Bondage part 5
Here's what we (religious folk) seem to THINK freedom is: "I can do whatever I want (bad stuff) and not get in trouble." That's the problem they seem to have with the grace message. But here's what freedom REALLY is: "I'm not in bondage to sin anymore. I don't have to try to earn what I desire. I don't have to do in order to be. I am now free to receive and release the love of my Father." Look at Matthew 20:27-28, "And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." When Jesus was talking about saving us, or ransoming us, or freeing us... He linked it to our ability to serve one another. Our ability to GIVE, not get. And that's true freedom. Bondage is trying to build your own kingdom, so to speak. Freedom is knowing that you already live in (and already ARE) God's Kingdom, and simply sharing what you have (who you are)! I don't believe anybody WANTS to do "bad stuff." But that's the trap of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You get some knowledge about what to do and what not to do... and then you have to walk it out in your own power. The problem being, of course, that you don't have any power. Jesus came and fulfilled the Law of Moses because we were 100% unable to do it ourselves. Which was the actual point of the Law of Moses. It wasn't given so that the people would keep it. They couldn't. You can't. It was given in order to SHOW that nobody can keep it. It was given as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. You can't... but He did. And He did it both for you and as you. He brought you out of the bondage of works and labor and into the rest of the Finished Work. He did what we couldn't do. What we really wanted to do deep down... but couldn't. Remember Paul's description of the struggle under the Law? We can't do the things we want to do, and always end up doing the things we don't want to do. That's not freedom. We were slaves to sin (unbelief), but now--because of the cross--we are slaves to righteousness. We have been transformed. Conformed to the image of Jesus. Now instead of "doing in order to be," we do BECAUSE we be! What we do flows from what we believe. From WHO we believe that we are. From who we are in Christ, and who He is in us. And Jesus, more than anything else, was a servant. Not a slave trying to be a son, but a Son who was moved with compassion and motivated by love. A Son who didn't come to be ministered unto, but came to minister to us! A Son who was free to wash people's feet. A Son who was free to give what He had. That's true freedom. Knowing and believing that you are loved--so you can stop looking for love in all the wrong places--and loving one another with that same love. That's the perfect law of liberty, and the New Commandment. That's what it means to have passed out of life and into death. We're not trying to earn love. We're free to receive it and release it!