A Ramble About Freedom in Christ

This is probably going to be a short Ramble. I'm sitting in a lazy-boy with my laptop and my back is absolutely killing me.

There is a lot of talk about having freedom in Christ among the various Churches and in various sermons. But, as I was thinking about it this morning during prayer, I don't think it means what a lot of people take it as.

First, Freedom in Christ has nothing whatsoever to do with doing whatever you want and getting away with it. often, the message comes across as freedom in Christ being equated with freedom from law, from discipline, from consequences, etc. But nowhere does it ever teach this concept in the New Testament, in fact it teaches quite the contrary as St. Paul writes in Romans 6, "Should we continue to sin that grace may abound? Absolutely not, how can we who died to sin live any longer in it?"

Freedom in Christ is about freedom from self, freedom from the slavery to possessions, the slavery to one's passions and carnal inclinations, it's about the world being crucified to you, and you to the world. The person who is still enslaved to his porn habit, the person who can't stop smoking because his body demands it, the person who feels like he always has to have more and more, the person who loves to get up on stage and hear people clap for him--these people haven't found freedom in Christ, they are still slaves to their own disorder and will be so until they embrace the death of the cross.

Freedom comes at a price. This is the lesson of American history. That price is almost always paid in blood, as well as sweat and tears. Freedom in Christ is no different. He paid it in blood so that we don't have to be enslaved to ourselves but that we might live for Him who died for us. In order to truly realize that freedom in Him we have to do the hard work of abandoning ourselves, letting go of all those things which enslave us, and embracing His death as our own. Then, and only then, will we truly experience that freedom.