FREE INDEED!
John Piippo
***
Luke 4:18
“The Spirit
of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the
poor.
He has sent me to proclaim
freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
MISSION
ACCOMPLISHED!
Gal. 5:1 – For
freedom Christ set you free.
The
verb translated “has set us free” is in the aorist tense. In Greek this
refers to a single, past action that is now completed.
“Tetelestai!”
IT IS… ACCOMPLISHED!
So,
in the most definitive way, Paul tells us that Christians have been set free.
***
Scot
McKnight - The implications of this Christian freedom as Paul develops it are
vast and far-reaching, but essentially he sees freedom as a reality effected
(accomplished) in and through the
Christ-event,
·
which has broken the power of sin
·
·
covered the guilt and stain of sin
·
and erased the past;
·
·
… which has crushed all enslavement to
self, to religious convention, to the present powers of evil, and to cosmic
forces;
·
·
… and which has triumphed over every
force that dominates humankind, including human mortality itself.
·
FREE FROM
He teaches that
freedom in Christ is being set free from the power of sin and death (Rom. 6:7,
18, 22; 8:2).
Rom. 6:7 - anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Watchman Nee writes, “It
is a great thing to see that we are in Christ!
Think
of the craziness of trying to get into a room in which you already are! Think
of the absurdity of asking to be put in!
If
we recognize the fact that we are in, we make no effort to enter.”
***
NOTE: This is the Neil Anderson stuff.
It’s also the Steve
Backlund stuff.
ANDERSON – WHO I
AM IN CHRIST
I am God's child.
|
As a
disciple, I am a friend of Jesus Christ. I have been justified. I have been chosen by God and adopted as His child. I am free from condemnation. I am free from any condemnation brought against me and I
cannot be separated from the love of God. I may approach God with freedom and confidence. My chains are gone! I’ve been set free! Mission…
accomplished! Because the Son has set me free, I am free indeed. (John
8:36) The
Message - So if the Son sets you free, you are free
through and through. |
|
|
|
BACKLUND
Because the Son has set me free, I am free indeed. (John
8:36)
I am free from all spiritual bondage.
I am free of all worry and anxiety. The peace of God guards
my mind and heart. (Philippians 4:7)
I am not who my past says I am, but I am who God says I am.
I have been set free and released from all bondage through
what Jesus has done for me. (John 8:36, Galatians 5:1)
Every day I make the choice to walk in the freedom Jesus
paid for me.
Every generational curse was broken at the cross;
therefore, I am victorious and free from addiction.
Today is the day of my breakthrough — I am free!
Backlund, Steve; Rice, Tracy. Declare It: Includes
Declarations for 96 Different Life Situations (p. 129). Steve Backlund and
Tracy Rice. Kindle Edition.
***
“Would your problems
be over if you died?”
“Yes”.
“Congratulations,
because… you have died!”
Praise
God, you have died with Christ!
This
is what Galatians 2:20 means. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no
longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (NIV).
Yes, some of us used
to be alcoholics and addicts.
Others still believe
they are and still behave that way, but Scripture is clear that it is in the
past for every born-again child of God.
First Corinthians 6:11
says, Do not be
deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor
adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor
thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will
inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And
that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and by the Spirit of our God.
McKnight - “Being free” is the liberation of a person’s
spirit from everything that shackles it to sin and ugliness;
AND… “being free” is the liberation of a person’s
spirit to do what God wants, to be what God wants, and to enjoy the life God
gives us on this earth.
***
Freedom in Christ is FOR following and serving Christ.
Gal. 5:1 - It is for freedom that Christ has set us
free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again
by a yoke of slavery.
This shackle has been
broken, and it can only be described as personally liberating— liberating
the person to do what God wants.
Freedom has
its boundaries.
Gal. 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.
The great German pastor,
Helmut Thielicke, states this sharply when he says that “real freedom, on the
other hand—the freedom ’to become what one should’—must be defined as a
definite form of bondage or obligation, in a word, as what one should do. Real freedom
is a bondage and nothing else.”
***
Those who have been set
free have become slaves of Christ (1 Cor. 7:22; Eph. 6:6), God (Rom. 6:22), and
righteousness (v. 18).
***
Freedom is a reality effected (accomplished) in and through the Christ-event,
·
which has broken the power of sin
·
·
covered the guilt and stain of sin
·
and erased the past;
·
·
… which has crushed all enslavement to
self, to religious convention, to the present powers of evil, and to cosmic
forces;
·
·
… and which has triumphed over every
force that dominates humankind, including human mortality itself.
·
Paul teaches that
freedom in Christ is being set free from the power of sin and death (Rom. 6:7,
18, 22; 8:2).
Rom. 6:7 - anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
MISSION….
ACCOMPLISHED.
***
Those who have been set
free have become slaves of Christ (1 Cor. 7:22; Eph. 6:6), God (Rom. 6:22), and
righteousness (v. 18).
1 Cor. 7:22 - For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord
is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is
Christ’s slave.
***
In 2 Cor 3 we are told that the Israelites, because of their sin (remember the golden calf), could not see Moses’ face that was shining with the glory of God.
They had spiritual cataracts clouding their eyes.
There was a veil between them and the glorious presence of God.
2 Cor 3:14 - their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed,
2 Cor 3:16 says…
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom.
The freedom 2 Cor 13 talks
about is a freedom from the veil of hard-heartedness that is unable to enter
fully into the transforming presence of the Lord.
2 Cor. 3:18 - And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the
Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
You cannot consistently
live the unveiled life before the Lord and not be transformed.
Sin creates a veil that prevents people from seeing God's
glory and understanding what is true.
Gordon Fee - Vv. 17-18 – For those who have the Spirit the veil is now
removed: such unveiling therefore means “freedom.”
The
“freedom” that comes with the removal of the veil means that people now have
access to God’s presence so as to behold the “glory” which the veil has kept
them from seeing.
The
“glory” turns out now to be that of the Lord himself.
In
beholding this glory God’s people are thereby “transformed into the same
likeness, from glory to glory.”
“The
Spirit, who applies the work of Christ to the life of the believer, is the key
to the eschatological experience of God’s presence. With the veil removed from
the hardened heart, God’s people enter into freedom.”
Now... some book-selling, if you are interested. :)
Leading the Presence-Driven Church
Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God
Deconstructing Progressive Christianity
31 Letters to the Church on Praying
31 Letters to the Church on Discipleship
Encounters With the Holy Spirit (co-edited with Janice Trigg)
