FREEDOM – THE DECEPTION

False religious systems abound but, for most believers in Jesus, false religions are not a trap to us.

However, the god of this world system, the devil, has pulled off two scams, and we, God’s children, are in danger of falling for either of them.

The first scam, called lawlessness, was already at work in the church in Paul’s day.

Our bodies play a very big part in the bondage we still struggle with in our desire and quest to experience real freedom. Our bodies continue to crave satisfaction from one desire or another.

“And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”

James 1:13-15 NLT

Two false teachings come from this truth that much of our sin, conceived in our minds through our desires, is done in our bodies. First, some teach that, since our bodies are going to die anyway, what we do with our bodies doesn’t matter.

This idea cuts right across the teaching of Scripture.

“Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honour God with your body.”

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 NLT

Through His death, Jesus has redeemed all of us, body, soul, and spirit. Our bodies are now God’s temple in which He lives by His Spirit. So, it is God’s intention for our bodies to confirm to His will as much as our hearts.

“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23 NLT

Paul calls on every believer to give his/her body to God to serve His purposes.

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

Romans 12:1 NLT

The second part of this error is equally ridiculous. Some, in Paul’s day, believed that the more they sinned, the more God would be glorified because of His grace.

“Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?… We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.”

Romans 6:1-2, 6-7 NLT

The whole idea contradicts the very purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

“Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”

Romans 6:3-4 NLT

Our new lives, in God’s kingdom in the protective boundaries of His Word contained in the New Covenant, are lived in this sinful, corrupted world.

God’s intention is to enable us by His grace to overcome temptation by trusting in Him. Our faith is precious to God. He must test us to ensure that we live by faith in His power at work in us.

This leads me to explain the second, opposite error, which we call “legalism”. Many of God’s so-called children still teach and trust in their own self-effort to make themselves holy. They try to apply some of the laws and practices of the Old Covenant to find acceptance with God.

Christians, for example, celebrate some of the feasts of the Old Covenant, not understanding that Jesus has or will fulfil all of them when He returns. Others try to obey food laws and taboos, or keep certain days “holy” e.g., the Sabbath. Some try to copy prayer rituals described in the Old Testament narrative as a means of gaining victory over the devil.

Believers still confuse the prescriptions of the Old Covenant and God’s mercy and grace in the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant had the specific purpose of teaching God’s people that He is holy and unapproachable because of sin, and the impossibility of satisfying His just requirements by keeping rules. The requirement for acceptance with God was, “Do this and you will live.”

“The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So, God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”

Romans 8:3-4 NLT

The New Covenant explicitly reveals God’s complete solution to our sin and all its consequences by sending Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for our sin. Jesus’ death and resurrection has dealt with all our sin, past, present, and future, and its consequences. The operative word is, “Done!”

“God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”

Romans 5:8-10 NLT

When we trespass into the area of obeying rules to become righteous, we cancel the death of Jesus to forgive our sin, declare us righteous, and make us perfectly acceptable to the Father. We nullify the New Covenant, and we are no longer eligible for God’s mercy and grace.

Paul’s earnest counsel is,

“So, Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”

Galatians 5:1-4 NLT