Freedom?!

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

This verse is about our freedom in Christ. Freedom is an interesting topic. People have preached about it, sang about it, wept over it, lectured on it, given it, taken it, used it, abused it, prayed for it, lost it, found it, loved it, and died for it. So how should we as Believers view freedom? The Bible teaches that everyone is a slave to something:

…you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness…
- Romans 6:16b

This is the same passage that tells us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). But it also tells us that if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.” When we were slaves to sin, the result was hell and damnation. Now that we are slaves to God, the result is sanctification and eternal life (Romans 6:22). So what does this mean for us? We should recognize that we, as humans, cannot be left to our own devices to do whatever we think right (Proverbs 21:2). We must entrust ourselves to God our Maker who knows what is best for us.

For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
- Romans 6:19b

When we do this, we understand that slavery to God is freedom. Freedom is not the ability to choose between good and evil. True freedom is to be set free from slavery to sin and set free to do what is pleasing in the sight of God.

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

Know this and live.