Bondage part 2
Sin is not freedom. Sin is bondage. And sin is not what you DO. Sin is what you BELIEVE. Or rather, what you don't believe. If you don't believe that Jesus finished the work on the cross, then you will try to take the Kingdom of God by force. You will tryin to take what is freely given by violence (or human effort). Basically... the good that you want to do, you won't be able to do, and the evil you don't want to do is all you'll be able to do. You'll be stuck in the pit, if I can say it that way. Stuck on a hamster wheel. Spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere. Banging your head against the wall and only getting a headache. That's the trap of religion. It looks like you're working hard but all you do is wear yourself out. That was the problem with the Old Covenant: It demanded perfection without being able to produce it. It was the government of condemnation and all it could do was point out what was wrong with you. But watch this: "Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:3-5). See... before the cross we WERE in bondage. We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. We couldn't do any better because we didn't know any better (and you can't believe something that you don't know). Enter Jesus. We were trying (or thought we were trying) to get up to Him. But in order for it to work He had to come down to us. He wrapped Himself in flesh. He met us right where we were at. He said, "You can't do it. But it's ok. Because I'm going to do it for you, and I'm going to do it as you." Then He redeemed us. He fulfilled the Law. He met every obligation it could put on us. He ransomed us. He freed us. And then He put the Law aside because it was contrary to us and against us. The word, "bondage" in our Galatians passage is number 1402 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "to enslave (literally or figuratively)." We WERE slaves to elements of the world. Before the cross we had this old man, beast nature, and there was nothing we could do to rise above it. It took Jesus dying (again, both for us and as us) to bury that old man. To get rid of him. To empty us out of all the old so that we could be filled with something new. And the something new... is Jesus Himself. The New Man. The New Creation. Not a slave, but a Son. Not a beast nature, but the love nature! Now we are free to do what we REALLY want to do. And what we REALLY want to do is be loved and love. What we REALLY want to do is not, "do bad stuff and get away with it." That's not freedom. That's bondage. That's selfish. Freedom is not getting (especially since we already have it all and don't need to get anything). Freedom is giving. Love is giving. And it's all about love!