For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free by Maxie Dunnam

When I was the pastor of a congregation, preparing sermons every Sunday, I paid close attention to culture and timing… what was going on in the world, and particularly in my city and community. The Gospel is relevant not only to a religious calendar… Christmas, Lent, Easter but also, the civic one… civic holidays.

That awareness and practice came strongly to mind as I checked my writing schedule… and there it was… July ”the Fourth”? It is probably the most popular civic holiday in the US. Dare I miss the opportunity to address it in my sharing. It’s all about freedom and freedom is a core principle in Christian living.

The Apostle Paul made that clear in his directions to the early Christian communities. In his Letter to the Galatians he 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 NIV) 

I could write pages about it, but feel led to simply register some fundamental convictions. The first is: Freedom requires discipline.

Actually, the freedom Christ gives us, is a freedom to be responsible. The Apostle Paul made that clear: “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom opportunity for the flesh, but through love, be servants of one another.” (Gal. 5:13) He knew that if freedom was interpreted merely as the removal of restraint, sin would seize the opportunity, and use the weakness of human nature to launch attack against the spirit.

The freedom of Christ is a freedom to be responsible. Then this fundamental truth: Christian freedom requires love. 

Paul says that the criterion to guide our Christian freedom is love. “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”’ Interestingly, this is the love that was defined in the law by God to Moses in Leviticus 19:18; and reiterated by Jesus in Mark 12: 29—31. Paul simply restates it. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is what Jesus meant when he said we would save our lives by losing them. If we give our life in love to others, we will find it. But as Paul warned us, “If you keep on biting and devouring each other…you will be destroyed by each other.” (Gal 5:15) Christian freedom requires love. 

If we give our life in love to others, we will find it. 

The clanking chains of slavery, loosed by Christ as we are forgiven and accepted, announce we are then free from the sins that burden us down – free from meaninglessness, guilt, and the threat of death. In Christ’s redeeming love, we are set loose to become the unique sons and daughters God created us to be. 

When we realize that our freedom requires discipline and is practiced in loving through love in action, then that freedom will set the stage and provide the power for us to be all that God intends us to be, and live as he calls us to live.