Jul. 03, 2022

Notes: Word or PDF

Freedom in Christ

Opening Text

John 8:36 (ESV) ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Freedom Defined

freedom - ˈfrēdəm noun - the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.
synonyms:        liberty, liberation, release, deliverance, delivery, discharge; 

God wants us free.

Galatians 5:13  For you have been called to live in freedom—not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.  [NLT]

Where to Find Freedom

Freedom is Found in Christ

Romans 6:11-14 (NIV) 
Ro 6:11 (NIV)  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Ro 6:12 (NIV)  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
Ro 6:13 (NIV)  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Ro 6:14 (NIV)  For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Romans 6:18-19 (NIV) ¹⁸  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. ¹⁹  I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 

John 8:34-36 (AMP) 
Jn 8:34 (AMP)  Jesus answered them, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Whoever commits and practices sin is the slave of sin.
Jn 8:35 (AMP)  Now a slave does not remain in a household permanently (forever); the son [of the house] does remain forever.
Jn 8:36 (AMP)  So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free. 

Galatians 5:1 (ESV) ¹  For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 

Freedom is Found in the word.

Psalm 119:45  And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.  [NKJV]

Psalm 119:11 (KJV)  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. 

John 8:30-32 (KJV)  As he spake these words, many believed on him. 31Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 

John 15:3 (KJV)  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

James 1:21 (NLT2)  So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. 

Freedom is Found in the Spirit.

Galatians 4:4-7 (ESV) 
Gal 4:4 (ESV)  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
Gal 4:5 (ESV)  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Gal 4:6 (ESV)  And because you are sons, GOD HAS SENT THE SPIRIT OF HIS SON INTO OUR HEARTS, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Gal 4:7 (ESV)  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

2 Cor. 3:17  Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  [NKJV]

Romans 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.  [KJV]

Romans 8:2  For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death.  [NLT]

Romans 8:8-9  So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.  [NKJV]

• It is impossible for those in the flesh to please God.
• No one who has the Spirit of Christ is in the flesh.
• Everyone who belongs to Christ has the Spirit of Christ.
• Everyone who has the Spirit of Christ can please God. So walk in the Spirit and please God.

Romans 8:13 (NIV) ¹³  For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,  

Galatians 5:16 (NIV) ¹⁶  So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Galatians 5:19-22 (NIV) ¹⁹  The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

If we are free, why do believers live in bondage?

This is because, though we have been born again and the inner man has been changed, when we accepted Christ we can still had a mind that had been train by the sinful nature during our years in sin. 

Believers can live in bondage for a season, because believers can be carnal.

1 Cor. 3:1-4 (KJV) And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Carnal minded people will not experience the freedom which Christ intended for the believer.

Romans 8:7 (KJV)  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 

But believers can learn to experience this freedom as we renew our minds with the word of God. 

Romans 12:1-2 (KJV)  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

Ephes. 4:22-24 (NRSV)  You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.