not change how one lives every day life.  In order for a given belief to have a life-changing effect, it must be whole-heartedly and passionately acted on.  This is where Scripture says that faith without works is dead.  I can say I believe that chair will hold me up, but if I don't act on that belief, I will never truly experience resting in that chair.  I must walk to that chair and sit in it before my belief can give birth to experience.  Once I have experienced for myself that this chair can hold my weight, I can rest in it, knowing that I won't fall to the floor.  When a guest comes by, I will be able to jump up and offer them my chair, not doubting in the slightest that it will hold them too!  I am acting on my faith in that chair.

In the same way, when I come to faith in Christ, I show that by my actions, by how I live, by what I say.  Scripture says when I come to Christ in the moment of Salvation, that all things become new, the old is gone, the new is come.  But here is where many fall short in their lives as believers.  Many times we do not feel as if the old is gone, we stand as if still bound in our sin and afraid to move forward.

This fear can grip a child of God at any time in their faith walk.  This is not reserved merely for those who have freshly come to Christ.  I speak from personal experience in this matter in reference to an event in my life, coupled with an understanding I'd grown up under, that together left me bound and afraid to move forward.  For those who do not yet know my story, I got saved at age 7, but at age 23, made the unwise decision to marry someone.  One lost penpal, two children and a miscarriage later, I'd find myself fleeing an abusive marriage and staring at divorce papers.  Under old Pentecostal teaching, a divorced person could not serve in any ministerial or leadership capacity within the local Body of Christ.  I hid in the choir until 2005 when an altercation with a new worship pastor would start me on a path I will never forget!  I sought to apologize in early 2006, and a few months later, this worship pastor began to pull me out of the woodwork.  By the time a second personal storm whipped up in the fall of 2006, I was on the praise teams again, assisting with a small webpage for the choir, and I discovered in my pastor a mentor and brother in Christ who would not only be there for me during that second storm, but continually seek to point me to the only One Who could heal me.

During this time God began, via lyrics in songs and Scriptures I was reading, to impress on me to give Him my past, to give Him the things that were holding me back, to let go and let Him take the broken pieces of my life and reform them His way.  Dear reader, that freaked the living daylights out of me!!!  By this time I was, sad to say now in hindsight, comfortable in who I'd become.  My past was now my identity.  The thought of ever being used again in my Father's House was a pipe dream I was scared to dream again, but slowly those dreams were returning.  God was reviving giftings and talents within me that had gone dormant, that had been forgotten about, and in some areas, that I didn't even know I had.  Many times I asked my worship pastor, "Who will I become?  If I let this all go, what will become of me? Who will I be?"  All he could answer was to trust that God would make me into who HE wanted me to be, and that such an identity would be found only in Him.

Years later he'd reprise that comment when I was fighting with seeking approval from others around me, by reminding me that I must get a grasp on who I am and whose I am.  That I am a daughter of the King, and that I belong to Him and Him only.  That as I learn to grasp hold of these truths not merely in my mind, but in my heart as well, that living them out will lead to a level of security and confidence found only in that position found in Christ.

I have struggled with this, but it has only been as I release my past into His hands and as I accept what God is doing in my life, that I have found the freedom to move forward in the callings God has given me.  Some of my callings are on hold again, and the period they were put on the shelf rocked my world heavily.  But God has used this time as another level of growth in my life, and opened the doorway to once again begin sharing the things of God through my fingers on this keyboard.  There are times and seasons in one's life, and I am not the most gracious at passing from one season to the next.  However God is gracious, and I am still moving forward.  He has released me from the chains of my past.  My identity in Christ was a thing of trepidation to walk into, I have to admit!  But now that I am here, it is an unfolding adventure that has me wonder what will happen next. 

The key to all of this has been where my focus lies.  The Holy Spirit continually reminds me to correct my focus and place it back on God instead of on my circumstances.  It is so easy to let my focus slip from God's face onto what He's doing, or from His face onto the waves around me.  I will never forget God telling me one time that I was not focussing on Himself, but on what He was doing for me!  This hurt Him and I felt that hurt in His words.  God doesn't like being treated like a slave that always does our bidding.  He longs to be treated as a Father, as a Husband, as a Brother and has a Friend.  Christ encourages us in Matthew to always seek God first, and then everything we have need of will be provided for us. 
Matthew 6:33  "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." The focus there isn't on the provision, or the fact that focussing on God has an alterior motive to get what we want.  The focus and the motive behind the focus is to be on God Himself and His righteousness.  Learning to put a smile on God's face by how we live out our faith in every day life, learning to live rightly before Him in all that we say and do, putting God and His ways first in our lives.  This tells God we are serious about our faith, serious about a relationship with Him, and He rewards that.  He shows up.  His idea of what we need is often quite different from what we think we need, but if we can submit to His better judgement and surrender to His ways, then indeed everything we have need of is provided.

There is so much to living a life of freedom in Christ.  Paul admonishes us not to use that freedom for our own ends, not use it to justify living in sin, nor to use it to trip up a younger brother because of unwise use of the liberties we now have.  But we are to use our freedom to live fully in Christ and to show that by how we conduct ourselves Monday to Friday.  We have a new identity in Christ.  It may be scary to enter into at first, but we must enter into that identity if we are to leave the shackles behind and move freely in the Holy Spirit.