July, 2008

Dear Friend in Christ:
“For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”
Galatians 5:5

July is the month that we celebrate Independence Day, our freedom as a nation!  I’d like to take some time here to look at bondage and freedom…and to recognize where true freedom comes from. 

The apostle Paul was exhorting the believers in Galatia to stand fast in the liberty by which Christ made them free.  He wanted them to understand that they were no longer under the bondage of the Jewish law, but that they had been set free through the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Paul did not want the believers, who had been set free by the Gospel, to once again be brought into the bondage of the law, but to persevere and abide in their freedom in Christ.  For us today, we may find ourselves falling back into bondage when we allow false teachers to establish their rules and regulations for us to follow and to obey…thinking somehow that this would demonstrate that we are a notch above other people.  Rather than the way of grace, we go the way of the law, and rather than the resulting freedom, we find ourselves in slavery. 

Part of accepting the grace that we have in Christ, is knowing who we are in Jesus.  We need to understand the following blessings:

  1. We are seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus  (Eph 2:6)
  2. We have been saved by the grace of God (Eph 2:5, 8)
  3. We need to understand our position in Jesus Christ  (Eph 3:6)

It is vitally important that we study God’s Word, and as we study through the New Testament especially we will discover that the Lord wants us first to know the work He has done in order that He might instruct us in the work that we are to do.   “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16 God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us…to set us free.  In the Book of Ephesians, Paul didn’t start out by saying “If you believe…then let me tell you what God has done.”  No…he said, “This is what God has done!  God has sent His Son, and God has sent His Son for you!  All you need to do is believe in the One whom He has sent.”   God sets you free – false teachers come in and tell you what you’re supposed to do, and they end up bringing you into bondage.  Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  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 in light.”   Christ knew that the yoke represented the sum total of obligations that a person must take upon himself.  The yoke has become legalism, and it’s produced bondage instead of freedom.  Jesus set us free from the yoke of rules and regulations that produce bondage - He came that He might give us life and grace through faith in Him. 

To live a life under the burden of legalism is to remove yourself from the joy of salvation, quench the Holy Spirit, and move from the place where God works in your life.   So, as we are speaking about our freedom this month, I want to ask you a question…are you living in the freedom that comes through faith in Christ…or are you trying to set yourself free by living under the yoke of someone’s rules and regulations?  In Galatians 5:1 Paul is telling us, “…do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”   Are you celebrating your freedom…the freedom you have in Christ?

In Christ,
David Rosales

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