Experiencing our Liberty

Insight into the secret bondage that traps us all and how we can be free

By William R. Cunningham
April 16, 2000

The Bible reveals to us that Christians are free. We are not supposed to be free. Rather, we are indeed free. Why then are Christians in so much bondage? We can't live the life of Christ that we were destined to live because so many things bind us and we don't know how to escape. You could look to your church or pastor but they too sometimes bind you. You could look to yourself but you find that the things that are within you bind you. You constantly look for a way out-a way to be free. Instead, everywhere you turn you find another trap.

After a while your bondage becomes your liberty. Your freedom begins to be defined according to your bondage. You are free in Christ because you are bound to service to your church. You are lost and don't even know it. It doesn't have to be your church either. The things around you could bind you. Your job may be a source of bondage yet you define your job in terms of freedom because the paycheck allows you to do whatever you want. You live in an illusion and you mistake that illusion for reality. You may be bound by your secret sin or the obvious sins. You try to stop but time after time you slip back into your illusion of pleasure or you just can't seem to break away. Your spouse or children trap you. They dictate what you will or will not do and you humbly, in the name of peace, go along.

So why aren't Christians free? Why are we so tied up with so many things? Everywhere we turn there is another chain attached to us. Everywhere we run we find more bondage and oppression. The church meeting on Sunday can become bondage. Your children can become bondage. Your spouse can become bondage. Sex, drugs, and alcohol can become bondage to you. Everything can become bondage. Is there another way? Is there a better way? Can we be free and if so where is this freedom and how can we acquire it?

Well the latter question is the subject of this lesson. We are going to discuss the liberty that we have in Christ and the bondage that we typically live with. We are going to discuss the Bibles view of us in regards to liberty and try to identify the things that bind us. Now this lesson is only a superficial look at this topic and in no way tries to cover all aspects of our liberty in Christ. I hope that after reading this lesson that you will understand that you are free in Christ and that there is no reason why you should be bound by anything or anyone, including yourself. With that said, let's get started.

Are we really free? First let me point out that there is a difference in your current state and your current experience. Therefore, it is possible to BE free yet not experience that freedom. For example, it is easy to be rich but not experience the wealth that you have because you don't access or spend the wealth of money that you have. In this case, you are rich but you don't experience it. Again, it is therefore possible that we can be free in Christ and yet not experience that freedom or liberty because other things bind us. So before we can talk about our liberty in Christ, it is important to establish the fact that the Bible really does teach us that we are free in Christ.

This is a very powerful statement and one that should be heeded with much diligence. I have found that many professed Christians have allowed themselves to be pulled away from the knowledge and experience that they have in the liberty of Christ into bondage, either self-imposed or imposed by their religious institution (their church). Paul states that we have freedom or liberty because Jesus made us free. He then says to stand firm in that freedom and don't go back to the bondage that you once escaped.

We are not our own. Christians were bought at a great price. Jesus Christ suffered and died so that we may be saved and freed from the bondage of sin and death. Therefore, we should be careful that we do not become slaves of people, ideas, or anything else. It is important to remain free in Christ so that we can freely do what God wants of us.

2 Peter 2:18-21 (NCV) They brag with words that mean nothing. By their evil desires they lead people into the trap of sin-people who are just beginning to escape from others who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are not free. They are slaves of things that will be destroyed. For people are slaves of anything that controls them. They were made free from the evil in the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if they return to evil things and those things control them, then it is worse for them than it was before. Yes, it would be better for them to have never known the right way than to know it and to turn away from the holy teaching that was given to them.

This is an extremely powerful scripture, which we should pay special attention to. This scripture deals with a person that was once liberated by Christ and then returns to the very thing that once enslaved him or her. We are drawn away by the empty and graceful speaking of people and at the same time are being carried away into slavery. What controls you? That is what binds you as well. Now a person that returns to bondage after being liberated is in a worse state then being initially bound. This is very similar to the principle given in Hebrews 6:4-6.

Here is a freedom that all Christians have. This liberty is specific to the bondage of sin and death. The sin nature puts us on a direct path to hell, that is, death. However, Jesus Christ came so that we can be free from this path. We can journey on another path, a path that leads to eternal life with God-a path that liberates us from the law (way or operations) of sin and death.

Which path are you on? Remember that I am not only talking about your journey as far as eternal life. I am also referring to your journey on the path that leads to life. Are you still bound by others as you strive to be with God? Do others dictate your life or does the Holy Spirit that is within you guide you? I have found that a church, religious organization, a pastor, children, spouse, and more bind many Christians. It is not necessarily that these binding agents, as I call them, are evil. The point is that they prohibit you from fulfilling your God given purpose.

I believe that it is very important to realize that God brings liberty. This is liberty from the law of sin and death and condemnation. We are free to be joined with Christ to the Father. We are free but many do not experience the freedom that they have, the Spirit of God that is within.

Luke 4:18-19 (NKJV) "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Among other things, Jesus Christ came to liberate those who were oppressed. What was this oppression? The oppression, as I said earlier was sin and death. Consider the following scripture as well.

Here is an application of Jesus' ministry of liberation. Notice who the oppressor is. The oppressor is ultimately Satan (the Devil). More precisely I believe that it is the Kingdom of Darkness that oppress people due to ignorance, choice, or deception.

What is your oppressor? What binds you to slavery and controls your life? It is beneficial and desirable to be bound to the Lord and therefore "slaves" to righteousness. This is the path to life and signifies the dedication and commitment from within to God's Way. Your journey along the path that leads to life is so defined and so sure that it is like you were a slave to it, that is, you are bound to it. The unfortunate thing is that many people are not aware that they are not bound to such a road. They are bound to a road that will lead to the prosperity of a few church officials or organizations. Some are so bound by such people that they will defend them to the very end. They are blind and deceived.

Again, what is this freedom that Jesus Christ is referring to. In the absolute sense it refers to the freedom from sin and death. We are no longer bound to the path to hell. We can now be bound (reconciled) to God absolutely and experientially. However, experiential freedom usually escapes us because we become bound to the rules and regulations of religion instead of bound to righteousness.

As we can see from the above scripture, freedom comes from knowing and experiencing the truth. Knowing the truth is not enough to liberate us if we don't experience it. In the same way that a man that is freed from prison still acts as though he is a prisoner, many Christians act as though they are still bound by the law of sin and death. Instead of experiencing the liberty that we have in Christ, they would rather bind themselves to human laws in hopes of experiencing true liberty. This unfortunately is the state of many honest professed Christians. It is easier to live by law then to live by faith. We will discuss more of that subject later in this lesson.

Consider the following scripture.

What you don't know can hurt you. Many professed Christians know very little about Christianity. This is why many Christians become bound to church doctrine and the agenda of people-they simply don't know the truth. There are also many professed Christians that can be led astray, even to another religion just because they don't know the truth.

We must learn from Christ since he is the way to truth-to God. We must become disciples (learners) of Jesus Christ because is the way. The core of our liberty is the truth, which is Christ. How can Christ be the truth? Consider the following scripture.

To know Christ is to know God and therefore we can know the truth.

Our liberty can be a stumbling block to others and even ourselves. New Christians or ignorant Christians may look at the liberty that we experience and become offended or deceived. They may try to live a liberated life without really understanding the liberty that they have. They may cause strife in their church or homes in the name of liberty. Our liberty can also be a stumbling block to ourselves because we can just as well deceive ourselves into sin in the name of liberty. Therefore it is very important to learn how to manage the liberty that we have and to examine ourselves regularly to see if we are indeed living the true life of Christ.

We don't have to be bound to any person or religious organization. This doesn't mean that we can do anything or everything that we want. We are still responsible for living according to God's Way. We also have to govern ourselves so that we don't cause those who do not experience the same level of liberty that we experience to fall.

It is easy to think that because we are not bound by formal rules and regulations, as in the religious community, that we can do whatever we want. This is not true. As a matter of fact, the path of living by faith is much more involved then living by rules and regulation. It is simpler to do what you are told then to learn the Way of God and actively govern your life accordingly.

Living by faith means that you are accountable for your actions and you cannot blame anyone for what you do or what happens to you. Living by faith means that you have to understand the spirit of God's word and not just the words. There are many situations that you will find yourself in that is not specifically addressed in the Bible. Then what do you do? Therefore it is important to know the principles in the Bible and not just the rules.

Living by faith means that you will have to spend a significant amount of time learning what the Bible teaches and learning to be sensitive to God's voice. It means that you will have to spend considerable time learning God's Way and learning how to apply His Way to your life so that you can live a life in Christ. There is no scapegoat. You are the responsible party when it comes to living by faith. Either you believe God or you don't. Repeating a multitude of slogans that you picked up in your church will not help you. It may add to your delusion and deception but it will not help you in your current situation.

So to experience the fullness of the liberty that we have in Christ, we must live by Faith else we will find ourselves bound by someone's law and therefore miss the liberty that already belongs to us.

How can we experience the liberty that we already have in Christ? The first thing that we must do is to realize that we are free in Christ. Without this revelation we will never be able to truly experience it. We must know that our freedom rests in Christ and not in anything that exists on the earth. Your church, religion, family, job, money, riches, or anything else cannot give you true liberty.

True liberty comes from knowing the truth that is in Christ and experiencing it. This truth is that He has reconciled us to God and we are no longer slaves to sin and death. We can now live our lives free from bondage from any one or thing.

I have found that many Christians are bound because they do not know the truth and therefore follow someone else besides Christ. Most Christians that I have interacted with know very little about the Bible. They typically know what their pastor said or what their favorite TV evangelist has said. They can't tell you what they know because they know very little about the Christian faith and the Kingdom of God. Now of course we are all ignorant of many things at any one time. However, there are many people that pursue nothing. They are content to live by man-made laws instead of living by faith, which takes a lot more effort. Please understand that I am not implying that all Christians should be Bible scholars. I am saying that all Christians should at the very least pursue the truth and know what they believe. Consider the following verse.

Living by faith requires that you know the Word of God. Living by faith requires that you make the decision based on the knowledge that you have of God's Way. We must learn to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit that resides within us. Doing this will enable us to live with the liberty that we have in Christ and to experience that liberty. Knowing the truth helps to protect us from being bound by others, including ourselves. Knowing the truth will help us to experience the liberty that we have in Christ. Amen.