The slave can set no man free. A Christian who needs deliverance cannot preach the message of salvation to anyone. For you to effectively be a saviour out of Zion, you must be free and that freedom must be evident to all. This is the only way you can truly be an effective minister of the Gospel. Why Christians from many denominations are afraid of freedom is a puzzle to me. When we were in the world, we were bound under the yoke of Satan and the powers of darkness of this world. We turned to Jesus because he offered us freedom. We accepted Jesus as Lord and saviour, received the baptism of the Holy Spirit as our eternal light, and wore Christ like a toga so that we could live the supernatural life.
Suddenly, we were told we were not free to do whatever we desire, not by the Bible or by the Holy Spirit but by some human doctrines that made up their minds to legislate grace. They hide behind a scripture that they quote out of context from Romans 6:1-2. They all know and have memorized that verse but they do not bother to read the entire chapter. This is a common practice for those who are sin-conscious, they only ever look for the words that they feel support their preconceived convictions and ignore the rest. To them, your freedom is an excuse to indulge in bad habits, such a narrow-minded and priggish way to look at that which Jesus died for that we might have. Religious folks are free but in their minds, they are not free, this is why they are not free indeed. A Christian is Free, Born Free, Made righteous by the new birth, given the Holy Spirit as His Guiding light, and set free to live the full life of liberty.
Liberty is the full expression of Grace. Liberty is not an excuse to do the wrong things. There are so many things we can do in life apart from the wrong things. Extremists always want to narrow options down to this or that. You need liberty to set the captives free, to start businesses and see them flourish and prosper, to find love, fall in love, and stay in love in its true form. You need liberty to be truly joyful, compassionate, merciful, gracious, kind, full of peace and gratitude, dead to sin, alive in Christ.
Romans 6: 1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once and for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law but under grace. Slaves to Righteousness 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 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? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.
A righteous man will live right by default. A sinful man will live in sin by default. The moment we were translated out of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s beloved son, we became the new creation, born free. We were given the power to live as we please and rule as we please as led by the Holy Spirit. You cannot make human laws for the Holy Spirit to live under, Laws are for mere men. Liberty is the prerogative of divinity. This new life is a divine life, we can only function in it with full liberty. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed (James 1:25).
Many have interpreted what Apostle James said in the above verse from a religious perspective, thinking that the perfect law of liberty means “a law that makes men free.” No law was given to make us free. We were born free! When you were born again, you weren’t set free. “But didn’t Jesus say, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free?” ‘ you might want to ask. Now, it’s important to understand the teachings of Jesus to the Jews and His teachings to the Church; He said that to the Jews. That verse doesn’t say, “the truth shall SET you free,” but that “the truth shall MAKE you free.” What this means is that you’ll experience what has already happened; the freedom that has already taken place. When you know and apply the truth of God’s Word in any area, you experience the resultant blessing and liberation from that particular bondage or ignorance, as it were. Yet, this teaching was to the Jews.
James wasn’t talking about a law that makes the Christian free, because once you’re born again you’re born free in Christ. You weren’t set free from Satan or from anything that hurts or binds; you were given a new life that never existed before. You became a new creation, superior to Satan. The Living Bible puts it rightly; it says, “But if anyone keeps looking steadily into God’s law for free men…” (James 1:25). That’s the meaning of the law of liberty. God’s perfect law of liberty is the love law. 1 Timothy 1:9 says, “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers.” Does this mean we’re without law? Yes, but we’re not without “law” to God. Jesus said in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” That’s our law, which in reality isn’t a law, but our way of life. It’s natural for us to walk in love as Christians because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5).
Christianity is an exciting life—a life of victory through the Word. In true Christianity, you don’t need to struggle to please God, because the Holy Spirit helps you live the faith life that pleases Him. All you have to do is pay attention to Him through the Word. Live in and by His Word. When you live according to the Word of God, you won’t need to keep watching your life to know whether or not you’re pleasing God. It takes faith to please Him (Hebrews 11:6), and faith is acting on the Word. The Lord Jesus described for us the life and wisdom of the one who acts on God’s Word. According to the Master, “He is like a man which built a house, and dug deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock” (Luke 6:48). It parallels what James 1:22-25 says: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
When your life is built on the Word, you’ll forever stand strong and tall, even in the midst of the harshest of storms. The Word of God will make you what God wants you to be, without you having to struggle. Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 4:19; He said, “…Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” All they had to do was to follow, and He’ll make them a success. The Word will keep you in health, strength, and victory, and you’ll experience unprecedented progress, peace, and prosperity in your life. The whole world has been saved and delivered by Jesus Christ through His vicarious death. When He died, He died for everybody. When God raised Him from the dead, He was raised for everybody. Some Christians, due to their ignorance of the Word, still maintain a “deliverance mentality”: the mentality of always wanting to be set free from one bondage or the other. All through the ministry of Jesus, He never needed to be set free or delivered from the devil or any trouble, Acts 17:28 says, “…in him, we live, and move, and have our being….” As He is, so are we in this world. You’re completely shielded from Satan and his devices and therefore, not in need of any kind of deliverance. That’s the greater truth, and that’s the revelation by which you ought to live. You were born into liberty; the liberty to serve God, the liberty to enjoy your life in Him and be all that He’s called you to be. You’re superior to Satan and therefore could never be in bondage to him. Accept this truth and it’ll put an end to the struggles.
The Word of God is the mirror of God. The Bible says anyone who hears the Word and doesn’t act accordingly is like a man who looks at himself in a mirror, turns around, and forgets what he looked like. (James 1:23-24). This means that God expects you to always remember who you are according to the Word; He wants you to always remember that His Word projects your image as “The Glory of God!” You might say, “No, that can’t be”; but 2 Corinthians 3:18 explains it. It says as we look at the glory of God in a mirror, we’re metamorphosed; we’re changed into the same image, from Glory to Glory. What does this mean? We know that a mirror only reflects whatever is set before it. Now, as you study the Word, particularly the Epistles, the reflection you see is the glory of God; that’s the real you. This is what the Lord is asking you not to forget. The Word, the mirror of God, reveals that you’re the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus; you’re the seed of Abraham; you’re an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ! These and other realities are reflections of you that you shouldn’t forget. You’re the epitome of God’s righteousness; you’re His living tabernacle; the embodiment of His wisdom, love, and grace! See yourself that way; talk and act accordingly, and you’ll experience the reality of Christ and His glory in your life always. Everything in man’s world is in captivity (Romans 8:20), but in God’s world, things are different. For example, Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fishes, talked to them and they multiplied, such that about five thousand men (women and the children not counted) were fed with many baskets of leftovers (Matthew 14:17–20).
In Mark 3:1-5, Jesus looked at the man who had a withered arm and said to him, “Hold out your hand.” When the man held it out, his hand was completely restored. He talked to lame legs and they were revived. He talked to a man who had no legs the legs grew out. When He got to the entrance of the sepulcher where Lazarus was buried, he uttered a simple prayer of thanks to the Father, and then cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” Lazarus, having been dead and buried for four days, came out of the grave alive (John 11:41-44). He also raised the daughter of Jairus back to life. He took the dead girl by the hand and said, “Get up!” And she came back to life (Luke 8:54). How about the son of a widow who lived in the city of Nain? He was being borne by the undertakers to the place of internment. Seeing the widow in distress, Jesus walked over, touched the casket, and said, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.” The hitherto dead young man sat up and Jesus presented him to his mother (Luke 7:11-15). There is a liberty in Christ, and He demonstrated that liberty of the Spirit that He brought to us. In Christ, there’s no such thing as “non-living”; there are no such things as waste, vanity, and death. The entire creation is groaning in pain, waiting to be liberated into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Now that you’ve arrived on the scene, set the creation free; liberate them. Speak blessings to everything around you that’s “dead” and bring deliverance to every creature in your world. In Christ, take them out of bondage and corruption, Iinto the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
For the Christian, liberty is not an excuse to live the wrong way because the appetite to do wrong things had died with the old man. The moment he became born again, he was given a brand new appetite, to do the works of the Kingdom as led by the Holy Spirit, he cannot do these things without being free. He must do them of his own free will, not out of compulsion. He must not do these things by coercion, in a transactional manner, or as one whose will has been compromised. He must love the Lord but not because of anything the Lord is doing for him or anything he expects the Lord to do for him. He or she loves the Lord because the Lord first loved him or her. He or she is free to do anything and everything under the heaven, for righteousness has been imputed in him or her. As he could do nothing righteous when he was an unbeliever, he now could not do anything unrighteous because his status changed the moment he accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour.
A religious mind fights this truth daily because sin and fear empower them to control people and like every slave master, they do not want to let go of the chains they had put on the neck of their victims. Are you free indeed? If you are free indeed you will realize you can do all things but it is you who chooses to do the right things because you are guided to them by the Holy Spirit. This is the true definition of the Liberty we have in Christ. This is my liberty and I dare anyone to try to take it from me.
-GSW-