18 Mar 2023

Jesus went into the synagogue in Nazareth, unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and read Isaiah 61:1-2:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”(Luke 4: 18-19).

“…Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus claimed to be the one prophesied by Isaiah – the prophet had prophesied that the Messiah would come to liberate the world and give true and authentic freedom. Later in His public ministry He added the promise “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

In our study of Galatians, the Apostle Paul wrote, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal.5:1).

What is clear from all these above verses is: To be saved by Jesus Christ is to be set free.
It is helpful to consider what we are freed from; also what we are freed for – then we can appreciate what authentic Christian freedom encompasses.

Freedom from:

Guilt is the first bondage we need to be freed from. The Bible tells us that we have asserted ourselves against the love and authority of God; we have failed to meet our obligations as human beings – we are guilty sinners. Freedom from our guilt begins with forgiveness – in His love for sinners like us,God entered our world in the person of His Son. Having lived a life of perfect righteousness, Jesus identified Himself in His death with our unrighteousness – He bore our sin, our guilt, our death in our place, in order that we might be forgiven.
No one is free who is unforgiven. One of the best known secular humanists, Marghanita Laski, said: ‘What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.’ Freedom begins with forgiveness.

Secondly, Jesus Christ offers us freedom from self – we may find this surprising. He was recorded to have said: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31)
The Jewish listeners were angry when they heard this, for they claimed they have never been slaves to anyone. Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”

The Bible discloses that ‘sin’ is primarily self-centeredness. God’s two great commandments are first that we love Him with all our being and secondly that we love our neighbour as we love ourselves. But sin is the reversal of this order. It is to put ourselves first, proclaiming our own autonomy, our neighbour next when it suits our convenience, and God somewhere in the background.

And our self-centeredness is a terrible tyranny – to be engrossed in our own selfish concerns and ambitions, without regard either for the glory of God or for the good of others, is to be confined in the most dark dungeon (prison). And this takes place in the lives of many, even in religious circles, manifested by the pursuit of self-glory, immersed in self-absorption, self-gratification, self-indulgence and self-assertion and self-applause. Who can free us from this terrible bondage that actually ‘destroys’ us and distorts what we are meant to be?

Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead and is alive, can liberate us – it is possible for believers to know ‘the power of His resurrection’. The living Jesus can enter our personality by His Spirit and turn us inside out, transforming us. Of course we cannot claim to be perfect, but by the power of the indwelling Spirit we have at least begun to experience a transformation from self to unself, and increasingly become the humans created in the ‘image of God’.

Thirdly, and perhaps this is probably the most problematic bondage, Jesus Christ offers us freedom from fear. In the ancient world, man feared many things, including the powers of ‘spirits’, and was held in bondage by numerous superstitions and practices.
Our lives today are also overshadowed by fear, There are numerous common fears which plagued human beings – the fear of sickness, bereavement, old age and death, together with the fear of the unknown, the occult, nuclear war and extinction. Even educated people entertain superstitious fears of all sorts. All fear brings about a measure of paralysis. Nobody who is afraid is free. In the light of the victory and supremacy of Christ, we can bring our fears out into the light and look at them, and experience their powers to terrify broken.

For Jesus who died and rose has also been exalted to His Father’s right hand (the Ascension), and everything has been ‘put under His feet’ (Eph. 1:22). So where are the things of which we were previously afraid? They are under the feet of the triumphant Christ. It is when we see them there that their power to terrify is broken.

Freedom for:
We must not look at freedom in entirely negative terms; every negative has its positive counterpart. True and authentic freedom is not just being rescued from some tyranny, but also experiencing the liberty to live a full and meaningful life.
Hear what the Lord Jesus said: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (referring to the devil and his minions); I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). This has always been why Jesus came.

What are we set free for?

True freedom is freedom to be our true selves, as God made us and meant us to be. God’s freedom is perfect in the sense that He is free to do absolutely anything which He wills to do. God’s freedom is freedom to be always entirely Himself; He is constant, steadfast, unchanging. However, God will not contradict Himself; ‘He cannot deny Himself ‘ (2 Timothy 2:13). What is true of God is also true of all created things and beings. Absolute freedom, freedom unlimited, is an illusion – if it is impossible for God (cannot because He will not), it is most certainly impossible for God’s creation. God’s freedom is freedom to be Himself; our freedom is freedom to be ourselves. However, the freedom of every creature is limited by the nature which God has given it. For instance, fish is created to live and thrive in water but if it chooses to leap out of water onto dry land to pursue its freedom, it would die.
If fish were made for water, human beings are made for love and the relationship of love. We have need of love as a fish has need of water, as a bird has need of air. It is in love that we find and fulfil ourselves. Why so? Because God is love in His essential being and He made us in His own image – He gives us a capacity to love as He loves.

However, true love places constraints on the lover, for love is essentially self-giving. Now comes the paradox: true freedom is freedom to be my true self, as God made me and meant me to be. And God made me for loving., But loving is giving, self-giving. Therefore, in order to be myself, I have to deny myself and give myself. In order to be free, I have to serve. In order to live, I have to die to my own self-centeredness. In order to find myself, I have to lose myself in loving.
True freedom is the exact opposite of what many people think. It is not freedom from all responsibility to God and others, in order to live for myself. That is bondage to my own self-centeredness. Instead, true freedom is freedom from my silly little self, in order to live responsibly in love for God and others. If you ponder over this, you will see the ‘principles’ of the cross in operation: weakness leads to strength; dying leads to life; suffering leads to glory – and this is supremely manifested and achieved by the perfect man (God-man, Jesus) who loves us so much that He came to serve as a man, to die as a ‘criminal’ and to suffer so intensely (being mocked, stripped, crucified apparently powerless and weak without ability to come down from the cross and to save Himself so that we may be saved).
The Lord Jesus said: “Whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35)
Paraphasing: ‘If you insist to holding on to yourself, and on living for yourself, and refuse to let yourself go, you will lose yourself. But if you are willing to give yourself away in love, then, at the moment of complete abandon, when you imagine that everything is lost, the miracle takes place and you find yourself and your freedom.’

It is only sacrificial service, the giving of the self in love to God and others, which is perfect freedom. Jesus was and is the supreme example, and He shows this new and refreshing paradigm to all those who believe and would follow Him. Consider this: this is the goal of salvation and the crux of discipleship; “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up the cross, and follow Me”. He will find true and authentic freedom in Christ, and abundant everlasting life.

As we observe ‘Good Friday’, ‘Easter’, remember that Christ came to die for us and to save us, giving us true and authentic freedom to be what God intends for us to be; He died, rose and ascended to the right hand of the Father, ruling, with everything under His feet – we can experience the resurrection power to overcome, and and united with the triumphant Christ, we can be fearless and victorious in HIm in all circumstances of life until we see Him face to face.