Biblical Freedom

Freedom in Christ is a great privilege that we have as disciples of His. It was something that the early church enjoyed to the utmost, and something we ought to as well today! On the other side of things, the enemy hates the idea of you and I being free in Christ. He has, and will continue to do, everything he can in order to lure us into deceptive thinking about the teaching of biblical freedom. It has been on Satan's agenda to mix the idea of biblical freedom with the prevailing definition of freedom (the ability to do whatever you want without constraint) in the culture of the day. This is certainly no different today - therefore, we need to be careful to guard against this happening in our individual lives.


The Bible has a lot to say about freedom. 2 Cor. 3:17 says "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.", and Galatians 5:1 says that it is "for freedom that Christ set us free", just to name a few.


When considering freedom, we also must understand it's counterpart: bondage (the state of one bound as a slave). Rom. 6 is a great place to identify what freedom in Christ looks like, as well as what bondage to sin looks like. Paul sums it up nicely in verse 16 where he says that "you are slaves of the one whom you obey". Earlier, in verse 14, he says "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace".


The whole idea of the law and our former position under it is important to understand when considering biblical freedom. I think Paul teaches what it looked like incredibly clearly in Rom. 7:4-6.

"Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that with held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit."

These scriptures point to the fact that in Christ, we are no longer under the bondage of the law, but rather serve under grace in the new life of the Spirit. What I find interesting looking at these passages is that this idea of "bondage" is not necessarily a negative word. It actually becomes a positive word when we are bound to the right thing. Therefore, biblical freedom has everything to do with what we are bound to. What I have come to is this: I would rather be bound under that which is free (Christ, grace, the Spirit of God), then free under that which is bound (Sin, law).


What I mean by this is that as a disciple of Jesus I now choose to serve Him; AKA in my freedom, I choose bondage to Christ (Paul would say multiple times throughout His letters that he is a "bondservant of Christ Jesus").


Here are a few other scriptures that confirm these things:

"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." (Gal. 5:13)

"Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God." (1 Pet. 2:16)

What I hope you walk away with is this: biblical freedom is not freedom to do whatever we want with our lives; biblical freedom is freedom to serve God with all of our lives. When we make this distinction, we can enjoy to the utmost the freedom Christ has given us - just like the early church!


Be Blessed!
Andrew