
You, my brothers and sisters, are called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather, serve one another humbly in love – Galatians 5:13
Whether you are free or not, depends on what you constitute freedom to be. Does freedom mean you can do whatever you feel like doing, whenever you feel like doing it? Some might consider this to be freedom. But in a world with 8 billion other people, that’s not really possible. I might go and do whatever I desire, but that will always lead to disaster. You see, the flesh desires fleshly things. And when we do whatever we feel like doing to satisfy those fleshly desires, there will be consequences that will take away those so called “Freedoms”. People who cheat on their spouses because of fleshly desires, will lose the freedom to see their children. Those who steal out of greed, will lose their freedom to be part of society for a while. So freedom can not really be defined as doing whatever we please.
When we talk about freedom, we need to ask ourselves, “What are we being set free from?” Freedom means that we are set free from something that has been holding us down, or something that wants restrict us. And the thing we all want to be set free from is “death”. Now, there is no way to escape physical death, but the freedom we have in Christ, certainly sets us free from the chains of eternal death. The more we seem to gain “fleshly freedom” the more we seem to be in bondage by the chains. The only way we can hear the chains, is when we move to the cross. That’s when we realise that we are prisoners of our own fleshly desires. Christ is a chain breaker and a way maker. He breaks the chains that hold us in the prison cell of the flesh. And He makes a way for us to live a complete life of freedom.
The synonym for freedom is Christ. When we go to Him, we are set free. Death no longer has a hold on us and we know that an eternity beckons that will even be free of the pain and destruction that is present in our world. On that day, there will be complete freedom for those who are in Christ – and complete bondage for those who aren’t. It goes without saying, that choosing to follow Christ, is the most freeing decision you can ever make. Do it today.
Have a great day!