Spring 2000
The Meaning of Freedom
Author not known

"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made us free from the law of sin
and death" Rom 8:2.

Some say, "Because we are saved, we are free from the law; therefore, we can do whatever we please.”

Initial salvation does not remove the sin nature, but does away with past sins. The Lord does forgive us and we will continue to be forgiven when we approach Him with a repentant heart and desire to change. Thus, it is true that the Lord continues to forgive our transgressions, but we are not given a license to sin and live carnal lives, after receiving salvation.

The Word says, "The LAW of the Spirit of life." One may ask, "How then are we free?" The answer is clearly revealed; we are free to be led by the Spirit, but we are NOT free to be led by our soul or carnal mind. Many of the actions and activities of the Lord's people are led by their own thinking, or the leading of their soul.

As Christians, we are subject to the commands of God and our liberty comes as we are led by the Spirit. Each one of us will agree that the Holy Spirit would never lead a Christian to participate in any of the things listed in Gal 5:19-22 and II Cor 12:20-21.

We may wonder why we see these very things manifest in the Body of Christ. First, we must understand that we undergo three levels of salvation when we turn to Jesus. In our initial salvation experience, our spirit is saved unto God, which gains our entrance into heaven. Our soul is in the process of being saved by the many workings and dealings in our lives, and that soul is being transformed into the image of Christ. The last working of salvation is the full redemption of the body.

James 1:21 tells us, "Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." James is placing two prerequisites for the soul's salvation; meekness and receiving the engrafted word. Many Christians never grow beyond the baby stage in their spiritual growth and remain undisciplined and immature.

Some Christians feed upon the Word, but do not seek the Holy Spirit's quickening guidance to engraft this Word into their very being. The problems deep within them are not cleansed and may manifest into serious sin. God forbid that this would happen, but it does. We then look on these people and cry out, "They were never saved." We must be careful of such evaluation, for God sees and knows each individual heart.

We must realize that we begin to enter into the Kingdom of God in this life only when we make Jesus Christ truly Lord over our lives. Thus, we can loose our placement in the Kingdom, and our place at the banqueting table.

We are only free of God's laws to be led by His Spirit. And as we are led, we are enveloped into the fruits of His Spirit. The bondage of law is then gone for the Holy Spirit only leads us into His character of righteousness.

Our liberty in Christ Jesus is progressive. As we are increasingly led by the Spirit of God, and as we place our soul in subjection to the Holy Spirit's every move, our own spirit will rise into a new place of freedom and communion with our Lord, beyond what we have ever known.

Let us press on into Him.