Col 3:10-11 NLT
10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,[a] circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,[b] slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
In Christ we have been given…
i. New Identity.
ii. New Purpose.
iii.New Freedom.
The life of Freedom in Jesus is not absent of boundaries, guidelines and submission, but through these are found true freedom!
Galatians 5:1-6 ESV
It is For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified[a] by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Your old Master will always tell you that you are still bound, that you still have a debt to pay, and that you still have penalty for you sin.
As long as your past can continue to have you believe that you are still bound, it still has control over how you exercise your freedom.
Freedom always involves; freedom from something , freedom to experience new things and a freedom that effects those after us.
Freedom From Self Justification-
Self Justification = how you get right, and stay right. By what means, might sinners like us be fully accepted by God, and have right-standing with him?
- (1) based on the work of Christ alone
- (2) accessed and received through faith alone.
The human heart will always try to come up with substitutes for Justification.
Freedom from the Law.
Romans 12:1-2 ESV
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Human nature loves to pick and choose the sins that we deem as worse than others, and ones that we have come to accept.
Acts 15:19
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
Freedom from Earning Righteousness.
V4 “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”
We do not maintain our standing with God by our doing, but our efforts, our lives, our obedience are channels of God’s ongoing grace to us.
Freedom For:
“With great Freedom comes great responsibility”
Freedom for Enjoying God, in The Spirit.
The Holy Spirit changes us. He takes out the old natural heart of stone, and puts in a heart of flesh. He gives us new desires.
Freedom for, Faith being expressed in Love.
V6 In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Galatians 5:13
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another
True freedom moves us closer to people, not away from each other.
Expressions are not a substitute for the real thing.
1 Corinthians 9:19 ESV:
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
DISCUSSION QUSTIONS:
1- In Christ, we receive 1) New Nature 2) New Identity 3) New Freedom. Which one of these is the most difficult for you to walk in? Why?
2- How is freedom found through submission? How does this differ from the worlds way of freedom?
3- Read Romans 12:1-2. What does it mean to offer ourselves as living sacrifices?
4- What are some ways that Christians make it difficult for others to come to Jesus?
5- Describe a way that you have seen someone’s freedom in Christ bring freedom to someone else?
6- When we gather, how does our freedom serve others or Hinder others?