For any young person, turning sixteen is an historic, life-changing moment. Everything before sixteen is just a blur. It is as if life doesn’t even begin until age sixteen! I remember turning sixteen. I began the ritualistic dance every youth begins at that age. I pleaded with my parents to take me to the driver’s licensing facility.
Well, they were less than eager. In fact, they were mysteriously hesitant. Who could blame them? They put me off for weeks. That was sheer torture for a sixteen year old! Finally they took me to get my driver’s license. I aced the written test in minutes. Then I leaped behind the wheel and revved up the engine. I eagerly obeyed every instruction the driver’s license facility dude gave me. But it just wasn’t meant to be. My car kept stalling. I totally messed up my parallel parking procedure. I spent two or three minutes at a red light waiting to turn right at an empty intersection. I was shaky changing lanes in busy traffic.
Well, eventually I received a driver’s license. As I walked out of the driver's license facility, a sense of power swept over me. In the same moment a sense of impending doom swept over my parents! Later that night I remember taking our van out by myself for the very first time. As I pulled up to the stop sign at the end of our street I looked long and hard to the left. Then I looked long and hard to the right. It was a rush to think, "I can go left, I can go right, I could drive to California, Chicago, New York, or Florida! I have wheels. For the first time I am truly free!" Of course, I wouldn’t have gotten very far on a quarter tank of gas and no cash!
In the beginning, God created us to be free.
This fourth of July weekend we celebrate our freedom. Our ability to go to the left or right, to make choices for ourselves, to become who we want to become. At its core, the fourth of July is really a celebration of God’s design in creation. In the beginning, God created us to be free.
Among the first words spoken by God to Adam in Genesis 2:16 (NIV) were, "You are free…" He was essentially saying, "You are free to be fruitful and increase in number. You are free to fill the earth and subdue it. You are free to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature. You are free to roam north and south, east and west. You are free to work and take care of the garden. You are free to eat from almost any tree in the garden."
Adam and Eve were truly free in a way that you and I can only begin to imagine. They had unfettered access to God, to each other, and to all the resources of creation. They were completely fulfilled. They were free of sin, impurity, need, discomfort, and pain. And the best part of all was they had just one command to obey. They were free to eat from any tree in the garden, but were asked not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They weren’t weighed down by rules and regulations.
Contrast any day of your life with the freedom Adam and Eve experienced in creation. Sure, we celebrate our freedom. But are we as truly free as God designed us to be? The testimony of scripture is that apart from Christ, we are less than free. In fact, quite the opposite is true. We are enslaved. Let’s explore a few different ways that we are enslaved when we are apart from Christ.
We are enslaved to our appetites.
In Philippians 3:18-19 (NIV) Paul compassionately describes Christ-less people this way. "For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things."
It is sad, but true that Paul is describing the common struggle of a lot of Christians also. He is referencing our inability to exercise self-control over our appetites. Our inability to say "no" to ourselves, to close the refrigerator door, to put out that cigarette, to put down that drink, to forego that caffeine fix, to skip that daily dose of sugar or chocolate, to not splurge at Dairy Queen, to eat and enjoy food with moderation, to get up and exercise, to eat healthy food, etc. Our bodies continually bear testimony against us. They provide embarrassing feedback about our enslavement and lack of freedom in the important area of our appetites. As Philippians 4:19 points out, when our stomach becomes our god, destruction becomes our destiny and our glory literally becomes the shame of our bodies. What is your body telling you? What message does the mirror shout at you?
One example where so many make their stomach their god is with alcohol. Proverbs 23:29-35 (NIV) describes the destructive impact alcohol has on our freedom as it distorts reality, and continually seduces and memorizes and poisons our life. "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. 'They hit me', you will say, 'But I am not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?'"
When you are younger you define true freedom as getting drunk, as casting aside God’s limits and boundaries, as making your stomach god. When you are older you realize how foolish that logic is and how easily we can become mesmerized by our appetites and fall into addictive cycles. You realize that appetites lead to enslavement, shame, and destruction.
We are enslaved to our thoughts and desires.
In Ephesians 2:1-3 (NIV) Paul describes our condition before we met Christ. "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world, and of the ruler of the kingdom of air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of the sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were enticed by a simple, but deadly thought. They became convinced that a better life could be found by living apart from God. They believed they could better judge good and evil, that there was no need to trust in God for anything, and especially not for wisdom or truth. So they followed their desires and thoughts. They believed and embraced the lie. Soon their thoughts gave birth to sinful action. They foolishly violated the only boundary God had set for them. They became objects of God’s wrath, with the consequence that they were now subject to death and suffering.
James 1:14–15 (NIV) describes the process. "Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown gives birth to death." A lot of people believe that their thoughts are harmless, but they are not. Every thought becomes the seedbed from which action later springs.
Consider Romans 1:21-23. Paul explains how a simple thought can unleash a world of hurt and destruction and enslavement in our lives. Romans 1:21-23 (NIV) says, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."
Next Paul describes the results of the thought in Romans 1:24-32 (NIV). "Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator-- who is forever praised. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."
Our desires and thoughts are not neutral, nor are our appetites. They can free us or enslave us. They can draw us close to God or become our god.
We are enslaved to rules and regulations.
In Galatians 5:1-4 (NIV) Paul reminds the Galatians of their freedom in Christ. He writes, "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 a slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."
The Galatians were trying to make their own standard. They believed that because they had gone through the religious ceremony of circumcision they would be completely accepted by God, while others would not. So they flaunted their own works while greatly diminishing Christ’s work and grace. They became proud and trusted in themselves instead of Christ.
Do you think the very same thing doesn’t happen to us today? I believe in the importance of baptism, but sometimes we treat baptism like the Jews in Galatia treated circumcision. We use it as an artificial standard for judging our own spirituality as well as the spirituality of others. If a person has been baptized, they are okay because they have done their work for God. If they are un-immersed, watch out! So often we flaunt our baptism, or our confession, or our worship attendance, or our tithe, or our service in the church, or the fact we don’t drink liquor, chew tobacco, smoke cigarettes or gamble, or whatever. And in so doing, we diminish the work of Christ and our need for God’s grace. We try to justify ourselves, but in the end we only alienate ourselves from God.
As you know, many Christians become enslaved to the law. We become legalists. We obsess about do’s and don'ts and judging others and we never get around to trusting in Christ and receiving his grace and living the life. There are dozens of examples in scripture of things that enslave us. And it's not just our appetites or thoughts or religious rituals. Things like money, a lack of love, our past, or a mistaken concept of love can easily ensnare us and take the place of God.
We should be pursuing true freedom. Christ's freedom!
Which brings us back to the fourth of July and our cause of celebration. In John 8:31-32 (NIV) Jesus makes a simple promise of freedom to us. He says, "…If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
And in John 8:36 (NIV) he continues, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." What is so ironic is that we don’t typically associate freedom with God or Jesus. We look at the sayings and teachings of Jesus as burdensome and confining. Like Adam and Eve, we thumb our noses at God’s wisdom and think we know a better way to be free and live life to the fullest. We believe God is out to wreck our fun and that he spoils our lives with his rules and regulations.
In reality we are only fooling ourselves. Throughout scripture Jesus speaks his wisdom into the situations of our lives in order to free us from the ill effects of sin. Jesus has something to say about our marriages, our families, our work environments, our personal conflicts, our friendships and relationships, stress, anger, loneliness, depression, and forgiveness. He addresses literally every topic imaginable.
As we embrace the sayings of Christ and build our lives on the foundation of Christ’s word, we find the true freedom that God intended for Adam and Eve to enjoy in the garden when he first spoke those words, "You are free…" As author Andy Stanley writes, "Rebellion never brings freedom." Instead, obedience brings freedom. Submission to God’s authority brings freedom.
In the coming weeks I want to invite you to listen to and to obey the sayings of Christ. We will be exploring Christ's sayings on a number of different topics. Each week will be different, but the result will be the same. Freedom. True freedom.