Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers… When I woke up this morning, this topic was firmly rooted in my mind. I suspect it was because of the incredible discussion we had yesterday morning in my “Freedom in Christ” class at Grace Church. I found myself enthralled with that conversation throughout the rest of the day. This unique group of men has bonded into a very special community that is characterized by trust, freedom and love. This has allowed us to share from the very depths of our hearts without any fear of judgement or reprisal. Talk about freedom and being set free…Wow!
I wrote about freedom a couple of weeks ago in my 4th of July post, but as I’m preparing to write now, it seems like this may be a slightly different perspective on the same word. (I’m not quite sure at this moment if that statement is right or wrong, but by the end of this posting, you and I can make up our own minds as to whether there are different shades to the word “freedom”.)
So as the song goes, ”Let’s start from the very beginning, a very good place to start…” When God created Man, He created us for two reasons. First, He created us for a relationship with Himself, and secondly, He created us to be of service to our fellow man. Now because God is God, He knows a thing or two about relationships. Therefore, He knew that in order for a relationship to develop, both parties would have to choose to participate in that endeavor. But in order for us to make that all-important decision, He would have to give us something no other member of the animal species has, and that would be a brain for rational thinking.
Now He could have programed us to be perfect boys and girls, but then we would have been little robots. He didn’t want robots; He wanted friends who could choose to love Him back. We are told in 1 John, 4:19: “We love because He first loved us.”
The first chapter of Ephesians, besides talking about God’s plan for His proudest creation, also attests to His Omnipotence. Even before He created Man (us), God knew we were going to veer off the path He had planned for us. Yes, indeed! He knew in advance that we were going to follow our own path with the focus on self-aggrandizement, but He created us anyhow. What an example of unconditional love! Even though freedom in this case was a double-edged sword, God was still willing to take that chance in order to eventually get the relationship He desired.
So as we can clearly see, God’s perfect plan at Creation definitely looked into the future. Even though the freedom He gave us at first seemed to have backfired, He always had a plan for our redemption. We are told in Ephesians 1: 4-5,10, “Even before He created the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. At just the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.”
Again, love is at the center of God’s plan, and again freedom is the focal point. God finally implemented His plan for our redemption 2018 years ago with the coming of Jesus Christ to be our Sacrificial Lamb. God gave us from Creation to 2018 years ago to wrestle with the beast that enthralled and kept us separated from Him, and that beast’s name is SIN, which means living with the focus on self rather than on God. The truth is…SIN finally proved our inability to be pleasing to God through our own effort. That’s why we are told in Romans 3: 23, “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 5:6 describes perfectly our pathetic state: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” How’s that for an indictment.
Notice that God didn’t wait for us to clean-up our act so we could be worthy and acceptable in His eyes. No indeed! He knew that could never happen, so He implemented His own plan while we were still separated from Him…while we were still sinners. That, my Friends, is unconditional, unending, unfailing love! “Thank You, God”, for Your plan to do for us what You knew we could never do for ourselves. And “Thank you, Jesus”, for paying our sin-ransom through Your shed blood.
The relationship He wanted with us was not just a here-and-now relationship; He wanted an eternal relationship with us! Even more specifically, He promised all who would accept His Gift of Grace (Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for OUR sins) that we would spend eternity in Paradise with Him, Jesus, and all other Christians. That’s the prize at the end of this journey! In fact, I would suspect that’s probably the single biggest factor that has drawn each of us to Christianity.
God was very clear about the standard for getting through the proverbial “Pearly Gates.” He revealed in 1 Peter 1:16: “I am holy, therefore you must be holy.” (Holy means to be sin-free, to be set aside for a sacred purpose) In other words, if we are stained with sin (in this case, an accumulated list of offenses that has resulted from our disobedience to His will); we can’t come into His presence. “Why”, you ask? Because SIN spreads, contaminates, kills and destroys.
Remember, this world was Paradise at creation. But what you see today is the result of sin running rampant. That isn’t going to happen in the new, re-created world (the New Jerusalem), because as we are told in Revelation 22:27: “Nothing impure will ever enter it…only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Revelation 21-3-4,7 tells us, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Those who are victorious will inherit all of this, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.”
This is our ultimate freedom! It is not something we earned, and we certainly didn’t deserve it. This is a gift from our loving, merciful gracious God who loved us even before He created us. Even though He knew we were going to be problem children, He still went for the relationship, knowing that the only way that could happen would be if He paid the ultimate price to free us from the penalty of death. Romans 6:23 sums up this entire posting: “For the wages of sin is death, BUT the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That’s why I proposed at the outset, Love = Freedom. What do you think? Can there be one without the other?
Please feel free to respond to this posting, and please “like” and share it with other social media friends.
May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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