Dictations From The Spirit

1 Peter 2:16: as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.

On this 4^th of July, American citizens celebrate the day that 13 colonies declared their independence from the rule and reign of the British Empire. This courageous move was documented in a paper famously known as the Declaration of Independence. The wording of this amazing document spells out the reasons why these colonists were taking this huge step. The reasons all center on a restrictive set of policies that limited their abilities to do what they think are right and reasonable.

Coming to faith in Christ is a declaration of liberty and freedom from the slavery to sin. Under the grip of the deathly fruits of sin, we are shackled by guilt, shame, condemnation, fear, anxiety, and a seemingly endless inevitable set of adverse consequences. With the procurement of forgiveness from our sins by our faith in what Jesus did at the Cross, we are liberated and made free from these debilitating consequences. Just as the founding fathers of America declared their right to choose how they should conduct themselves, so does the person who wants to be free from the restrictive reign of sin.

A great lie about sin is we should be free to do what we want – what our flesh tells us will make us happy. Here’s an important question, “What if what our flesh wants isn’t really what is going to make us happy?” If we consider this possibility that our flesh is wrong about what makes us happy, then the alleged freedom of sinful conduct is really an enslavement to conduct that is going to make us unhappy. The freedom we gain upon our faith in Christ is not necessarily just the freedom that allows us to do what we want to do, but this freedom also allows us to choose what we don’t want to do. With the invitation of Christ to deliver us from the harmful habits and bad behaviors that come from sin, we are liberated to move forward in total forgiveness.

Satan may have lost the war for our souls, but he is not giving up on making our lives miserable. He does this by either introducing suffering or tempting our flesh that was crucified with Christ to sin once again – to the vices we once were held captive. An improper teaching of the Christian faith is since we have forgiveness of sins by our faith in Christ, we can keep sinning because we are forgiven. Sin is a big deal – it was the reason Jesus went to the Cross. At a minimum, to keep sinning after coming to faith in Christ is an insult to the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. More importantly, it may be a signal that our confession of faith was not completely sincere.

The issue we need to consider is whether we want to be slaves to sin or whether we want to be bondservants to the One who freed us from that slavery to sin? A bondservant is someone who voluntarily chooses to be fully submitted to the authority of another. This may sound like slavery, but the difference to the typical definition of slavery is in being a bondservant, we make the choice to follow Jesus. By making this choice, we are declaring a dependence on Jesus to find our freedom. Our dependence on Jesus gives us the liberty of living free from the burdens of sin.

As a country, we sought freedom through independence from the British rule. However, our founding fathers recognized that while we sought independence from tyrannical British rule, our true freedom was going to come from dependence on God. The last sentence of the Declaration of Independence says, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Freedom is an extraordinary blessing, and it comes at a high cost. The best way to live in freedom is to depend on the One who paid the price for our freedom. If He was good enough to buy us our liberty, shouldn’t He be good enough to preserve our liberty?

How many times have you formulated an opinion about someone after only knowing a little bit about him/her?  How many of those times were you using information that wasn’t obtained directly from the person you’re evaluating?  If you think you’ve never done this, then you can stop reading. For the rest who are honest with yourself, consider one of the three servants in Jesus’ Parable of the Talents noted in Matthew 25:14-30.

In this Parable, a man gives five talents to one of his servants, two talents to a second one, and one talent to the third. The first two servants understand that the man has given them something of value, and he is hoping that they would not only take care of this value but also add to it.  The man goes away for a long time and then returns to see how they did.  The first two double what was given them, and they are justly commended and rewarded for obeying their master’s intentions.

Now we have the third servant – what does he do?  He takes the one talent, digs a hole in the ground, and hides it.  When his master realizes this, he is not at all happy.  He takes the talent away from the servant and banishes him to the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus’ primary objective of this Parable was to teach the apostles the concept that with all the gifts that God gives to us, He expects us to use them to build His Kingdom which ultimately glorifies Him.  Jesus emphasizes this in verse 29, “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”

Now is what the third servant did all that bad? He did take care of the talent, and He didn’t lose it.  And what does this have to do with what the first two questions I asked above?  Take a look at what the third servant tells his master in verses 24 and 25 when asked how he did with the talent he had given him, “Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid.”  There is much to be learned from this response, and it speaks directly to the cost of drawing the wrong conclusion about someone – notably God.

First, the servant was afraid of his master.  More often than not, when it comes to relationships, fear can be largely eliminated once you get to really know someone.  Secondly, he made claims about his master that don’t appear to be true – I draw that conclusion based on the actions of the first two servants.  Even if what the third servant accused him of was true, it didn’t prevent the first two from obeying their master. Finally, the third servant used his fear and lack of knowledge of his master to blame his lack of obedience on the master.

Put yourself in the place of the third servant – are you afraid of God?  Why?  What is the basis of your fear?  Where did you get your information? Is it based on something someone has told you? Yes, the Bible tells us to “fear the Lord”, but this kind of fear truthfully means to have reverence for Him.  The truth is, throughout the Bible, God tells us to “fear not”, “do not fear”, and “do not be afraid” as an introduction to His being in someone’s presence.  To get beyond the wrong type of fear of God, is to get to know Him.  Did you know He wants you to know Him? If He didn’t, there would be no Bible.

We are all wired to have a relationship with God – that is how He created us.  However, He wants a genuine relationship, so He threw in the option for us to make a choice as to whether or not we wanted to pursue such a relationship. He gave us His Word to allow us to get to know Him.  Unless we don’t read His Word, how can we expect to come to know Him?  The result of not knowing the truth is you end up like the third servant with an uninformed impression about God, living in the wrong kind of fear of Him, living a life of disobedience, and ultimately blaming God for your unwillingness to know the truth.  The price of the servant’s wrong impression of his master was being banished to the outer darkness. Are you willing to pay the same price?