Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

John 8:36

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Galatians 5:1

ome Christians insist that they are still under bondage and must be “delivered.” John 8:36 above indicates that the one that has genuinely trusted Christ alone to be his Savior has been set free. Now the believer is free to live as God desires him to, rather than the way his flesh or the evil one would desire him to live. Sin no longer reigns in the mortal body (Romans 6:12) of a believer, but unfortunately it is still alive.

From the words of Paul in Galatians 5:1 quoted above, it does appear possible that believers who have been set free and who should be standing fast…in the liberty they have in Christ, can allow themselves to be entangled again in some type of bondage. So it seems possible that Christians who insist they are under bondage are somewhat accurate in that statement. But that bondage is of their own making—God in Christ has freed them—such bondage should not exist.! Maybe it is the sin which so easily ensnares (Hebrews 12:1). If that is the case, these people must realize that they have allowed the needs and desires of their natural being or flesh to rule, rather than standing fast in their liberty in Christ. Rather than presenting their members as instruments of righteousness to God they presented their members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin (Romans 6:13). Rather than basking in the pleasure and enjoyment of a life lived for God, exercising their liberty, these Christians make provision for the lusts of their flesh (Romans 13:14) in order to experience the brief and passing pleasures of sin (Hebrews 11:25). Then come the feelings of guilt and failure—and the fear that they are in bondage.

If the above summarizes your Christian life, let us warn you that it should not be so and let us assure you that it does not have to be so. In Christ you have not only been set free, but you have been given resources that will enable you to maintain that freedom—resources that men and women in previous dispensations did not have. For instance, in 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul writes:

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

That is an amazing verse, one that reveals the oneness of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, with each of their Persons granting liberty to the believer. God has put His Spirit within you (Ezekiel 36:27; 1 Corinthians 6:19) and it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). Romans chapter 7 records the Apostle Paul’s struggles with the law of sin which was in his members (Romans 7:23). It is in Romans 8:2 that Paul came to realize that victory in his struggles would only come through the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

But Paul realized that he had an individual responsibility to use the resources that he was given in Christ—that his life was not a “let go and let God” situation. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 he wrote:

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

In Galatians 4:9, Paul warned his readers that they should not turn again to the weak and beggarly elements that could result in them again to be in bondage. Regardless of whether those beggarly elements are some type of sin or perhaps a return to some elements of false religion or legalism as was the case in Galatia—such things should not be. Realize and appreciate the liberty and freedom that you have in Christ and live your lives in a way that demonstrates that indeed you have been freed from the bondage of sin (Romans 6:18).

(10/09/05)