This is an introduction to our next post — Bound by Grace — an article written thirty years ago. We will be adding a second part –Free to Love, looking at who we are when we think we are free without God, and then to the beauty and power of God’s grace and liberty that  He gives through His Son, Jesus Christ.

If you ask different people what it means to be free, you will get a variety of answers. For a non-believer, freedom means that they are answerable to no one, able to do whatever they want without restrictions, especially without God.

What is the danger in this kind of freedom?

Imagine intersections without traffic lights and roads without speed zones. If everybody had this freedom, who would be safe? Everyone would have the license to destroy other people who get in their way.

The danger of freedom applies to a Christian as well as a person who has no faith in Christ. Many think all men have a free will with the ability to choose right from wrong, even to believe or not to believe in Christ. After years of thinking I had chosen Christ as my Savior, my thinking changed. Studies in God’s Word uncovered truths I had never heard.

Beginning in Genesis, I came to understand how God proved man is not capable of choosing what is right. Left to themselves, Adam and Eve showed that without the continual presence and leading of their Creator, they had no wisdom or knowledge to make the right decision. There was no protection from the danger in their own territory. Instead of being free, they became servants of Satan; the human race came under his bondage and except through  Christ, live in rebellion against God.

Jesus Christ is the mediator sent from our heavenly Father to restore us to Him – to bring us to that relationship He had planned for His Creation. Without our total dependence on Him, we will never live in true freedom. Without Christ, we are in danger of our own deceptive thinking and without protection in this world. Satan is always waiting for us to make our own decisions without knowing or wanting God’s will for us. God’s will according to His law is the only free will and the only law that matters to us as His people.

Tomorrow, we will look at what it means to be — Bound by Grace— and the liberty that is given in His kingdom to the children of God — followers of Christ.

Dear Father in heaven, we thank you for the freedom that is ours in Christ, based on the laws of your kingdom and the power of your Holy Spirit to reveal, enforce, and fulfill all your will in us. In Jesus’ name, I thank you and praise you. Amen.
Fran