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BEING SET FREE

by Jeffrey Hagan
1/25/2020 / Christian Living

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Introduction:

All of us are guilty of giving others power over us. Some of us may insist we don't, but the root of that claim is nothing more than pride and arrogance. Most of us don't do this overtly, it's the result of things we've been taught or experiences we've gone through. In fact, usually it's done subconsciously and is merely a product of our environment.

Those of us who follow Christ have some real benefits in regards to living and relating to others that those who are not Christians simply do not have. This is the case due to the “very nature of their existential, philosophical, and theological worldviews.”(1) The problem lies in the fact that many times believers wind up playing the world's game, using the world's methods, and following the world's rules.

As can be told if you've read this far, this article is intended for Christians. If you are not a Christian it won't be much of a benefit to you. But for believers, let me share a few points(2) that will help you free yourself from the power you've given to others.

First: You can stop pretending to be good.

Most people think along these lines, “If my Christian friends knew how I really am, they would all ditch me” or “My pastor would be completely shocked, my parents (and/or kids) would disown me,” and other similar sentiments.

Guess what? It wouldn't happen. And the reason it wouldn't happen is because they are just like you and most likely have thought the same things.

Please pay attention here, you don't have to pretend to be a good person, because we all know you aren't. Neither am I. No one is (Rom. 3:10-12; Psalm 14:3; Isa. 6:46). While I'm “better” than I was in the past, God continues working on me and He won't be done until He restores all things for eternity. When we admit we aren't good people, the need and desire for me to “demonize” you – because it makes me feel better about myself, makes me feel I'm holier – disappears. My instinct to protect myself – by putting the focus on you, pointing in your direction to ease my own guilt – is not a desire of mine anymore. I don't have anything to protect anymore, thank God. But if we continue protecting something we don't have to protect, we find our selves in bondage. We are bound by handcuffs we have put on ourselves.

BEING HONEST:

Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't feel like we have to keep secrets? What if we really lived as if, to borrow a well worn cliché, the church was not just a gathering place for saints but also a recovery group for sinners? What if we didn't have to pretend that we are good? What if we didn't have anything to protect anymore?

Do you get manipulated by people telling you those guilt inducing words “you aren't living up to your potential?” I used to, but over the years I've learned how to respond. Now I simply say, “That's true, and if you don't mind I think I'll continue not to live up to my potential for a little bit longer.”

What if we really believed that being human was okay? What if we were able to readily admit we are sinners and that the “statute of limitations hasn't run out because I committed my sin this morning?”(3) What if we didn't have to pretend we were good anymore?

“NO AGENDA BUT JESUS' AGENDA”(4)

When you don't have any agenda other than the agenda of Jesus, and you know that He is Lord, you don't have to be so uptight. When you know the following...

-we are much worse than we think we are, and God's grace is far greater than we think it is

-we are really screwed up people people whom a sovereign God has, for His own purposes, decided to love unconditionally

-grace always flows downhill

-the truth that power really is made perfect in weakness, as Paul was told

...then you don't have to get upset when others feel the need to point out these things to you. “If someone calls you ugly, and you know that you really are ugly but no longer care, the statement ceases to bother you.”(5)

Second: You don't have to be right.

In the book of Romans we read about a disagreement regarding the eating of certain food offered to idols, days to be designated as holy, and a handful of other areas of Christian living that aren't so black and white. In regards to this Paul stated, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (ESV). He goes on to say the key statement on the issue, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:3-5, ESV).

If we are truly convinced in our own mind we don't have create enemies out of those who don't agree with us. For instance, if you tell me I don't have a mom, dad, and two sisters I'm not going to get mad and start screaming at you. And I'm not going to challenge you to a debate over the issue. I just might put you in contact with a Christian Psychologist or Psychiatrist. When I know I have a family and you insist that I don't, I simply see you as a potential guest in a psyche ward – and I will have concern for you, not anger or hostility.

DEMONIZING OTHERS:

If we continue to demonize others, after awhile their won't be anyone left. If we demonize all who disagree with us, soon you will be the only one left. And that will be dismal for a couple of reasons. First, you aren't right as often as you think you are, and second, there will be nobody left to call you out when you are actually wrong. It won't be freedom at all, but you won't realize it.

A real danger among us Christians is that, in our attempts to prove to others how “right” we always are, we are on our way to becoming flaming fundamentalists looking for anyone to thump on the head with our Bibles. Or, as Steve Brown puts it, “little old ladies looking for someone to bop over the head with a bottle.”(6) This is a very human thing to do actually. It's difficult for those of us who are “right” to put up with those who are “wrong.” It's only those who get it wrong sometimes, and recognize they get it wrong, who find it comfortable to be appropriately tolerant. (I'm fully aware that our culture wants us to be “tolerant” about everything, even completely unbiblical, immoral things so it can be a trigger word for many. That's why I used the qualifier “appropriately”).

“ON GETTING IT WRONG”(7)

Over the years others have encouraged me, and the doors that have opened, have shown me for the most part my gifting is that of a teacher and preacher, primarily a teacher. I'm glad this has been confirmed, it's a great spiritual gift to be blessed with, I'm happy the Holy Spirit bestowed it upon me. However, and I think it's true with any gift, there's a negative aspect. The negative aspect that can take place with one who has the gift of teaching and/or preaching is that at times we feel the need to correct every mistake, no matter how small, put every heretic in line, amend every sermon or lesson, and polish up every statement. If teachers aren't cautious, that need can become an obsession. But soon enough the teacher isn't going to have any student, or friends for that matter, left. I've been there, I've done that, and I'm not proud of it.

We are limited, finite beings. When finite creatures study and contemplate an infinite God and His “thoughts” (their very Creator) clearly they are going to be wrong sometimes, many times. Paul says in Romans 11:34, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor” (ESV)? Clearly, if nobody knows or understands the mind of the Lord, people who are convinced that they do are nothing less than wrong. God Himself says in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways...For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (ESV). If God says that in Isaiah, there's an extremely high chance that anybody who says they have it all figured out, or has every theological or biblical answer out there, they are in fact wrong. If you have come before God and contemplated His ways and have not been confused and overwhelmed, then you've never really come before God.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the fundamental, essential issues of the Christian faith are confusing or that the church has gotten them wrong. All I'm saying is that the number of essential, salvation doctrines are less than most Christians believe.

I'm deeply into doctrine and theology. I love it, study it, and it fuels me. However, think about this. Steve Brown wrote in his book A Scandalous Freedom: The Radical Nature of the Gospel, “Have you ever been hugged by doctrine? When you're cold, does a propositional statement keep you warm? Of course not. In fact, the doctrines about which we often fight are propositions intended to point to a person, and those propositions are valuable only insofar as they do so accurately. The danger is that we will confuse the propositions about Jesus with the person of Jesus.”(8)

I'm pretty confident that Jesus is going to save a lot of people who have wrong opinions and judgments. As a matter of fact, I'm aware of some people who have correct judgments and opinions but have no relationship with the Lord to which these judgments and opinions refer. In fact, to take it a step further, Scripture tells us in James 2:19, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder” (ESV)!

Steve Brown makes a whimsical comment that is applicable at this point, “When we get to heaven, I believe God is going to welcome us with a fairly surprising statement. He is going to say, 'You all got it wrong. And some of you got it terribly wrong. I've talked to my Son about you, however, and he says you're OK. So, welcome home!'”(9)

You don't have to be right. It would be nice if some people would be wrong more often, but know it and admit it. In fact, it wouldn't just be “nice” it would be freeing.

Third: The battle has been won, so stop fighting.

Colossians 2:15, “[Jesus] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (ESV).

In John 16:33 Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (ESV).

And in several places (Acts 7:55-56; Romans 8:34; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 10:12) Scripture speaks of Jesus being at “the right hand of God.” What that is referring to is Jesus authority. Christ is victorious and rules supremely. He has already won. The fight is over. It's final and complete. And that means we can loosen our ties a little bit and relax.

Can you imagine how freeing it would be if we would truly grasp and live out the fact that we don't have anything to prove or protect? God doesn't need our feeble attempts, He's fully capable. He had things in control long before we came on the scene and He will still be in control long after we pass on. One of the great things about following Christ is that we can forgive people, love them, and encourage them, and then just leave the rest for Him to sort out.

CONTROL:

I'm going to quote Steve Brown again, “I sometimes fear that many of us (and I include myself) find our definition in our obedience, in our ability to persuade others to be like us, and in our ability to win battles. There is a lot of ego involved in being good, in being right, and as a part of the battle, having others know we are right.”(10)

It is my opinion, and I've seen it play out, that religion can be used as a way to get power and control over others. That is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 23:4-7 when he says of the scribes and Pharisees, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplace and being called rabbi by others” (ESV).

Even with the best intentions in regards to the purity of the church, practicing holiness, a concern over people turning freedom and grace into a license to sin (which I've never actually seen happen when understood properly), God's name being used in vain or dishonored, a sadness over truth and morality being lost – which are all actually good things – it is easy to forget that the gospel is good news, extremely good news. It's the good news that God came to us incarnate, that He isn't mad at His children, and that He won't be mad with anyone who comes to Him by faith in Christ and his work on the cross.

Whenever religion is used as leverage, it stops being the religion of Jesus. The gospel of God's rich and undeserving grace removes the leverage. Maybe you're asking yourself, “Why?” Well, if we are forgiven without conditions (which we are) others can't make us feel guilty. If God loves us in this way, others can't manipulate us by threatening to take away their love, either by word or by their actions. If God knows all of my intimate secrets and sins and doesn't condemn me, then you can't use those same secrets as blackmail or to condemn me either. If someone does have some sort of power and they threaten to use it against us and we don't care, then it strips them of that power. I think there's deep freedom in this.

Conclusion:

Realize your freedom in Christ. Don't let others have power over you. Free yourself from their control, after all it's power you have given them in the first place. I know, like all things it's much easier said than done, but start being aware, start recognizing the patterns. Be free. Be yourself. Be honest.

I can't think of a better way to end this discussion than with Scripture itself:

“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” (Galatians 5:1, NIV).

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17, NIV).

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36, NIV).

“'I have the right to do anything,' you say – but not everything is beneficial. 'I have the right to do anything' - but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12, NIV).

“Therefore, there is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2, NIV).

(Article adapted from Brown, Steve. A Scandalous Freedom: The Radical Nature of the Gospel (New York: Howard Books, 2004, pp.143-168).

Brown, p.153.
Points adapted from above source.
Ibid., p.156.
Ibid., p.157
Ibid., p.157-158.
Ibid., p.160.
Ibid.
Ibid., p.161.
Ibid., p.162.
Ibid., p.164.

Jeff Hagan is the President of True Grace Ministries and Theological Institute. Interested? www.preacherjeff45.wlxsite.com/truegracetheolgical

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