When Jesus sets you free, you are free indeed!
Completely free…
So free that you can literally choose your own destiny!
Think about the the books you have read, the stories you have heard and the movies you have watched. There is a great battle and the hero wins. FREEDOM!! Big dirty and bloodied men walk with great axes and cut the chains off. Military men break off locks from cells by shooting the locks or hitting it with the butts of their guns.
The prisoners are set free. Free to do as they please. They can now just walk away… or stay in the cells… or join the army that liberated them… but they are free to choose.
(More realistically, though, if you were enslaved by a force, the new force that overthrows the kingdom, just took you as spoils of war… Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Jail, servitude or become a soldier.)
Well, Paul describes our freedom through the acts and decisions of Jesus as full and complete… much more like the romantic novel or movie version. We were bound by the law, and now we are free from the requirements of the law, The Grace of God has set us free… Completely Free… which literally means:
We can Choose to Sin!
We can choose a life without God. The Laws of the old testament will not condemn us anymore. We can choose to give ourselves over to lust and alcohol, to deceit and dishonesty, to greed of money and power…
Paul asks this exact question to the Romans: “… Should we sin to our hearts’ content since there’s no law to condemn us anymore?”
(Romans 6:15, TPT)
but… here is the hiccup:
Grace frees us to choose our own master…
There is a Chinese/Eastern/Indian/Native American story about two wolves (or bears or dragons) that lives inside each of us. These two are in constant conflict and constantly fighting over you. In the story, a wise older person speaks to a youngster, and explains this idea. The youngster asks… Who will win? The elder answers: The one you feed!
Spiritual Truth?
The very subtle difference between the philosophies and Christianity: In the Philosophies, you seem to have the ability to control the situation. It is so close to the truth, you might just miss it.
Paul throws it down straight:
“Don’t you realise that Grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully, for you surrender yourself to become a servant – bound to the one you choose to obey. If you choose to love sin, it will become your master and it will own you and reward you with death.”
(Romans 6:16, TPT)
We can always turn away from sin and choose to follow Christ. Choose a relationship with God, our Father. That is true.
But we, as humans, we are designed to worship. And if we choose something else to worship, breaking away is tough ask.
So Paul asks:
” So tell me, what benefit ensued from doing those things that you are now ashamed of? It left you with nothing but a legacy of shame and death.”
(Romans 6:21, TPT)
And this is the point where people get mad:
“But Sean, are you telling me that God will send me to hell just because I did x, y or z?”
No, I am not. I am specifically not saying or implying that. Jesus Christ, the Son of God came to our defence. Jesus Christ came to set us free. Jesus Christ broke down the gates of hell… for me, and for you…
The locks are broken, the gates are standing open, the enemy is under God’s heel.
Now we have to choose what we want to do…
The choice is 100% in our hands. Walk with Christ, or stay a captive.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
(Romans 6:23, NIV)
