believer

Freedom in Christ Is a Wonderful Blessing

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

2 Cor. 3:17

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:36

And by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 

Acts 13:39

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Rom. 6:22

What does freedom in Christ mean? This is a question I have often pondered over my years as a Christian. To be honest, I’ve never understood the nuances of this idea, although I have some thoughts about it.

The concept of freedom in Christ stands in direct contrast to what many non-Christians believe that life in Christ is all about. 

A common belief is that being a Christian represents anything but freedom, and is instead built around a life of “Don’t do this” and “Don’t do that.” 

For many people, the idea of following Christ is about limiting what you can do and denying yourself all the fun things that life has to offer.

However, God tells us something different in His Word. All the verses above speak of the freedom we have as believers in Christ.

But what exactly is this freedom FROM or freedom TO?

First of all, as believers in Christ one of the most important freedoms we have is freedom from guilt due to our sins.

Christ died and was resurrected to pay the penalty for all our sins, both past and future. If you’ve accepted Jesus into your life, you don’t have any sin that has not been forgiven.

While we may still have to deal with the repercussions of our sins on this fallen earth, we’re no longer burdened with the guilt of our sin, as we’ve been made righteous in God’s sight by the blood of Jesus.

Our freedom in Christ means that we’re innocent and guilt-free.

Because of Jesus’s atoning death, which fulfilled the Old Testament law, we no longer have to make sacrifices to God to wash us clean of sin. Jesus did that once and for all. 

As believers in Christ, God sees us as new creations, clean and justified forever. That should lift our burdens and make our hearts feel lighter.

A second important aspect of our freedom in Christ is that we are free from the chains that sin shackles us with. Repeated sin drags us down and leaves us with an inferior quality of life. 

Jesus said,

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 10:10b

It is difficult to live joyous, peaceful lives when we have sin hanging over us.

With Jesus as our Savior, we should be living a better, more fulfilling life that we were before we accepted Him into our life. 

We are free to live our best life, even though we live in a fallen world plagued with sin and evil. 

God wants us to live each day to the fullest, without worry and anxiety over everyday concerns and problems that non-believers focus on (Matt 6:32).

Lastly, I believe that one of the best parts about freedom in Christ is the absence of death and the promise of eternal life that God has made to us as believers.

In one of the most famous verses in the Bible, we read,

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

With Christ as our Savior, we have freedom over death. Once our fleshly bodies die, we’ll be given new spiritual bodies and live with God forever. We’ll never taste death.

That should give each believer something to eagerly look forward to.

This is just a quick summary of some of the important aspects of freedom in Christ. But it should give us hope as we deal with all the challenges this life gives us.

Don’t Let Money Come Between You and God

/ Clay D. / 2 Comments

Don’t let money come between you and God. 

That’s the thought that struck me this morning as I was working. I wrote that sentence down so that I could expand on it later. 

The idea was that you shouldn’t look to God as your source of money and then blame Him when you don’t have enough of it (or feel like you have enough). 

He tells us that He’s our source, that everything comes through Him. He’s our provider for all our sustenance and needs:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matt. 6:31-33

However, if we truly believe that, AND we feel like there’s a lack in our lives, we can get to the point where we blame God for our money problems. That if we’re relying on Him and He doesn’t come through, then He’s the problem. 

Matthew 6:24 tells us that you can’t serve both God and money. You’ll end up loving the one and hating the other. Take your pick, but you can’t have it both ways, we’re told. 

I believe it’s far too easy to get to the point where we blame God for our situation in life. I know that I’ve personally done that many, many times—too many to even count. 

I’ve felt like God “owed” me because I was seeking Him. That since I was a “good” Christian, I deserved to live a better lifestyle. 

After all, I can look around and see other people with bigger houses, newer cars, more exotic vacations. Some of these people are followers of Christ, and some of them aren’t. 

Since I am a believer in Christ, I should at least have as lavish a lifestyle as someone who couldn’t care less about God, right? Am I not entitled to be a little disgruntled if I struggle with finances and the guy who owns a strip club is raking in the dough?

That’s silly thinking I know. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s ever felt that way. It does make you wonder why God allows the so-called “evil” person to prosper, when those who are “faithful” are left to wonder how they’re going to pay their bills each month.

I guess that’s the whole point. To fall into that trap of wrongful thinking, my whole attitude toward money must be misguided. I’ve placed money above my relationship with God. 

Somewhere along the way I decided that if I didn’t have the kind of money I thought I should, then God isn’t holding up His end of the deal.

And that’s just completely wrong. Without a doubt, it’s wrong. Money has become more important than God if I’m allowing it to influence how I feel about Him.

I realize this truth, but it’s hard to break out of that pattern of thinking. In fact, I’ve been trying for years, decades even, to be free from this line of wrongful thinking. 

Sometimes I feel that I’m no closer to where I should be than I was 25 years ago. It makes me wonder if I’ll ever get to the point where my alignment with money and God is correct. 

If I could finally, at last, learn the lesson about money and finances that God has been trying to teach me for so long, then perhaps He would bless me with more money. 

But isn’t it wrong to even think in those terms? If I only want to learn the lesson for the ultimate outcome of gaining more money, isn’t that really just perpetuating a vicious cycle that I’ll never break out of?

I have to get to the point where I don’t care how much money I have, a lot or a little—it doesn’t matter. I must accept, and get down into the core of my very being, that God is all I need. That He is my all in all—my provider, my savior, my father. 

I must truly believe that it matters not whether I have a little or a lot, as long as I have God (through my faith in Christ), then I have all I need in this life.