2. F R E E 

N O  L O N G E R  A  S L A V E

What does it mean to be free? Some people might say that it means doing what you want without anyone or anything restricting you. While that may be one person’s definition, it is not God’s definition. Remember, that was how the younger son in our story defined freedom, yet he wasn’t free at all, he was enslaved to the culture, enslaved by greed and lust; by sin. Doing whatever you want isn’t freedom. The freedom we’re talking about is best understood in terms of being free or being a slave. Freedom is to not be enslaved. It’s the ability to make choices for yourself. Does that mean that a free person can do anything they want? Well, yes, it does. But that does not mean that everything you can do is good, or right, or moral. Sin is still sin. Wrong is still wrong. And while you have the freedom to choose, you will tend to find that you want to choose what God thinks is good, because he is the one that purchased your freedom with his own blood. If you are in debt and a man pays for your debts, would you then turn around and try to steal from that man? Of course not. It’s the same with our freedom, God has set us free, for us to use that freedom to go on living in sin is to turn our nose up at him and the price he paid to set us free. No one who truly believes that Jesus died for them would ever want to do that, they would want to discover how to live in a way that expresses gratitude and affection towards the God who so graciously set them free.

Really what we are talking about is not so much what you can and can’t do with your freedom, but what exactly have you been set free from? Living in sin wasn’t something you did by chance, it wasn’t occasional nor was it accidental. Your sinful lifestyle was out working itself because you were a slave to sin. You didn’t know it, but sin had enslaved you so that you had no escape, no way out and no hope.

Only by accepting what Jesus has done for you can the chains and bondage of sin be broken so that you can be set free.

You no longer have-to do the things you once did, you are no longer compelled or motivated by the impure and negative impulses of your heart and mind. You were once enslaved to those things, unable to control yourself, but now that God has forgiven you of all your sin and wiped your slate clean, you have been released from all the things that once enslaved you. 

The best part of this news is that you’re not just free from being a slave, you’re also now adopted as a child of God. The Bible uses the word ‘son’ to describe our new relationship with God. He wants us to view him as our father and to see ourselves as blessed, favoured sons who will remain in his house and family forever. This is not a gender word for men only, it’s a positional word, a relational word. You see, daughters would eventually marry and leave their fathers house, but sons would remain part of the house forever. Sons would receive an inheritance and would carry the authority and respect of their Father everywhere they went. This is what it means, that once you’re adopted into God’s family, you need to know it’s forever, he won’t marry you off or kick you out, you’re a ‘son’. What’s more, he will give you his authority so you can act on his behalf (that’s why the younger son in the parable got the signet ring, it was the family authority) and he brings you in on the inheritance; his Kingdom! 

A D O P T I O N

The beautiful thing about adoption is that it is unequivocally an act of the will on the part of the parent. There’s no question about it. What that means is that normal child birth can sometimes be planned, and sometimes be unplanned. In fact, you may never really know if you were born according to a desire and plan or not. Maybe you were ‘an accident’. But when it comes to adoption into God’s family, there are no accidents. Adoption happens when a parent wants to embrace a child. They must want and desire the child and make a plan to adopt. Then they actually get to choose the child they will adopt. Nothing is left to chance.

Adoption means God wanted you. He desired you. He planned to accept you. He chose you because He has a place for you in his family and in his heart! Adoption is the ultimate sign of approval – you’re wanted! You’re loved! By God!

He didn’t enlist you like an army commander recruiting a soldier. He didn’t employ you like a boss signing new employees. He didn’t open the door one morning and find you on his front step like an unwanted orphan. He didn’t purchase you like a slave is bought from a marketplace. You’re not a commodity. You’re not a slave. You’re not an accident. You’re not an afterthought. You are a child of God, adopted into his family through the grace made available to you by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. 

As a son (remember, that’s for men and women), you’re not locked up in the tower like a naughty child. You’re free, and treated as though you and Jesus share the same track record for goodness and right living. When God the Father wants to look at your eternal score card, he just looks at Jesus’ scorecard because remember, he covered you and took all your sins away! You are free in the house of God, as a son of God, adopted into his family. So how then should you use your freedom?

F R E E  T O  C H O O S E

Sons don’t follow the rules because they feel they ‘have-to’. Sons follow the rules because they realise that the only reason God puts the rules in place is because following them leads to blessing. Like rules in football or on the road, the rules exist to keep players and drivers safe, the rules keep things moving and makes sure pedestrians don’t get killed! God’s rules, or better yet, God’s way of living, leads to an increase in joy, vitality, blessing, provision, protection and abundant life. He is not a wet blanket trying to ruin our fun, he is a loving father trying to lead us into the best life we can possibly live. He wants us to enjoy life, not just endure it! Just like good parents know better than their children and are sometimes forced to say, ‘because I said so’, so too God tells us what to do and we are free to believe that what he says is for our good, or not. But since he gave his very life and allowed himself to be executed to save us from sin, why would he then tell us to live in a way that was not for our benefit?

Jesus’ death on the cross tells us that God can be trusted, he not only wants the best for us, but he also knows what is best for us and tells us clearly what good choices look like so we can follow. He will not force us to obey him, but simply invites us to use our freedom to live his way and to reap the benefits of doing so.

G O D  S P E A K S ?

While reading some of the above, you may have thought to yourself once or twice, ‘hang on, you said God speaks, huh?’ That’s right. God speaks. He uses words. In his genius, God has spoken to prophets, men and women, throughout history, and had them record stories and events exactly as he wanted them to. This collection of writing has been brought together in what we call the Bible. 66 ‘books’ in one volume, spanning thousands of years. Filled with history, poetry, prophecy, letters and testimonies, the books of the Bible weave the narrative of God’s heart towards humanity.

It’s in the pages of this living book we discover God’s plan, God’s purpose, God’s character and God’s ways.

It’s here that we learn about all that Jesus said and did, and how he accomplished exactly what the ancient prophets said he would thousands of years earlier. The Bible is a miracle. To have human hands pen the words of God, seamlessly weaving together thousands of years of history, with one continuous narrative, the constancy of the character of God and his mission, the efforts by thousands to dismiss it’s credibility, yet all have failed. The Bible is accurate, proven to be authentic and true. It is the very word of God and for thousands of years people have turned to it to discover God’s voice, God’s heart and God’s plan for their lives.

If you are going to use your new freedom to live God’s way, to follow his voice instead of all the other voices in the world, then you will need to get accustomed with the Bible. It is his primary way of speaking. God also speaks straight to our hearts, in dreams, visions, through people, through creation and sometimes even audibly, and while these are all amazing things to experience, the only way you’ll know if it was God speaking or not is if you are familiar with his voice. Reading, meditating, and studying the Bible is how we do that. We don’t read the Bible because we ‘have-to’, that would be a slave’s way of thinking. We’re not slaves, we’re free. We read the Bible because we want to get to know this God who has saved us and adopted us, we read in order to know Him and to know his voice and to know how we can best use our freedom.

Continue to Part 3: Fuelled…