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SET FREE TO BE FREE

by Jeffrey Hagan
4/06/2020 / Christian Living

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Introduction

There is a familiar phrase among Christians that goes something like this, “As believers we are set free, however, that freedom doesn't mean we can do anything we want to do.” But I ask, “If we aren't free to do what we want, how free are we?” That's not freedom, if it is it's a strange kind of freedom.

Scriptures state some pretty radical things and most of us aren't aware of just how radical they are. Related to freedom Paul says a couple of interesting things, “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean” (Romans 14:14, ESV). And in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (ESV).

Free to Sin?

Some voice their double standard regarding freedom similar to this, “Well absolutely we are free, but we aren't free to sin. It means we are free to not sin.” Now this sounds very pious and righteous, and there is definitely something to the sentiment. As a matter of fact, I now have the freedom to do some rather good things that I could never have done before salvation. I can love more, be kinder, forgive, and I sin less often than I use to. There's a sense where doing wrong can cripple us with bondage, while being free to live in God's will brings legitimate freedom.

But on the other side of the coin, if that freedom doesn't include the freedom to not obey, then it isn't true freedom is it? Let's look at something else Paul said, “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence” (Galatians 5:13, NRSV). You see, he didn't want them to use their freedom in that way, but the very fact he said this shows they could have. They were free.

What About Our Witness?

Here's an extremely common Christian response to freedom that is actually detrimental to our freedom, “We have to be extremely cautious with the issue of freedom, if not people will just take advantage of it.”

Whenever people say this I think to myself, and want to say, “What in the world are you talking about? That makes absolutely no sense, taking advantage of freedom by actually being free? That's not freedom, it's just a different type of bondage.”

Another thing we do is offer “freedom with one hand and take it away with the other.”(1) We love being able to tell Christians they are free – however, if they exercise that freedom it will damage their witness.

1 Corinthians 8:14 is a favorite go to verse for this, “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (ESV). Instead of exegeting what that passage is actually talking about, those who like to choke out freedom use it as weapon of condemnation. I think that the misinterpretation of that verse has created more bondage in the Church than we could ever imagine. Steve Brown wrote, “We have taken away from Christians everything they could possibly enjoy because, in their enjoyment, they might hurt their witness.”(2)

If we go to the context of that verse, which is what one is suppose to do, we find out it's dealing with sacrifices made to the idols of pagans in a pagan culture. After the sacrifice the meat was taken to the local market and sold. Sometimes Christians would buy that meat, and the concern was whether or not Christians should be taking the meat and cooking it up for themselves. Paul said that a Christian was free to do this. However, due to some of the more uptight Christians (it's significant to notice he didn't speak of unbelievers) possible being offended, it would be better to just eat something else instead of possibly having another believer get all bent out of shape - “even though the Christian remained free and the idols remained nothing.”(3) Even given this possibility, Paul would not, and did not, make it a command to be followed. He simply prompted people to be considerate of other believers.

This brings me to a question: Do you know a single unbeliever who has stayed away from the faith because a Christian didn't act as pure and righteous as they thought the Christian should have acted? Now I'm fully aware they will call us hypocrites, but I think that most times that's just covering up some other reason. In reality what continues to destroy our witness is “pretense not freedom.”(4)

You know what would be a breath of fresh air? If Christians would just be honest to their unbelieving friends and admit they screw up sometimes but that God is still for them, not against them. Even though we mess up as much as anyone, God's love and forgiveness remain. If we were actually that honest I think many more people would be attracted to the Church.

Free to Be Free

I am a firm believer in regards to what Scripture says about freedom, and even though that offends a lot of people, I can't change or ignore what the Bible says. So, grounded in what Scripture tells us, I'm going to present to you a statement that seems radical to some:

“If you are a believer, you are absolutely and completely free.”

No contingencies, no ifs, and or buts. You are free and you can do it right or you can do it wrong. You can be obedient or disobedient, run toward Christ or run from Christ, be faithful or unfaithful. “You can cry, cuss, and spit, or laugh, sing and dance.”(5) You can read a comic book or an autobiography or you can read the Bible. You can watch Netflix or Hulu or you can spend time in prayer. You are free.

Asked and Answered

Does freedom include God still loving me if I don't do what he says? Yes actually, it does. I'm sure you'll regret it, you could be hurt in the process, but he won't stop loving you = and he's not going to cancel your salvation. Consequences? Possibly, but he's not going to kick you out of his family nor his kingdom.

Does freedom include God being pleased with anything that I do regardless of what it is? Absolutely not. If that's what you've picked up from what I've written so far you are way off track. God is pleased with us when we do as he asks, however, because Christ's righteousness has been imputed to us, he's not going to condemn you or destroy you.

Does freedom include that when Christians are angry at me or upset with me God isn't? Yes. There may be temporary disappointment, but his love never stops.

Does freedom include his love and grace being free of conditions? You bet it does. That's precisely what it means.

What if I do something really horrible? If I do will he still listen to and answer my prayers? Will he continue to bless me? Yes he'll listen, yes he'll answer, and yes he'll bless you. Whatever God does or doesn't do in your life very seldom has anything to do with how “good” you are. That may be how an elementary school teacher acts, but not God. To be quite honest, some of my best sermons and/or teachings have been delivered when I was struggling with some bad things. I think he is reminding me of an important fact when that happens. He's reminding me that his care and provision for me is dependent on his love and the finished work of Christ on the cross, not on me earning it.

You can clearly see this false concept in the Word Faith, Prosperity, and Health and Wealth gospel movements. It's actually quite nauseating. They preach a direct, and they claim necessary, connection between your goodness and obedience to God pouring out his blessings upon you. Clearly they have their eyes fixated on fiction. All they have to do is take a look around. Or read the book of Psalm or Job, or take a look at what the Apostles and other faithful Christ followers in church history have faced. I'm sure we all know, or have at least heard of, faithful and obedient Christians who suffer physically or financially. I know of obedient leaders who have had failed ministries. And, I'm also confident we can all attest to the truth that there are successful, rich, healthy unbelievers living fun lives which appear to be blessed.

So let me just repeat myself briefly: If you are unfaithful at times God is not going to leave you, stop listening to your prayers, close his eyes to you, kick you out, or take away his blessing . He loves you with an unconditional love, a never ending love.

Choking Out Freedom

Steve Brown mentions something a friend of his, Sidlow Baxter once said, “whenever Satan gets to Christians, eight out of ten times, he does so through other Christians.” (6) Unfortunately, there is some real truth to this. There are some in the Church who are going to demand things from you that God never demands, will tell you God is mad at you and punishing you when he isn't, and will try to force guilt and shame on you when you have no need to feel guilt or shame.

I'm guilty to this at some level and it's important to admit that and talk about it. In the beginning of ministry I'm sure I chocked freedom out of a few and it's embarrassing to admit. But, I think we all have. It's something we need to discuss. What we need to do is grasp the first things first – the gospel – or we are going to end up choking freedom out of each other. I've improved greatly in this aspect, and my hope is that others will stop “shooting their own wounded” as well.

New believers enter the family of God with excitement and joy regarding their discovery of this fresh freedom. And without fail we eventually tell these new believers that although Jesus gave them something incredible, there's a few things they need to know. Then we strap a bunch of weights across their shoulders and force them to walk with that unbearable weight. And when these new believers try to get out from under all of the weight and pressure we place on them, all of the traditions, rules, and surface “righteousness,” we force them to feel guilty and pressure them in to continuing on carrying the burden we placed on them.

This is a pet peeve of mine. It makes me mad. It makes me mad that I've done it to others and it makes me mad when I see it being done by other pastors and brothers and sisters in Christ.

I'm not the only one it makes mad, it made Jesus mad as well. In fact, he said this in relation to these types of people, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger... Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much of a child of hell as yourselves” (Matthew 23:4, 15, ESV).

FREEDOM REMOVES CONTROL

Freedom is scary for what I'm going to call “religious” people. For religious people freedom takes away their power and ability to maintain control over others. I'll concede that it may be possible that some of them want to maintain control for the right reasons, but they're still trying to be in control and that's not healthy.

Jesus doesn't seem to be a proponent of control. In Matthew 20:26-28 he says, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (ESV).

Closely related to control is power. Freedom also scares religious people because freedom takes away their power. As with control, if one wants to keep power even for the right reasons, it's still power that can choke freedom out of others.

I can anticipate what many of you are thinking right now, so did Steve Brown when he wrote expected responses to this point, “But we do need authority... Without legitimate authority, discipline, and a proper chain of command, anarchy ensues, and everything for which Christ died will come crashing down around out feet.” (7)

Jesus didn't seem too impressed with this position, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them,” he continued, “It shall not be so among you” (Matthew 20:25-26, ESV).

Another reason religious people don't like freedom is because a lot of pride goes into being right all of the time and trying to come across as righteous. If they aren't “right” or “good” how do they show themselves as superior to other believers who keep getting things wrong?

Pride and self-righteousness are two of the most addicting traits for people. Of course it's quite obvious in politics, Hollywood, social media, and news sources. It can be found in every home, work place, and just about everywhere else. But there is one place it shouldn't be surfacing and that's in the Church.

Fear of Freedom

It's easy to fall into the trap of blaming our loss of freedom on other people, but often times, most times, it's simply due to the fact we don't really want to be free. Freedom frightens us because we don't really trust ourselves. And that is because we know ourselves too well.

There's a sort of comfort and relief when we have other people deciding for us. After all, if we are free, we could do or be wrong – and the last thing we want is to be wrong. At the root of this is perfectionism: If I haven't done wrong, I'm still good (or even perfect); and even if I do get it wrong when someone else outside of me told me what and how to do it, then it tarnishes their perfectionism not mine.

Let me share a story with you from the Hickory Daily Record newspaper back in July of 2000. The article tells of a priest by the name of Reverend Thomas J. Quinlan who had a tendency to rub some people the wrong way. Well, Rev. Quinlan struggled with alcoholism, it had it's grips in him for a long time. One day he was arrested for DWI. He went before his congregation and confessed his sin, he informed them that he would freely resign immediately. The thing is during the many years he led his congregation he had taught them about freedom and practiced what he preached. I think some of you can guess what happened. His congregation told him they didn't want him to leave, they just wanted him to change and they would be there for him while he changed. The reporter said those people “loved him into sobriety.”

I think they have figured out something many of us need to figure out.

Conclusion

Few things give me more pleasure than watching believers discover their freedom. It's definitely one of the high points of ministry for me. Sometimes it takes a lot of convincing and knocking down old walls of tradition, but you know what? I can relate to that. It's very understandable. Freedom can be a bit like walking a gymnasts balancing beam.

But I urge you to be free the way Jesus taught and told you to be free. I promise in the end you will be very happy you did.

-Article adapted from Brown, Steve. A Scandalous Freedom: The Radical Nature of the Gospel (New York: Harvard Books, 2004, pp.7-24)

Brown, p.10
Ibid.
Ibid., p.11
Ibid., p.12
Ibid.
Ibid., p.17
Ibid., p.20

Jeff Hagan is the President of True Grace Ministries and Theological Institute. Interested? www.preacherjeff45.wlxsite.com/truegracetheolgical

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