What Is Freedom?

[Note: This article is written from thoughts that were originally intended for an audience of about 20 folks in a living room, who comprise the community of which I am a part. So keep that in mind as you read.]

What is freedom? Freedom, we say, is Christ. Or rather, Christ is our freedom. Christ Himself is everything that we need. But what do we mean when we say that He Himself is our freedom? We have a tendency of throwing around phrases like that, and I think it’s important every once in a while to stop and consider what it all means. It means that in Him we have true freedom from sin, death, the flesh, or whatever, and that outside of Him there is no freedom. Outside of His person, there is only a false freedom, which turns out to be another kind of bondage in disguise. This false freedom is a freedom that is sought for its own sake, apart from Him. Such freedom is a counterfeit.

There are those that are naturally pulled in the direction of freedom from constraints. They are free spirits, as we say, who dislike being tied down to anyone’s expectations or rules. They exhibit a natural distaste for repetition of the familiar, preferring instead to follow the flow of their own inner inspirations as they surface. Of course, not everyone is put together this way; on the contrary, some seem to take great solace in the safety of a well-worn tradition. But that’s not the kind of person that typically shows up on our doorstep. I imagine our kind of church life attracts a disproportionate number of this type of person. For the record, I would include myself in this free-wheeling bunch as well.

Those of us who had the nerve to look directly into the face of this radical freedom we have in Christ have long savored Paul’s proclamation in Galatians 5:1:

“It was for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

This bold announcement follows almost three chapters of an argument intended to prove one main point: Christ has freed us from the Law! Indeed there are few statements of Scripture quite so beautiful as that one. In taking us with Him into His death on the cross, Christ has become “the end of the Law for all of us who believe” (Rom.10:4). We have left behind that “confidence in the flesh” which comforts so many who are still finding a measure of benefit in a traditional Christian church setting. We have forsaken forever that pursuit of “getting it right” and pleasing God with our efforts to serve Him in our own righteousness. We have put aside the Law and put in its place the leadership of the Spirit, knowing that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” and “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor.3:6,17).

But after all that, we still haven’t finished discovering the full impact of what it means to be “free in Christ.” If He had stopped after freeing us from the Law only, we would still be in bondage. We need freeing from more than just the Law; we need freeing from OURSELVES. Read on in Galatians 5 and you will see that

“You were called to freedom, brothers; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (5:13).

Here we discover once again that Christ is our freedom; only now it is not merely Christ the Head, but Christ the Body who achieves for us this great freedom from all things. In His church, Christ comes to us once again as our Champion of freedom. Only now He is not saving us from the Law, He is saving us from ourselves.

And boy, do we need it. There is a particular kind of self-satisfaction that comes from trumpeting our freedom from the Law. And who could blame us? This discovery is such a precious treasure that we want to announce to the whole world that Christ has freed us from the Law! But we are not completely free if that is all that He has done. Ultimately, the Law is not our enemy. It is our imprisonment to our fallen selves that needs work next, and that’s where the body of Christ comes in. Come to think of it, a person will not even remain free from the Law apart from a community of freed brothers and sisters who will daily remind him that he has been given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Apart from that family, I doubt anyone can do a good job of remaining free from the Law. But I am even more certain that he will not rise above his own natural inclinations and the limitations of his own flesh without the help of his fellow saints.

So Paul, the great emancipator of us Gentiles, entreats us to remain free from all things. He implores us to let nothing hinder our freedom in Christ from here onward, not even our own natural predispositions. This indeed becomes the greater challenge for those of us who have grasped our liberty in Christ: To appreciate the prevalence and subtlety of our own inclinations in making us captive to our own habits and ways of thinking. For this, God places us in the midst of a community of people who are likewise looking for you to help pull them out of their natural selves. As we throw ourselves into carrying one another’s burdens, we will find that our own loads become lighter in the process. In ourselves we will never be free. Only in Christ, who is both Head and Body, will we find true freedom. When it is the Son who sets you free, then you are free indeed!