Do You Recognise the 3 Freedoms God Offers You?

(Galatians 4:1-5)

This section of Galatians 4 speaks about how Christians are being adopted as the sons and daughters of God. It looks at people as if they are initially children or even slaves who have not come to maturity and thus cannot fully receive the promises offered.

But when a child is adopted as a son, the Father offers them everything. When a child comes into a family they learn what it means to be part of the family. They learn the customs, rules, regulations and processes of that family so that they can live harmoniously in the family and grow mature.

Some of those processes that God offers His adopted sons and daughters require us to be truly free. It’s not a “nice to have” thing, but an absolute necessity if we are to grow mature in Jesus Christ and take our part in His family. That is why I ask again, do you recognise the three freedoms God offers you?

Two of these freedoms come through the work and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the third comes through the working of the Holy Spirit in us as we walk with Christ. We must understand these three freedoms and how to apply the thoughts, faith and processes in our life to stand mature in Jesus Christ, and so be adopted as sons and daughters of God’s kingdom

Freedom from Sin

The first of the three freedoms we receive is freedom from sin.

God has made the point numerous times that He cannot abide sin in His presence. Once, He destroyed the world in the time of Noah because of sin. He also destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of sin. In Romans chapter 1 we are told three times that God gave up on man because of sin.

And the bad news is that:

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

Thus, there is no man able to come and stand in the presence of God because we were all sinners. The penalty for sin is death and during our life we build up a huge debt of sin, which is not paid off and cleared until we die. The only way sin can be atoned for is through a death.

But God wants people to come to Him and to love Him. He wants children who will follow Him and learn to do what is right in His eyes.

So we have a “Catch-22” situation. He wants to help us overcome sin, but He won’t because we are sinners. This is why Jesus came.

Jesus came and died to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. And God showed His loving kindness towards sinful mankind by allowing us to take on Jesus’ death as our own, so that we could be set free from sin.

As mentioned above, death is the only payment that will settle the debt of sin. God gave us the ability through faith to be able to take Jesus’ death for our own and in place of our own so that His death pays for our sin.

How does this work? Through water baptism. When we are baptised, we are baptised into the death of Jesus Christ and we put on His death. As the scripture says:

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:2-4)

Having been baptised into the death of Jesus Christ we must now think of ourselves as no longer being alive to this world, but dead to it. We must think differently and believe in faith that we are dead to the world, but alive to Jesus Christ as new creations in Him. We have died with Him and so our past sins have been removed and the debt of sin has been paid. This is what we must now believe wholeheartedly.

So this is the first freedom God offers you: freedom from sin. And this comes through the death of Jesus Christ who died for our sins.

But there is more. This sacrifice dealt with out PAST sins. What if we break the law now we have been baptised? Have we committed sin and are therefore back to square one? No, we are not because the second freedom overcomes that issue.

Freedom from Law

The second freedom is freedom from law and it deals with the problem of “future” sin.

The Law is holy, just and good and there is much we can and do need to learn from the law. The law defines right from wrong, good from evil.

But there is a problem with the law. The problem with the law is that it defines sin and when a person breaks the law, the law condemns the person as a sinner. The law may show what righteousness is by keeping the law, but it also shows sin for what it is too and it condemns those who fail to keep the law as being sinners.

Now, if we are condemned as being sinners, then once again we are falling short of the glory of God and He will not accept us into His presence. He will not help us while we are sinners, so He had to do something to overcome the issue of past sin AND future sin, so that He could and would continue to work with man.

What did God do? Quite simply, He took us away from the law.

Note those words carefully. God did NOT take away the law. The law is still in full effect and full force today as it was ever since it was given through Moses. This is why Jesus said:

17 “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18 For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)

God did NOT take away the law. Instead He took those who believe and have faith away from the law. He discharged those who have faith from the law. He did not remove the law for all mankind, but only from those who believe and have faith in Jesus Christ. That’s why the law still exists and will exist until “all has been accomplished.” The law will continue until after the second coming right up until the final judgement when God removes all sin and all evil from the world to establish His eternal kingdom.

How did God do this? Once again, it was by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the process of baptism.

Just as we died to our past sins by faith in accepting the death of Jesus Christ as our own death, so too when we believe and have faith that we have died with Christ we are removed from the law. Note well these words:

Do you not know, brethren–for I am speaking to those who know the law–that the law is binding on a person only during his life? (Romans 7:1)

And;

But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. (Romans 7:6)

We have died with Christ through baptism into His death. We have taken on His death and believe in faith that His death is literally our death. And now, because we are dead by faith, we have been discharged from the law because the law is binding on a person only in this life. The new life we have in Jesus Christ as sons of God and citizens of the kingdom of God is one without sin and without law.

So this is the second freedom God offers you: freedom from the law. With this freedom, through Jesus Christ dying, God has overcome both past and future sin. We are truly set free to worship.

But again, there is more that we have to do. This leads us to the third freedom God offers you.

Freedom from Fleshly Passions

In spite of being set free from sin and set free from the law, we are still weak. Human beings are weak in many ways and these weaknesses cause us to fall and fail.

We still suffer the problems of humanity that come with the passions, lusts, desires and emotions of the flesh. It is these things that lead us to sinful ways, and they don’t just “go away” when we are set free from sin and the law. We still suffer issues like jealousy, envy, greed, evil thoughts, adulterous thoughts, pornographic tendencies, malice, wrath, violence, anger and any other other problem of humanity you can think of

And what God wants for His children is that they be in control of themselves. He wants mature Christians able to stand against these passions and deal with them when they rear their ugly head within us. He wants us to be where Paul stood as He said:

3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. 4 I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. (1 Corinthians 4:3-4)

Paul knew of nothing against himself. He stood righteous before God, but he did not claim righteousness other than the free gift of righteousness by faith that comes from Jesus Christ. Paul also understood the words of Jesus that we too need to come to as well.

You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

Being set free from sin and set free from the law to deal with future sin, and believing this in faith makes us righteous by faith. This is the free gift of God to all who believe in Jesus Christ. And if we are righteous by faith, then we are also perfect by faith.

But we are not perfect in what we do because of the fleshly passions that reside within our human bodies.

If we are to be truly perfect, “…as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” then we must come to the place where our perfection is in everything we do, everything we say and every thought we have. And to achieve that place, God has given us the third freedom.

The third freedom is the freedom to be able to overcome the passions of the flesh. It is the ability to crush and destroy the evil intents and desires of our hearts before they come to the place where they convert to sinful acts.

He gives us this freedom by giving us the Holy Spirit.

The work of the Holy Spirit is to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ, who is the image of the Father and is perfect. Not just perfect by faith, but perfect in all ways, and this is what the Spirit is doing in us.

But unlike the first two freedoms, this is not instantaneous. We are set free from sin and from the law immediately when we are baptised and believe we have died with Jesus Christ and are raised a new creation. It is instantly given to us when we have faith.

But the work of transformation in our minds and spirit may take our whole lifetime. Just as Paul said he knew of nothing against himself, he did not claim to be perfected. That is for God to assess and judge.

But how are we transformed and what is the work of the Holy Spirit going on inside of us? This is the process of walking in the Spirit and we see glimpses of it all over the new testament.

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

Here we see that it is the work of the Spirit who is changing us into the likeness of Christ Jesus. And we see that it is a slow process that moves only one degree at a time. He works with us and in us constantly, nudging, teaching, guiding and opening our eyes in the Spirit to see what cannot be seen by man. Ever so slowly we are being tested and tempered by fire to knock off the dross from our hearts and mind and so be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. (Galatians 5:16-17)

When we walk by the Spirit we do not gratify the desires of the flesh that lead to sinfulness. The desires of the flesh will lead us back into the evil ways of the world because they are based on lust, passion and the like. But the desires of the Spirit are based on the things of the Spirit, which are godly and of God. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, all of which are the fruits of the Spirit.

But how do we walk by the Spirit? It’s all about what we think and how we use the power of the Holy Spirit to control our thoughts. Consider these things:

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8)

We are shown clearly here that it is what we think about that is the key to walking in the Spirit. If we want to be able to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, then we need to control how we think. We need to use the power of the Spirit to control our thoughts and prevent them turning into sinful words or actions.

3 For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

The method by which we receive this third freedom is to capture our thoughts, taking them captive and assessing whether they are good or evil before taking action or speaking. We look at what our thoughts are saying and destroy the internal arguments in our mind and all of the proud obstacles in our own minds so that we can obey Christ. Any form of evil thought, any condemnation or guilt, any weakness that you might have whether physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual needs to be dealt with.

And it is a hard road. That’s why Jesus said:

13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14)

It is a hard road and a narrow path that we walk as we walk with Christ to the kingdom of God. But it is worth it because the wide and easy road leads only to destruction, not just in this life but into eternity.

And the ways that we can control our thinking as we walk in the Spirit are numerous. Paul gives us some examples in his letter to the Philippians.

6 Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:6-9)

Look at what Paul counsels the Philippians church to do. These are some of the things that can be done to walk in the Spirit and to take control of your thoughts. He says in verse 8 to “…think about these things.”

Any time the passions, lusts, desires or emotions of the flesh well up inside you to try and make you do their bidding, think about these things. Sing a spiritual song, read the bible, pray with your mind and pray with the Spirit too, meditate on the word, worship the Lord for His blessings, give praise to God that He has saved you, rejoice that you are a child of the Father and don’t be anxious about anything. As you exercise these things and change your thinking you will receive the peace of God which passes all understanding.

These are the three freedoms God offers you: freedom from sin, freedom from law and freedom from the passions of the flesh. The aim of these three freedoms is to bring you into the image of Jesus Christ.

So what do you think? If you have any questions, add a comment or send me an email to discuss this further.

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