Freedom in Christ

When the heart is filled with God, we will not only find God everywhere, but also true freedom. God gave us his freedom in Christ. It is not freedom in the political sense, but in the spiritual sense. Freedom, along with justice, are precious gifts that cement our Christian worldview and conviction. Christ is complete freedom because he is the Truth. To speak of a true freedom presupposes that there must then be a freedom that is not real, that is fictitious, or simply that is instituted on values that have nothing to do with ours.

Christ, by freeing us from the power of darkness, and moving us into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col. 1:13), undeservedly rewarded us with an incomparable freedom: he freed us from the law of sin, he freed us from insipid and impractical legalism Living under standards and precepts to please man and not God, freed us from eternal death through conviction of sin and repentance and also freed us from the slavery that we all carry within as a result of our ignorance. Jesus has set us free through his Spirit. This freedom is total. Salvation is liberation, but it is never freedom to sin and do whatever we want. Salvation comes through our faith in Jesus Christ, so faith, salvation, and freedom in Christ make up a powerful triangle that breaks all chains.

Unfortunately there is a gospel corrupted by the world, preached in the name of Christ to fill personal coffers with fortune and iniquity, which proclaims a freedom more akin to laxity and debauchery. The concept that the Bible gives us of freedom is not so that we live disorderly in frank opposition to the new life that we experience in Christ, it is not to allow ourselves to sin while ignoring the consequences, it is not to transgress the immutable statutes of God at all costs, but it is the freedom to avoid sin, to reject it energetically, is to be servants of justice.

Heavenly Father gave us freedom to unite with the risen Christ so that we can bear fruit worthy of his name in a new life. It is freedom that should not be a stumbling block for the weak (1Co 8: 9) because when we confuse freedom in Christ with uncontrolled debauchery, we can drag with us those weak brothers in the faith who see us as mature Christians and will want to imitate us believing that we are doing the right thing when it is the opposite. Trusting in Christ as Lord and Savior does not give us a license to sin and justify sin under a false interpretation of "free will."

Freedom in Christ is beautiful and also - worth the redundancy - liberating. It frees me from the eagerness of trying to please God with my abilities and my Christian action, it imparts to me the grace that tells me at every moment that it is He who does all the work, it reminds me that I have received the Spirit so that in my human condition renew every day the vows of unconditional surrender to my Lord from the perspective of his mercy. I lived for a long time without understanding my freedom in Christ, in fact I believe that in some way I was still a slave to comply with the religious norms that we impose (or impose on us) and that only serve to pretend a supposed and dubious sanctity. The permanent fear of displeasing Dio did not let me see the horizon until I understood the concept of freedom. The writer Ch. Trumbull once wrote that salvation is a twofold gift: freedom from the wages of sin and freedom from the power of sin.

We are definitely free with the freedom with which Paul joyfully wrote to the Philippians from prison for the gospel's sake. I invite you to meditate on this biblical truth: freedom in Christ casts out fear; where his Spirit is, there is freedom and you and I are his dwelling place. There is no better reason to feel free. God bless you!