In Christ We Are: Free

Part 7-

Free to Abide with God:
1 Corinthians 7:21-24 "Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in The LORD, being a servant, is The LORD'S freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God."

 Wherever we are living when we turn our backs on sin and become God's servant, we are free from the cunning voice of sin that had kept us bound for so long. The voice of sin tells us to disobey our parents, steal from the company, cheat in relationships, kill one another; hate and/or fear each other. The voice of sin lies to us. It tells us the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. It tell us that more of anything will make us happy, so we go into debt and cannot dig our way out of the hole we have dug ourselves into. The voice of sin is loud.The voice of sin seeks our destruction, our annihilation, whether at our own hand or another's.
But the voice of obedience to God calls us to love one another, to love God above all, and to love each other the way God loves us. Unconditionally, without strings attached. The voice of God is soft and whispers to us. He is not pushy, but waits for us to open the doors of our hearts to let Him in (Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man (or woman or boy or girl) hear My Voice,and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.")


Free Through The Son:
John 8:32-36 "Jesus answered them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but The Son abideth ever. If The Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

Living in sin is serving sin, whether that sin is speaking sin, doing sin. A servant of sin cannot serve God. But once the servant of sin believes on The LORD Jesus Christ, that person no longer is a servant of sin; no longer wants to be a sinful person. We can determine in our hearts that we will not sin, but without the power of The Holy Spirit on us, we cannot overcome sin's temptations.

Having lived in sin for so long, the things we did when  we were children of disobedience, call out to us to come and play, come and drink, come back to the darkness of sin's dwelling-place. And many times we will return to what we were doing before we believed. But having the knowledge of saving grace now in us, we know where we need to be and it isn't in the taverns, it isn't in the crack house or on the street corners, and it isn't anywhere God is not. We turn our backs on the sin that calls us to turn our backs on God and say, 'No, I want more of Jesus. I want to be free from a life of sin; I want to be holy so God will be please. Because that's what I want now: I want to please God; I want to do what makes God happy. I want to be the apple of God's eye.'

Free From Sin:
Romans 6:18;22 "Being then, made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity (one act of sin after another); even so now yield your members (our eyes our hands, our feet) servants to righteousness unto holiness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

1 Peter 2:16 "As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God."

The infirmity of the flesh is to give into the voice of temptation and return to what we were doing before we believed. We need God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and upon us, to guide us in the way in which we should be going; and that way is forward, not backward.
Not everyone will hear the same voice of temptation. Some hear the voice of gambling. Some hear the voice of sexual misconduct. Some hear the voice of inebriation. Some hear the voice of greed, of pride, of gluttony. But when we hear the voice of God calling us to Himself, we yearn to be there with Him, and so we turn our backs to sin, and give our ears to God, that we might hear Him clearly, surrendering our bodies to His service and not to sin.

Free By Faith in Christ:
Galatians 3:22; 27-29  "But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." ---For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise."

Galatians 5:1 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

Standing Fast in liberty through Christ is to remain steadfast in The Word on which we have believed by believing in Jesus Christ for our salvation. We need to read our Bibles everyday. And we need to pray to God that He will send His Holy Spirit to reveal what His Word is speaking to our hearts. Just believing the surface of The Word is like wading our feet on the shallow parts of the beach, where the waves lap our toes. We need to go deeper into The Word of God, closer and closer to His heart.  We are free in the liberty of our faith to cling fast and hold onto with everything within us to The Word of God and never let go.