Skip to main content

True Freedom and Deep Joy, by Pastor Charlie Handren

By Anonymous

True Freedom and Deep Joy
By Pastor Charlie Handren

It is said that America is a free country, and when freedom is defined in a certain way this is true. However, many Americans are anything but free. They are enslaved by pornography, by legal and illegal substances, by greed, by debt, by envy, by jealousy, by anger, by deceit, by unhealthy relationships, by hidden sin, and so on. Many of us appear to be free, but in truth we are slaves in disguise.
The Bible tells us why people can seem to be free but are not – it’s because they are living under the letter of the law of God, and the letter kills (2 Corinthians 3:6). Their knowledge of the law comes either from the Bible itself, or from their conscience which is the law of God written on the heart. People who’ve never even seen a Bible know that they should not kill, lie, commit adultery, and many other things. This is because God created us to know right from wrong, and we all do.
When we knowingly or unknowingly use our freedom to choose against God’s law, we do violence to our freedom. By exercising our will against God’s will, we enslave our will because sin comes at a great price. In fact, for sin, God demands our life. As the Lord told Adam and Eve, on the day they rebelled against him they would surely die. They did rebel, and spiritually they did die. They lost their freedom and were now slaves of sin, and eventually their physical bodies past from the earth as a sign of what was true of their spirits.
This dynamic of sin and death occurs for everyone who violates the law of God on the page or in the heart. In this way, “the letter kills.” It’s not that God’s law itself is evil, quite the opposite, it is holy and true and good. In fact, it came with great glory (2 Corinthians 3:7). It’s our sin that veils us from seeing the glory that’s plainly in the law of God. It’s our sin that hardens our hearts toward God and his will, wisdom, and ways. It’s our sin that kills because we cannot honor the glorious letter of God’s gracious law.
“But when one turns to the Lord [Jesus], the veil is removed” (2 Corinthians 3:16). Why? Because Jesus paid the price for our sin by dying on the cross. He took our punishment for us that we might be reconciled to God, and being in a right relationship with God is true freedom. This is why the Bible says that “where the Spirit of the Lord [Jesus] is there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Freedom from sin, freedom from the penalty of sin, freedom to be in a right relationship with God, freedom to choose what’s right.
And once we find true freedom in Jesus, this lifelong privilege becomes ours: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Jesus has bought our freedom to see his glory and our freedom to be changed into his image. So why not turn to him, forsake your slavery, and enter deep into true freedom and deep joy today?



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflective Glory: How the Moon Displays the Mercy of God

By
Our sun is a fitting metaphor for the glory of God. In the context of our solar system, it is massive, bright, beautiful, powerful, self-sufficient, heat-producing, life-giving, and dangerous. It is, by far, the dominant feature of our solar system and without it the system would fling apart and all living things therein would die.  On the other hand, our moon is a fitting metaphor for human beings, especially for those who believe in Jesus Christ. First, compared to the sun, the moon is tiny and dim. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, its mass is 27 million times greater than the mass of the moon, and from our perspective its light shines 450,000 times brighter than that of the moon. The sun is so much greater than the moon that it’s difficult to quantify and express the difference. Likewise, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is so much great than each and all of us that it’s impossible to quantify or express the difference. Indeed, the Lord is very great and greatly...
Post a Comment
Read more

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

By Anonymous
To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rejoicing in the Wrath of God: Part 1 by Pastor Charlie Handren

By Anonymous
This Sunday we resume our study of the book of Revelation and within the first eight verses of chapter 6 we will encounter the wrath of God being poured out upon the world. In one sense, being confronted with the reality of God’s wrath is uncomfortable at best, but in another sense, it fills the believing heart with joy.  One of the first essays I wrote in college was on the wrath and love of God, and probably the main effect it has had on my life is to cause joy to rise up in my heart whenever I contemplate God’s wrath. Sometime ago I shared this with a pastor friend of mine and though he said nothing in response, he looked at me as if to say, “If you knew anything about the wrath of God, you would not rejoice in it.” At the time, I wasn't sure how to respond, but I knew that the joy in my heart was not stemming from a belittling of the horror of the wrath of God. Then several years ago, as I was reading through Revelation, I came across a couple of passages in chapters 15 and 16 ...
Post a Comment
Read more