From Slavery to Freedom

What is the first word that comes to your mind when you hear Fourth of July? The key word to the Fourth of July is freedom. This is a rich word found throughout the Bible. The reason it is so prominent in the Bible is because it deals with the key issue in the Bible, slavery which we will look at today.

First, let’s consider the definition of freedom. It means to have control of oneself and not under the control of others. The opposite of freedom is slavery. Many of us consider ourselves free because we think we have never been enslaved. The Bible informs us in Genesis that everyone was born in slavery to sin because of the disobedience of Adam. In seminary, in one of my first classes, the professor declared that when Adam sinned, we were there. Adam is our representative and once he sinned, slavery to sin passed down to every human being since that moment in the Garden of Eden.

The key issue of the Bible is how can mankind, enslaved in sin, become free. Our forefathers fought for freedom from England and gained partial freedom for us. But, full freedom is not earned but received. Let’s take a look at the biblical road from slavery to freedom. Each step deals with an aspect of freedom with all of them centered on Jesus.

The Steps to Freedom

A. Freedom from the bondage of sin - JUSTIFICATION

1. Mankind is enslaved to sin

a. John 8:34, Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

b. Romans 6:16, Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

2. The penalty of sin is death

a. Romans 6:21, But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

b. Romans 6:23a, For the wages of sin is death,

3. Only Jesus sets one free

a. George Beasley-Murray, Unlike slavery that is external, this is an inward condition from which one cannot flee, with its roots in a wrong relation to God. Such a slave needs a redeemer!

b. Jesus is the second Adam. He lived a sinless life which enabled Him to make payment for our sins, John 8:36, So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

B. Freedom to not sin

1. We have been changed from the inside out

a. Hebrews 10:16, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”

b. Matthew 11:29-30, Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

c. Warren Wiersbe (1929-), Freedom does not mean I am able to do whatever I want to do. That’s the worst kind of bondage. Freedom means I have been set free to become all that God wants me to be, to achieve all that God wants me to achieve, to enjoy all God wants me to enjoy.

d. Erwin Lutzer (1941-), Freedom comes by filling your mind with God’s thoughts.

2. We have the same tools Jesus had to live a holy life - SANCTIFICATION

a. Jesus was one person with two natures, divine and human (hypostatic union). Yet, while on earth, Jesus subordinated His deity to God the Father (kenosis). He confronted sin and trials with the tools we have, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit and prayer. Holiness is a choice which we must make daily - to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh.

b. 1 Peter 2:16, Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

c. Warren Wiersbe, The believer who spends time daily in the Word and prayer, and who yields to the Spirit’s working, is going to enjoy liberty and will help build up the church.

d. When we sin, 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.C. Freedom from works and alive to grace

C. Freedom from works and alive to grace

1. The treadmill of works

a. Romans 7:4, Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

b. John Stott, The Christian has been set free from the law in the sense that his acceptance before God depends entirely upon God’s grace in the death of Jesus Christ received by faith. To introduce the works of the law and make our acceptance depend on our obedience to rules and regulations was to bring a free man into bondage again.

2. The assurance of grace through faith in Christ alone

a. Max Anders, ... under grace we have progressed from being slaves to being sons and heirs. Grace is adulthood. Law is childhood. With the privileges of adulthood, why regress back to the law?

b. Charles Spurgeon, God grant us grace to keep to grace! God grant us faith enough to live by faith, even to the end, as the freeborn children of God, for His name’s sake!

D. Freedom to serve others

1. A Christian is called to be other-centered instead of self-centered

a. 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.

b. Galatians 6:2, Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

c. William Ralph Inge (1860-1954), Christianity promises to make men free, it never promises to make them independent.

2. Christians are called to freedom from works to grace, lived out in love for others

a. Romans 5:13b-14, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

b. John Stott, It is freedom not to indulge the flesh, but to control the flesh; freedom not to exploit our neighbour, but to serve our neighbour; freedom not to disregard the law, but to fulfil the law.

c. Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), The only lasting treasure is spiritual; the only perfect freedom is serving God.

E. Freedom from the world

1. We are children of God

a. Romans 8:16, The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

b. 1 John 3:1, See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

c. William Hendriksen, When an accused man is declared not guilty, he is free. Likewise when a slave has been emancipated, he is free. But the judge or the emancipator does not, as a rule, adopt the freed individual as his own son. But when the Son makes one free, he will be free indeed, rejoicing in the glorious freedom of sonship.

2. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God

a. John 18:36, Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.

b. Thomas Constable, We are in the world, but we are free to live apart from the evil that dominates it thanks to Christ’s work for us.

c. 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

F. Freedom for eternity - GLORIFICATION

1. Christians will be conformed to Jesus’ likeness, 1 John 3:2, Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

2. Christians are forever free, Romans 6:22, But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

3. Christians are blessed beyond our wildest imagination, 1 Corinthians 2:9b, What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him

Conclusion

• David Walls, The freedom of the New Testament is not political freedom but spiritual freedom.

• The Fourth of July is special but our freedom paid for by Jesus Christ is forever.