Freedom in Christ

Freedom in Christ

I greet you all in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. After three months it is indeed a joy for me to stand with the Word of God and preach here, and I have to thank the concerned people for this opportunity.

Introduction:

A topic of interest that I have been really looking into is on the idea of freedom, and how do we define freedom. Especially being a Christian what does freedom in Christ mean? And this is my topic for today to highlight from , talking about what does it mean for a believer to be person with freedom in Christ? Let me make it even simple what does it mean for you and me when we say we live in freedom in Christ?

When we call ourselves the Brethren people, we need to say it with joy because ‘brethren’ means being separated and it should mean a lot for every Christian, the very root word even when mentioned in the scriptures means to be called out or separated. So striving to live a life pleasing God, with freedom. This is what I would like point out from this epistle of , learning to live with freedom in Christ, for most of us this is a familiar topic but it is important to revisit our basics to remind ourselves who we are in Christ and how we need to improve our Christian lives.

Faith in Christ brings true freedom from sin and from the futile attempt to be right with God by keeping the law as under the law we had rules on how to be right with God and being under the bondage of sin as says it was death for all our sins by the power of law but under the grace of God we are free in Christ, and freedom is a privilege. Now we are not free to disobey Christ or practice immorality, but we are free to serve the risen Christ. Let us use our freedom to love and to serve, not to do sin. (Example of Dr. Kingsley)

Christian freedom is one of the main themes of the letter. Paul encourages the Galatia believers not to lose their newfound freedom in Christ by surrendering to those who were caught up in rules and traditions. He was concerned that the Galatians would start depending on these traditions for their salvation instead of wholeheartedly depending on Jesus and eventually they would fail to acknowledge who God is and who is their Saviour. My dear brothers and sisters this is what I would like to point out to all of from this message today because of the weakness in our flesh we have the tendency to be stagnant in our faith and how we could undermine the freedom that God has given us through Jesus Christ.

Freedom as Paul defines it and 22

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.

22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life

Before our salvation we were always under the bondage of sin, and we were susceptible to the lies and crookedness of the devil, but the great sacrifice on the Cross freed us from the dominion of sin. I would like to quote a theologian who has defined Freedom like this, it is the ability to fulfil one’s destiny, to function in terms of one’s ultimate goal. What it means to us is that the death of Christ freed us to become the people that our Creator designed us to be for those believe in Jesus. God wants us to be His ambassadors of His truth, and we need to embrace this great privilege that God has given us through Jesus, this is why Paul could say as he enjoyed in the freedom – in – 20 - My old self has been crucified with Christ.* It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

As we look at the topic of freedom in Christ – we will be looking only on one of the aspects of the freedom in Christ and that is the love of the Father. As the topic of freedom in Christ which Paul addresses to the Galatian church is huge just 40 mins is not sufficient to study on this topic. In the next few minutes we look at understanding the Love of the Father in the given freedom in Christ, for us believers and what are some of the wrong assumptions of the Love of God the Father believers assume to have, as I said earlier we all know subjects from the Bible, we hear but the problem is we tend to give less importance to these matters for study as time goes and sin slowly enters our spiritual lives.

Major Point: 1 - Love of the Father

The objective of this major point is to understand how the love of God contributes to our Freedom and this will change the way we relate to Him.

§ My dear brothers and sister, our revelation of God affects our relationship with God. Our relationship with God also affects our relationship with others. Our understanding of God's love for us affects how we love God, how we love our own selves and how we love others.

§ The Bible clearly states in we love God because He first loved us. So we need to experience the Love of God in order to enjoy the freedom in Christ – it doesn’t say study the Bible and see that the Lord is good but O taste and see that the Lord is good. We all have the theological understanding but we fail to experience this truth. So when we study about the Love of God we need to first understand that:

Ø God is Relational

· Our Lord Jesus Christ in the prayer in mentions – Our Father in Heaven – this sparks a relationship between our God and His people, Jesus teaches that we need to approach God as a child reaching out to his father. Jesus teaches us how need to observe here the Love of God.

· From – we see how the glory of God is revealed through Jesus Christ the Son of God, for all people in Jesus. It was impossible for man to approach the throne of God by his/ her merits, but God revealed His glory through Jesus the Son of God.

· And in that glory revealed there is the love of God manifested to us and this is what we remember at worship even today morning

· So God is relational – God loves us and He can be loved – so when we say Father I love you, He receives it, He experiences it, He is relational.

· Extending or connecting this thought between you and me, means that we are created in the image of God, and we are also created to be loved and be loved. So we enjoy the emotion or feeling of love between a parents and their children; between a husband and wife because God is love.

Ø God has made us the focus of His unlimited and unconditional love.

· Abbey quoted a statement earlier in one of his youth sermons that Love is not an emotion but an option. God desires and wanted to love us. I would like to draw your attention to

(the message)

4 Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.

5 Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)

· Our God desires to have a relationship and an intimate fellowship, the very purpose of this relationship He designed it before the foundations of the world was made.

· Extending this thought in connection with our lives, I would like to place a question for food how are we responding to the unconditional love of God as a son or a daughter.

(some of you may find this not exciting, as our ears have become dull with the love of God – but we need to introspect ourselves with this question on of our response to the Love of God)

Major Point: 2 - Wrong Assumptions of the Love of God

I would like to conclude by addressing on three wrong assumptions that always hinders us from understanding the Love of God – and this affects our freedom, as I said earlier, our revelation of God affects our relationship with God. Our relationship with God also affects our relationship with others. Our understanding of God's love for us affects how we love God, how we love our own selves and how we love others.

I feel this is important to be addressed because these are some thought patters that keeps us from understanding God’s love. These are mindsets that we carry inside use and these hinder the way we relate to God and these become an obstacle for our freedom in Christ.

a) The mindset of the prodigal

People always under this mindset, see themselves as unworthy, unfit and not good to be loved by God. They don’t fully comprehend the love of God and when they relate to God it is difficult for them to understand that God is loving and forgiving Father.

They always dwell with the thought of the prodigal son, in – I am unworthy…..

Repentance and confession is essential when we have done wrong, but dear brethren this is not the mindset God expects us to remain and come in front of Him. We see the gospel writer Luke, mentions how the Father celebrates the return of his son, having a feast. We need to accept of our approval in front of God as His children, so when you are forgiven, God expects us to accept that God has forgiven and get rid over the prodigal attitude.

b) The mindset of the slave

People have the wrong mindset about God’s love as the slave, and these people consider they need to earn things. I only get what I worked for, and this is not the message of God’s love, God’s love is not a barter system. A person with the slave mindset finds it difficult to understand the relationship between God and His children.

– For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." God’s love doesn’t ask us to be His slaves, to be afraid but He wants to call Him Abba Father. God’s love ask us to respect Him as a Father.

c) The mindset of the Self Critical

· People underestimate about themselves when they come about the topic of the Love of God. They are very critical of themselves and of others. "I am not good, never good enough for myself, for others, for God.." is how they think.

· They therefore push themselves to perform, compete to find acceptance, recognition, etc. Sometimes this is motivated by fear, and people even end up controlling, manipulating others in order to get ahead. The problem here is believers fails to see the power of the grace and mercy of God

:

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

· The people with this mindset may consequently have bitter roots of judgments (being critical) of themselves and others. So when they relate to God it is very difficult for them to comprehend God as Some One who is abundant in grace because of His great love. They find it difficult to understand that God loves us as we are and give us what we do not deserve out of love. We need to always remember Grace Makes up for what we don’t deserve, and mercy covers up our weakness.

Thank you for all your time and patience – 1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. Paul opens our understanding about the freedom in Christ and we need to portray the joy of our freedom by displaying it in our lives for the world to see – we need to declare the Love of God through our lives to show how we embrace the freedom.