The Holy Spirit Brings Freedom
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| One of two "tamed" cheetahs at Chaminuka Game Park |
God also created us to be free. But when
we live to please our flesh, our sinful nature, we make ourselves slaves to
sin. Romans 6:16 poses the question: Don’t
you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are
slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to
death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Jesus says in John 8:34 Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Everyone.
Jesus didn’t offer qualifications. He demonstrates that we’ve all offered
ourselves as slaves to sin. This is not God’s will for our lives. Galatians 5:1
tells us It is for freedom that Christ
has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be
burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
We were not made to be slaves, but we
were slaves to sin. No question about it. So Jesus came to set us free. Listen
to his words from John 8:31-32. To the
Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you
are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set
you free.”
Most of us have heard this before.
Most of us know that the truth isn’t just a concept or a right thought. Here
are Jesus’ words from John 14:6 Jesus
answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me. We know that Jesus himself is
the Truth, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. If we have accepted
Jesus and hold to his teaching, then we know the truth, and that is the truth which
will set us free.
But the fact is, we can be like the
cheetahs I mentioned earlier. But as we know Jesus, he has opened the gate for
us to go free. Indeed, 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom. So the gate stands open, and we all celebrate it, but then we stay
inside the enclosure! You haven’t walked in freedom. This is sometimes a side
effect of Christian evangelists and preachers who lead people to the altar and
leave them there.
The big question, then, is how to
walk out of the enclosure of sin. The Bible tells us that those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans
8:14). It is the Holy Spirit who leads us out of the enclosure of sin. One of
the concepts throughout the New Testament is death to self. By the Spirit, put to death the misdeeds of
the body, and you will live. (Romans 8:13). In baptism, we can see a picture of our lives
being buried with Christ in the waters of baptism, dead to sin, and being
brought out of the water alive in the Spirit.
Living this out is not simple. It’s
not automatic. Some people think that when they become a Christian, they will
automatically be sin-free. That doesn’t happen instantaneously. When I was a
boy, I was taught that the steps to being a Christian were confess your sins, repent,
get baptized, then “live the Christian life.” That was said as if it was
simple. I thought Christian adults had no problems living like a Christian. So
I must be strange because for me, living the Christian life was hard. And is
hard. But I take consolation that the Apostle Paul found it hard as well, as he
recounts in Romans 7.
It is only by the Spirit that we can
put to death the misdeeds of the body. We are called to put aside everything
that is not godly. So when we return to sinful behavior patterns, we are going
back into the cage of sin. But the Spirit
helps us in our weakness. Romans 8:26
Walking by the Spirit, out
of the cage of sin, takes spiritual discernment. It takes knowing what the best
thing is; what is that good work that God prepared in advance for you to do? It
takes vigilance. Is this of God, or not? So traditional spiritual beliefs and
practices have no place outside the cage. They do not lead to freedom, nor do
they help you maintain freedom. They are simply another form of slavery.
Walking by the Spirit takes practice. It doesn’t come naturally. A Christian
walk is similar to an athlete, who works hard and conditions his body. We do
our exercises which make us stronger. What kind of exercises do we do? We call
them spiritual disciplines.
Reading the Bible.
Studying and meditating on the Bible. By the way, if you are interested and
available, we are doing a Bible Study at Mavies’ house on Wednesday afternoons
at 15 hours sharp. Our own Youth initiated this Bible study, but it is open to
anyone. Fasting and praying. Serving the poor. Visiting the sick. Feeding the
hungry. Spending your time with the Spirit, listening to his voice, obeying
him. And when you exercise like this, you’ll find yourself more and more drawn
to the freedom that only he can give!
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