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LIVING FREE
What Does It Mean to be Free in Christ?
Romans 6, 1 Corinthians 8,9 and Galatians 5
July 3, 2005


Romans 6:12-23; 1 Corinthians 8:9-23 and Galatians 5:13-15
Once upon a time there were two men—both bent over and struggling with huge boulders of varying proportions placed on their backs. God, in His sovereignty (He is God, of course!), throws them both into an immense ocean called the world. Now, one of the men is quickly overcome with his great burden and immediately sinks to the bottom—splatt! Yes, the other man starts sinking, too, but suddenly he looks up and cries out to God for help. (Oh, he knows there has to be Someone called God—Someone Who is mighty in power and deed! He just knows he didn’t make himself, much less all the beautiful things around him—this wonder world in which he was now living? Yes, this man has no doubt—there has to be God!) Amazingly, God immediately reaches down and supplies this man with an impenetrable wet suit (Oh, this was a must because, you see, there are a lot of sharks down there, too!) and a perpetual supply of oxygen to sustain him in this strange and alien land. Bit by bit, this mans actually begins to rise—and with such a load! Why, it defies imagination! Oh, he’s quite wobbly at first—he stumbles, he falls, but finally he even learns to walk around in this murky environment. He goes on like this for a bit, but he gets so tired—man, those boulders are mighty heavy! God whispers to him, “You know it might be easier if we removed this boulder called, ah, pride!” Well, the man thinks this is quite impossible because you see he has always walked around with that boulder and he just can’t imagine life without it. He thinks about this for a while and decides that maybe, just maybe, God might be right (He is God, of course!), so he says, “Okay God, but You’ll have to do it, it’s way too heavy and I just can’t seem to reach it.” The Great and Merciful God again reaches into the ocean and just slips this heavy boulder off the man’s shoulders. “Ouch! God, you didn’t tell me that this was going to be so painful,” the man exclaims! At first, the poor man didn’t know if he can continue to walk—removing that boulder took his breath away! His footing was not as sure, and boy, his muscles really ached because he had to readjust his carriage due to the new lightness of his load. He wasn’t sure this had been such a good idea, but one day, he noticed that he could actually stand up just a little bit straighter and, you know, that initial pain from readjusting those massive boulders had miraculously disappeared! Oh, he quickly thanks God because he just knows all this was truly impossible, but God gently smiles and tells the man that with Him, all things are possible! Well, I’m sure you can figure out the rest of the story. Gradually, over a period of time, God convinces the man that removing boulder after boulder was in His friend’s best interest. (Yes, by this time, the man and God have become very, very close!) Admittedly, the man was not always willing to agree with God every time God wanted to help him by removing this or that boulder, but God never got mad and left him. No, believe it or not, God never left his side! You want to know what God did when the man wouldn’t let God take a boulder away—God just covered the boulder up! That, too, somehow made the man’s burden a little lighter. Then, one day God comes and lifts the man out of the great ocean and delivers him into the most beautiful of all places—home! Wonders of wonders! Home has no boulders—the man jumps and leaps and frolics in the sweet, tall grasses of home! Oh, he has become so light! Then, the man sees Him--God, face to face! The man can’t speak because he has never seen anything, or anyone so beautiful. He couldn’t quite see God before because the ocean world blurred everything, but now he sees and the man gazes upon the beauty of the Lord for all eternity! Oh, I don’t want you to feel bad for the poor man lying on the bottom of the ocean. You see, somehow, someway known only by God Himself, that man who lay splattered underneath the weight he was carrying was still breathing, barely, but still breathing! God’s friend came across him one day and had great pity on him—the poor man was just a crushed heap on the ocean floor! He told the man how God made it possible for him to move around, and yes, even enjoy living in that strange ocean world. Unbeknownst to God’s friend, the poor crushed, splattered man had been secretly watching him for quite some time. He noticed how God’s friend was able to live in that strange world and he had taken special note of the friendship he had formed with God. It finally dawned on this man that God might do the same for him. So, he, too, cried out to God for help and now, together both men get to share in all that God had planned for them from the very beginning—eternal joy! The End.

Sisters, that is Christian freedom—the freedom to say “yes” to God and “no” to sin! Like these men, until we discover that it is God that saves, that God is more than able, that it is God, not us doing the work, then we, too, will surely sink to the bottom of this ocean! Everything has its beginning in God. God works everything out based on His will and for our good purpose, and in the end—all the glory goes to our Father, God! Amen and hallelujah!

1) In the story above, the boulders represent our sin. It doesn’t matter if you think you have ever sinned or not, God’s Word tells us that because of our earthly father, Adam, we’re all born into sin (Romans 5:12-14.) This is why God declared every man guilty under Adam, not to condemn us for all eternity, but so He could declare all of us righteous through our new spiritual re-birth, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Romans 5:15-19!)
2) The righteous man above (the one who first cried out to God) was given gifts by God. What do you think they represent? The wet suit (Galatians 3:1?) The oxygen (Genesis 2:7 and John 20:22?)
3) Do you think that along the way this man may have picked up sins other than those he started out with? Have you? What is the solution (1 John 2:1?)
4) Hey, why didn’t he (us, too) die with all those boulders on his back (Isaiah 53:11 and 1 Peter 2:24?)
5) Slaves to sin or enslaved to Christ (2 Peter 2:19; Romans 6:18-19? What is the difference? How is it that only one way brings freedom?
6) What does slavery to sin bring (Romans 6:23?) What does willfully enslaving ourselves to Christ and righteousness bring to us (Romans 6:21-23?)
7) Can anyone free themselves? To be set free, what must take place (Romans 7:24-25; Colossians 1:13?)
8) Have you died yet? Can a dead man sin (Romans 6:2, 7?) How does our baptism speak of this death (Romans 6:1-5 and Galatians 3:24-29?)
9) In Christ, we are no longer sinking under the law, with its rules and regulations! We are free men! As free men are we under any law, if so, what is it and did you see it demonstrated in the story above (Matthew 22:36-40; Romans 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 8:1c and 1 Corinthians 13!)
10) Can you name some things that in Christ we are free to do or participate in (Colossians 2:20-23?)
11) Now, we come to the part that can step on some toes! So, we feel free to, say, go to a football game and have a couple of beers. Okay, but you have a friend who believes in his heart that drinking is a terrible sin? What do you do? Remember, love!
12) Someone’s consciousness can be strong or weak (Romans 14:23 and 1 Corinthians 8:3-7.) Who do they answer to, God or man (Romans 2:1 and Romans 8:29-31?)
13) What should be our response to those who are weak in their faith (Romans 15:1-2; 1 Corinthians 8:9; 1 Corinthians 8:11?)
14) Who does 1 Corinthians 8:12 say we ultimately are sinning against when we do not operate in love toward our brothers and sisters in Christ?
15) It all comes back to loving God and loving others, sometimes to do this we have to die to ourselves. The paradox is that this is freedom (Matthew 10:39; Matthew 16:25 and Mark 8:34-37!) God’s ways are truly not our way! To see what true love is, let’s take another look at 1 Corinthians 13! Against such things, there is not law! Glory!