Freedom
In Christ
By
Arthur J Licursi
The blessing
of Christian liberty for believers is a priceless possession. It was bought
for us by the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ who “died
for us while we were yet sinners.”
Every believer
has been made free from;
-
The burden of “the
Law” - Romans
6:14 For sin shall not have
dominion over you: for YE ARE NOT
UNDER THE LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE.
-
The Penalty of Sin
- Romans 5:8 But
God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ
died in our stead. He was made sin for us.
2Corinthians 5:21 For he
(God) hath made him (Jesus) to be
sin for us, who knew (had) no sin; that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him.
-
The Power of Sin
- Romans
6:6-7 Knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with him
(Christ), that the body of sin might
be destroyed (rendered powerless), that henceforth we should not serve
sin. 7 For he
that is dead is freed from sin.
-
One day, at the
rapture of the body of Christ we will be freed from the Presence of Sin
in our fleshly bodies when they are be changed into bodies like unto
Jesus’ glorious resurrected body. 1
Corinthians 15:51-55 Behold,
I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for
the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
shall be changed. 53 For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must
put on immortality. 54 So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying 55
O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is
thy victory?
-
Thus we should now be FREE
FROM THE FEAR OF DEATH - Hebrews
2:14-16 Forasmuch then as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, he (Jesus) also himself likewise
took part of the same; that through
death he might destroy (kartargeo, render powerless) him that had the power
of death, that is, the devil; 15 And
DELIVER THEM WHO THROUGH FEAR OF
DEATH WERE ALL THEIR LIFETIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE.
Our freedom
in Christ can be abused, of course, but legitimately used it is an
overflowing source of spiritual joy and power for living our life in rest
and peace. God’s purpose with regard to the liberty of the believer in
Christ is summed up for us in one short verse in Paul’s Galatian letter: “For,
brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another”
(Gal. 5:13).
The cause of
spiritual decline in Israel was always their departure from God’s Word to
them through Moses, so… likewise the cause of spiritual decline among
believers today is always their departure from God’s Word to us through
the Apostle of grace, Paul. Peter was to Apostle to “the
circumcision” (Gal 2:8), not to
“the church which is the body of Christ.” Paul is “the
Apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13) from whom we learn of God’s
grace and our liberty.
If anything
is made unmistakably clear in the Epistles of Paul, it is the fact that
believers in this present “dispensation
of the grace of God” have been delivered from
“the Law.” Romans 6:14b …
for YE ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW,
BUT UNDER GRACE.
Though
religion still mostly promotes the Old Testament Law principles of blessing
and cursing that were given to
Israel
, and even more manmade laws, we
today as believing members of “the
body of Christ” live under the new paradigm of God’s pure GRACE.
Grace is God’s love, care and favor that was and is shed upon us though we
never earned it – God’s grace is freely given “in Christ,” having
loved us “while we were yet
sinners.” Ephesians 2:8-9 FOR
BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH
FAITH; and that NOT OF YOURSELVES: IT
IS THE GIFT OF GOD: 9 NOT
OF WORKS, lest any man should boast.
Having seen
and received His love and grace in Christ, we as God’s full-grown sons
(Rom 8:14) have been “called unto
liberty.” The failure of God’s people today is to hear
and learn the truth of Paul’s “the
gospel of the grace of God” (Act
20:24) and then to appropriate and live in this liberty today. We are
now we free to walk in union with
Christ who now indwells our spirit (1Cor 6:17); He is as close as our
breath – ever speaking within us as our new life and spontaneous inner
guide. Galatians 2:20 I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but CHRIST LIVETH IN ME:
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
The vast
majority of Christendom today, lives under the burden of and bondage to
religion’s lies. They don’t get to hear and learn the truths of Paul’s
“the gospel of the grace of God”
(Act 20:24). This has wrought spiritual decline among many as surely as
did the failure of the people of
Israel
to observe “the law of Moses”
did in their day of the Law. Paul emphatically says; “STAND
FAST THEREFORE IN THE
LIBERTY
WHEREWITH CHRIST HATH MADE US FREE, and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage.” (Galatians
5:1)
Could anything be plainer than
those passages in this same Galatian epistle, where the Apostle says by the
Spirit: “CHRIST HATH REDEEMED US FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW,
being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3:13).
“But when the fulness
of the time was come, GOD SENT FORTH HIS SON, made of a woman, made under
the law, TO REDEEM THEM THAT WERE UNDER THE LAW, (so) THAT WE
MIGHT RECEIVE THE ADOPTION OF SONS” (Gal. 4:4, 5).
Thus, to reject our
blood-bought liberty and go back to the servitude of being under “the
Law” is to repudiate not only the Word of God, but it repudiates the
specific Word of God to us for today, and this must necessarily
result in spiritual decline.
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