The Price of Freedom

 A number of years ago, I had an interaction with a man at the Carpenter’s Coffee Bar, where I was an English teacher.  China had been rattling the saber about taking Taiwan, again.  This man was angry at the United States Government, because of the sale of fighter planes to Taiwan.  His argument was that Japan got United States’ fighters for free, but those planes are on an American base in Okinawa.  Those planes will protect Japan, but they’re actually there defending US interests in Asia.  Those same planes would protect Taiwan as well.  At supersonic speeds, Taiwan is only about twenty minutes from Okinawa.

I thought that it was interesting that he wanted freedom, but wasn’t willing for his nation invest in it financially.  When you stop to think about it the cost of freedoms isn’t just financial, the cost of freedom is always blood.  Young men must fight and die to guarantee freedom.  Ten million allied troops died during World War Two.

Freedom comes at a price.  Today, I want to post on freedom from sin, the price that was paid, and our responsibility to that freedom.

Galatians 5:1 (NKJV)
^5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Sin is a Trap

Our text tells us to stand fast, which means to be immovable in the liberty by which Christ made us free. Be immovable in our freedom from sin.  Do not become entangled again with a yoke of bondage.  In other words, do not be ensnared again with a yoke – slavery.  Ensnared means trapped; sin is a trap.  Sin is slavery.

John 8:34 (NKJV)
^8:34 Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

Sin is a Trap – we have a mindset about sin that’s wrong.  We often think that sin is freedom or liberty.  We look at obedience to the commands of God as limiting, as if God has taken away our liberty through commandment.  Living out the commandments, though, is liberating.

Think about this for a moment. Think about common sins.  Drinking creates alcoholics; a dependence on Alcohol.  Drug use creates addicts; a dependence on drugs.  How many sins are there that trap you into dependence.  An addict is someone who’s dependent on getting a particular drug.  Their whole life becomes consumed with that drug.  They’ll lie, steal, and prostitute themselves to satisfy their addiction.  It’s a trap.  We think it’ll free us, instead it traps us.

David Crosby, of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (a 1970s musical group), experimented with drugs and alcohol as a young man.  After a number of years, he suffered with liver disease and needed a liver transplant.  He received a new liver, but never stopped the behavior.  Eventually, he found himself in that same position; his new liver destroyed by drugs and alcohol.  He was a slave to sin!

So, the Bible tells us to stand fast in our liberty.  Ourr freedom from sin that was purchased by Jesus.  The reason we must be encouraged to stand fast is because sin comes very, very easy to us.  It’s a part of our nature.  It’s a part of whom we are.

Buddhists will say that “”men are basically good,” but the Bible tells us that our heatrs are desperately wicked and deceitful.

Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV

"The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Genesis 6:5

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

According to the Bible this is the state of man’s heart. Do you know the story of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde?  Doctor Jekyll was a rich, upper class doctor who seemed to be thoughtful and kind, but when he became Mister Hyde he could not control himself and was a brutal murderer.  Doctor Jekyll was a man with an evil nature that he couldn’t control.  It is a picture of the human condition.

Think about yourself for a moment, do you think of yourself as a good person; a nice person?  We all do, but let me ask you a question do you sometimes do bad things?  Do you sometimes act hatefully?  Do you sometimes lie or gossip or slander.  The answer to that is yes, you do!  There's a Mister Hyde in all of us.

Adam was created in the Image of God.  He was given a place that met every human need.  God walked with him.  God sheltered him under his wing.  The Bible talks about the hand of God, God’s blessing and care, and His working in our lives.  Even though he was blessed and cared for, Adam sinned.  The Bible tells us that Eve was deceived, tricked into sin, but Adam chose sin.  He violated God’s command.  He wasn’t deceived; he wasn’t tricked, he made a choice.  Sin is a choice and Adam suffered because of that.  We also suffer for our choice to not obey God.

It's our nature; it’s part of our makeup to sin.  You can see it in babies, think about this, we don’t have to teach babies to be selfish, they just are.  We don’t have to teach children to lie, they just do.  What do we have to do?  We have to teach them not to be selfish.  We have to teach them not to lie, or cheat, or steal...

Proverbs 22:15 (NKJV)
^22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.

The rod of correction drives the foolishness far from them.  Children have to be taught nto to sin.  Sin is a part of human nature; it takes effort to avoid it.  It doesn’t just happen.  We have to work at it.  If we want to keep from being trapped by sin we have to take steps to avoid it.  We have to train our minds to dwell on what’s right.  To stand fast implies that there are forces trying to move you away from that liberty.  That force in the Bible is called your flesh; your sinful nature.  You have to push back against those forces.

Our Freedom Was Bought at a Price

In Biblical times when you owed a debt, you and your family would be sold into slavery to pay that debt.  In order to be released from slavery, you had to be redeemed.  Redeemed means to be bought back.  You had to pay the price of the owner for your freedom.  Adam sold himself and his descendants into slavery.  They were taken from the home that God gave them and forced into separation from God, slaves to their sin.  

We were doomed to that slavery until that time when we could be bought back or redeemed; that time when the price could be paid. 

Our text tells us that Jesus paid that price.  We remained in separation and slavery until that day that Jesus died and paid the price of our bondage.  We were purchased at a price.  The price was the blood that Jesus spilled on the cross. 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV)
^6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

This scripture says that you were bought at a price, but it also says this, “You are not your own.”  You were bought back from slavery.  He paid the price for you to return to the relationship that we had with God before Adam’s sin.

If you’re a Christian have you experienced what it’s like to have a relationship with God?  Have you experienced God’s hand on your life?  Have you experienced the liberty of being set free from sin?

In my own life I vividly remember the hopelessness of slavery.  I was an addict, I was a slave to alcohol.  I thought I couldn’t change.  I hated myself.  I hated my life.  I know I did things that ruined relationships.  I know that I did things that hurt people.  I was a part of that slavery; I needed escape and relief.  I’m thankful for the price that was paid and I willingly submit myself to Him.  I am not my own!  Christians often say, “I gave my life to Jesus,” but that’s not really true, He bought us with a price.  What we really do is submit to Him.  “Here’s my life Jesus – It’s Yours.”

That’s where liberty is found in submission to Him.  I’m free because I submitted.  At first, it was difficult, I was still drawn to alcohol, but I stood fast in that liberty.  The desire eventually disappeared – It really does get easier, that bondage was over.  (It’s been thirty-three years since I had a drink of alcohol.)  Does that mean that I’ve lost my sinful nature?  No, I’m still human, but I can resist because I am submitted.

James 4:7 (NKJV)
^4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

In my opening illustration, I talked about the cost of freedom.  The cost is spilled blood and death, but I have to tell you something.  There is also a responsibility for those who have been given freedom at the cost of other’s lives.  We have a responsibility to remain free. 

I believe that the freedoms we have given up in twenty-first century America is a betrayal of those who died for it.  We make their sacrifice worthless.  They died for nothing if we give up the freedoms that they paid for!

Jesus paid a huge price to free you from sin.  You have a responsibility to remain free of it.  You have a responsibility to stand fast in that liberty, or you make his death worthless; of little value.  His death counts for nothing if you remain in sin.

Freedom isn’t the absence of laws – that’s anarchy.  You can’t remain in sin and say that because of grace you’re free to continue to sin.  I’m sorry but change is required.  We think that repentance means we’re sorry.  “Sorry Jesus – oops!” It’s much more than that.  Being sorry is a part of it; regret that you violated God’s laws is part of it, but real repentance is change.  “I’m not going to live that way any longer,”  and standing fast, being different. 

This liberty, this life that you have as a Christian was paid for on the cross.  Why take the old sin and addictions into a new life.  If you remain in sin the bondage is the same.  You are still a slave to sin!

Where the Spirit of the Lord is There is Freedom

2 Corinthians 3:17 (NKJV)
^3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. –

When Moses returned from the mountain where he met with God his face held the Glory of God.  It shone from his face.  The people were frightened to look at him, so he wore a veil, so that they wouldn’t be able to see it. 

When were In sin that veil was on our hearts, we were spiritually blinded.  When we turned to Jesus that veil was taken away.

2 Corinthians 3:13-16 (NKJV)
^3:13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. ¹⁴ But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. ¹⁵ But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. ¹⁶ Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

We were not able to see the lawlessness and sin in our lives.  As sinners we don’t see the sin.  What did Jesus say on the cross, “Father forgive them they don’t know what they’re doing!” 

As sinners we don’t understand that what we’re doing is sin.  We don’t realize that we put Him on the cross.  We don’t even realize that we’re slaves to it. It isn’t until we receive the Spirit of God in our hearts that we see it.  The veil is taken away.  That’s when we see the freedom in submission to Christ.  It’s the Spirit of God who lifts the veil and we can see and know freedom.  Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Freedom!