How We Use Our Freedom
By Kaitlyn F.
Many of us have heard
that once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then nothing can
separate us for God. When I tell some people this, they assume that they can
keep sinning, because they are forgiven, and nothing can separate them for God,
no matter how much they sin. T
he thing is, God didn’t save us to let us keep
our old lives. Galatians 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.” People who have accepted Jesus, and they stay in their old ways,
they are using the opportunity that they have been giving to serve the flesh.
This Bible verse calls us to love for others and serve them, which comes from
God. God has set us free from our
burdens and our sins, we are to use our freedom to serve others and not our
earthly desires.
2 comments :
That's a very good point! A great reminder.
I just came across this post and felt I had to comment. I'm not a girl, so I hope It's alright if I post here.
I don't want to start an argument, but I would like to solicit a friendly discussion about how to address the kind of situation the article talks about.
First I want to say that for addressing a Christian, you are spot on. My concern is that there is a subtle lie that has crept into most American Christians beliefs; namely that if you pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart, then you're saved. Most people that defend this position try to prove it because the Bible say that "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" which sounds good at first, but on further investigation is is not true. Many people who have “accepted Jesus into their heart” really believe they're saved, but they lack the biblical evidences of true conversion.
The first thing I want to address is when the Bible says that "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Hebrews 10:13) it also asks "and how they call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher?” and later it says “so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God"
If you follow the flow of the passage, it seems pretty evident that calling on the name of the Lord is what believers do. When the writer asks " How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" he is asking a rhetorical question because it's not possible. There is nothing in this that suggests that praying a prayer will save you. It says that those who call on the God they believe in and who was preached to them – they will be saved, and not because of anything they did (as is shown elsewhere).
In Ezekiel 36:21-33 Ezekiel prophesies to Israel that God will "sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."
Do you see how he uses language that describes God's working in the heart of his children? This prophesy shows a new testament understanding of how God saves those who are his.
I guess what I'm getting at is that I have a hard time hearing folks say that all we have to do is to accept Jesus (which usually means just praying a prayer) and then they're are saved. They must call on God that they believe.
When we're dealing with someone who has at one time professed faith in Christ and is living in constant sin with a let-us-continue-in-sin-that-grace-may-abound attitude, we need to remember that true Christians are “buried with him (Christ) by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4) We also should take note that later on in the chapter it says “he that is dead is freed from sin.” (not that he doesn't sin, but that he hates and fights against sin; that is to say he is no longer a slave of sin.) So when we have this person who says that he's free in Christ to sin (because where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, right? (Rom 5:20)) we should point him to scripture and tell them to examine themselves to see if they're in the faith (see the book of I John) and not start by telling them that “Christians shouldn't live like that”.
Anyway, I pray that this will be a blessing to someone and that it makes sense.
Have a good morning,
-Nicholas
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