Sermon: We are Called to Liberty
#1813-AM
Martin G. Collins
Given 13-Apr-25; 66 minutes
2025-04-13
summary: Romans 12:1 encourages God's chosen saints to present their bodies (including their minds, eyes, ears, tongues, and every other body part in service, completely devoid of any worldly influences or sinful desire) as living sacrifices that are holy and entirely acceptable to Him. Our Creator does not want just our money or time, but the entirety of our lives, wanting us to be holy as He is. As we are liberated from the bondage of sin, we are now free because we are slaves of righteousness, ironically the only true and lasting liberty. Because God has redeemed us from sin by Christ's sacrifice, we should be willing to give everything we have and are, emulating His mercy, compassion, and grace as revealed by His physical creation, laws, and wisdom which He bestows upon both the elect and the non-elect, though without God's Holy Spirit, they are not understood. God's freely given gifts and grace are involved in the entire process of salvation, equipping us with whatever is necessary to successfully carry out Almighty God's purpose. Exercising the godly traits of mercy and compassion to spiritual siblings, as well as to neighbors and enemies, places God's saints on the trajectory of eternal life as members of His family.
transcript:
The Days of Unleavened Bread, especially the first and last holy days, are not days focused on sin. Since unleavened bread in this context represents sin, these are the days of un-sin, of no sin. The penalty of sin has been removed, but we have been cleansed, and Christ's righteousness has been ascribed to us so that we may live righteous lives as we reject the ways of this world of sin. We leave it behind us and focus on living God's way of life. Jesus Christ made our liberation from sin possible with His sacrifice, and His blood justifies us. At Passover we were symbolically cleansed. Please turn with me to I Corinthians 5, verse 7. The First Day of Unleavened Bread represents the beginning of our deliverance, our liberty from sin, and our sanctification. It symbolizes our spiritual liberty! Especially during these Days of Unleavened Bread, we should ask ourselves what we must do to live God's way of life and be a faithful witness. I Corinthians 5:7-8 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. This is a very positive festival that we have entered into and are celebrating and memorializing. The positive focus of the Days of Unleavened Bread is uplifting and joyful and hopeful and liberating. These are the days of righteousness and liberation! So what is liberty? Liberty has long been a highly sought after condition for humanity. The desire for liberty and the pursuit of freedom have taken many forms and are expressed frequently in the chronicles of American history. The Pledge of Allegiance for the citizens of the United States is this: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So right from the founding of this country, liberty was a desired state. And just before his condemnation to death by the British, the patriot Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death." Liberty to him was more important than actually losing his life. Of course, he was speaking of secular liberty, and we are going to be focusing on spiritual liberty in this sermon. What is so vital about liberty that people have so desperately sought it even under the threat of death? When the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution were written and ratified, the Bible was generally regarded as the standard for moral law. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution were written as the guiding civil law designed to work in conjunction with the Bible. In 1778, just a few years later, James Madison, the fourth President of the United States (and just a side thing, he was only 5'2 or 4' or something like that but his brain was an amazing thing and his stature by his intellect was lifted up to great heights) said, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." In 1832, Noah Webster, the author of the first American dictionary in the English language, wrote, "The principles of all genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations, are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority." So at least they had a few things right back then and they did focus and realize the value of the Scriptures, although they did have different viewpoints on it, but they were still trying. Often liberty and freedom are thought to be the same thing, but there are subtle differences. Webster's Dictionary defines liberty as "the quality or state of being free; the power to do as one pleases; freedom from physical restraint; freedom from arbitrary or despotic control; the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges; the power of choice." Liberty is the enjoyment of privileges and the power of choice, at least in the secular sense, according to the dictionary. Now notice how similar the definition of freedom is. Freedom is "the quality or state of being free; the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action; liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another—independence; the state or quality of being exempt, usually from something burdensome." Freedom is independence from something burdensome. Please turn with me to I John 5:1. Love turns a burden into no burden at all. And God's commandments are not a burden, but a privilege and an opportunity to show our love. God's commandments may be difficult, but they are not burdensome, because Christ never laid a commandment on someone without giving him the strength to carry it out. I John 5:1-3 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. Every commandment required of us provides another opportunity to show our love to someone else and especially to God. Obedience is the main proof of love, and we cannot prove our love to anyone other than by seeking to please God and bring Him joy. Keeping God's commandments is liberating. His love in us gives us the desire to love and to please Him, so we eagerly keep His commandments and receive liberty. Please turn over to Matthew 11, verse 28. Rightly understood and followed God's commandments bring us great joy and freedom, not a sense of oppression. And we are provided liberty if we keep those commandments. Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Now "Come to Me" in verse 28 is an invitation to trust Jesus personally, not merely to believe historical facts about Him. "All who labor and are heavy laden" refers to the immediate context to those oppressed by the burden of the religious system imposed on the peoples by the scribes and Pharisees at that time. But the wider application is that Jesus provides rest for your souls. That is, eternal rest for all who seek forgiveness of their sins, freedom from the burden of false religion, and guilt of trying to earn salvation by good works. Jesus' yoke of discipleship, on the other hand, brings rest through sincere commitment to Him. Please turn over to Galatians 5, verse 13. Obeying God's commandments is the way to love others because God's commandments show us the true way to do good for others. Galatians 5:13-14 For you, brethren have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love and law are complementary. God wants to carry our burdens, but often we continue to bear them ourselves even when we claim to be trusting in Him. Trust the same strength that sustains us to also carry our burdens. Psalm 55:22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. So the reason the faithful can cast their burden on the Lord is that He can be trusted to bring judgment upon the evildoers who burden us. The Psalms do not say when God will cast them down; the faithful will patiently wait for God's own good timing. The Septuagint renders "cast your burden" as "cast your anxieties." But Peter urges us to a similar faith in the face of persecution. I Peter 5:6-7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. A prior bondage or incarceration is always implied when the Bible speaks of liberty. Basically, liberty means "the happy state of being released from servitude for a life of enjoyment and satisfaction that was previously impossible." The paradigm of liberty in the Bible is the deliverance of the Israelites from their servitude in Egypt. They had been slaves under Pharaoh, and an act of divine liberation marked the beginning of their nationhood. In the exodus, God set Israel free from bondage in Egypt, so that, from that time on, the nation could serve Him as His covenant people. And He brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, settled them there, and undertook them to maintain political independence and economic prosperity if they avoided idolatry and kept His laws. This meant that Israel's freedom would not depend on her military or political efforts, but on the quality of her obedience to God. Her freedom was a supernatural blessing. God's gift of liberty to Israel was unmerited. His terms were clear. Disobedience, whether in the form of sinfulness or social injustice, would result in their loss of freedom. God judges His people by national disaster and enslavement. Please turn over to Psalm 119, verse 41. As the God of their fathers had liberated them, the liberty He had brought them was to be reflected in their constitution and laws. Psalm 119:41-45 Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord—Your salvation according to Your word. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in Your ordinances. So shall I keep Your law continually forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts. So obedience and liberty are often found together as well as the precepts and statutes. All those are a package that all tie in together. Liberty in the Old Testament means, on the one hand, deliverance from created forces that would keep people from serving and enjoying their Creator. And on the other hand, it means the joyous happiness of living in fellowship with God under His covenant in the place where He chooses and blesses. Liberty is the opposite of slavery to those things that oppose God. And we do not achieve spiritual liberty; it is a free, unmerited gift. It is something that apart from God's action, we cannot possess at all, but yet we know mankind in general wants liberty and even, as we saw, to death if necessary. In its continuance, liberty is a covenant blessing that God has promised to maintain if His people are faithful. It does not mean independence from God. It is precisely in God's service that we find perfect liberty. We can only enjoy release from bondage to the created through bondage to our Creator. (This is important.) So the way God sets us free from our captors and our enemies is to make us His slaves, and He frees us by bringing us to Himself. Human nature, however, tends to lead us to believe that liberty is synonymous with independence. More specifically, Satan would like us to believe that independence is liberty or freedom from responsibility and from obeying anyone else. It has become known in this society as individualism. Individualism is a significant deterrent to liberty. What individualism has come to mean is the abolition of the community, that is, each person stands alone even within the natural human family. On a physical level, we observe the degradation of liberty in our society today. Liberty unchained leads ultimately to servitude, to the end of all individual freedom. Please turn over to Mark 7, verse 21. Now pursuing freedom first leads us to political liberty, and then, if there is no self-discipline of the free, to self-indulgent liberty, or rather licentiousness, where whatever pleases a person is allowed. Licentiousness is undisciplined and unrestrained behavior, especially a flagrant disregard of sexual restraints. It is a deficiency of a morally unrestrained mind. Mark 7:21-23 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man." Now the Greek word translated licentiousness here means outrageous conduct, indicating that licentious behavior extends beyond sin to encompass a disregard for what is right and the well-being of others, which is exactly the direction that our society has been heading. So let us add the concept of "license" (from which licentiousness comes) to liberty and freedom. In general terms, freedom, liberty, and license refer to "the power or condition of acting without compulsion." That is the way they are similar. However, freedom has a broad range of applications, from total absence of restraint to a sense of not being unduly hampered or frustrated. So Christ died to set us free from sin, not free to do whatever we want, because that would lead back to slavery to our selfish desires. Thanks to Christ, we are now free and able to do what was impossible before and live unselfishly. Now those who appeal to their freedom so they can have their own way or indulge their desires are falling back into sin. We could even see that in the riots that went on in previous summers where they claimed that they had the freedom to demonstrate, but really they were taking advantage of it and causing violence and death and destruction. Do you merely enjoy your freedom from sin, or do you use it to serve others? That is really what the Days of Unleavened Bread are about, focusing on what we can do for others, how we can love one another, and that type of thing, and not over-dwelling on our past sins and things like that. We still have to overcome. But this is a positive festival that we are in, and we should look at how we can live God's way of life rather than focusing on the negatives of sin which is passed, so to speak. Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. So Paul says, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Christ liberated us from that in which we were born, not to bring us into another form of bondage, but in order to make us free from bondage. Liberty suggests release from former restraint or compulsion. The enemies from whom God through Christ liberates His people are revealed to be sin, Satan, and death. License implies freedom specially granted or conceded and may indicate an abuse of liberty. Christian liberty is neither an abolishing of responsibility nor a sanctioning of license. License to do whatever pleases leads to chaos. When pleasure is not regulated by self-discipline, chaos ultimately yields to tyranny, and the tolerance that allows it to do so precedes the chaos. And it has been said tolerance is the device used to change a form of government from a tolerant one into an intolerant one, which is exactly what has happened to the United States, especially the Leftist agenda, but it is generally the people of the United States are just in a sinful state. Please turn with me to Romans 2, verse 14. Every politically liberal person has a totalitarian trying to come out of their heart. And out of the heart the mouth speaks, and out of the heart come the words, and we can certainly see this in our news media, in the academia today in this country and around the world. No one anticipates outrageous conduct as the outcome of pursuing liberty, and as long as liberty is tempered by the law written in our hearts, it is not a danger. Romans 2:14-16 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. So when the heart no longer knows such a law, the decline of liberty through decadence becomes inevitable. Let us shift gears here a moment to make a comparison. The United States of America was born in the 18th century, a century marked by triumph of the Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment is often portrayed as the enemy of religion by its very nature. One Illuminist, Emmanuel Kant, defined the Enlightenment as "liberation from self-imposed immaturity," by which he meant liberation from the constraints of religion, specifically Christianity. Please turn with me to Romans 8, verse 1. Now the Age of Enlightenment is not defined primarily by enmity to religion. In reality, the Enlightenment is a religion, but it is more specifically enmity toward God. The Enlightenment was actually a religion of enmity toward God. Romans 8:1-8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. [Of course this is Paul speaking.] For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. James 4:4 Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So the Enlightenment that brought this world to individualism is anti-God, having enmity toward Him. Earlier, in the Middle Ages, feudalism was characterized by the dominance of interpersonal covenants: the emperor to an elector, the king to vassals, the landlord to tenants or serfs, and of course, God to the people. So individuals were strongly tied to the community or communities. People cared for one another more personally in society, especially within their local communities. However, freedom of movement was severely restricted, which hindered the work of God from flourishing worldwide, and God allowed this for a while to suit His purpose. He decided to break down feudalism and the Roman Catholic Church's stranglehold on a significant part of the world. The rise of towns where a self-sufficient middle class could flourish, the discovery of and conquest of the American continents, the rise of capitalism, and the Protestant Reformation all contributed to breaking down traditional forms of understanding. Please turn with me to II Peter 1, verse 19. It allowed individuals to become autonomous, a law unto themselves. And private interpretation of Scripture exploded. II Peter 1:19-21 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as the light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy [that is, teaching or preaching or prediction] of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The Protestant principle of permitting individualistic private interpretation was set loose in the context of the freedom, democracy, and equality of North America. From this came the present attitude in mainstream Christianity that every man's opinion is as good as everyone else's, resulting in non-biblical cultural Christianity today. This principle does not apply in physics or medicine, and it is not universally applicable in law or theology. Judges 17:5-6 The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel; and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And that seems to be the push that we have had for quite a few years now, until recently anyway, but it still goes on because it is in the hearts of men to do what is right in their own eyes. God sees this attitude as a product of pride. Proverbs 21:2-4 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. A haughty look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are sin. Now spiritually, the instrument through which this liberty is imparted is the truth. You can find that in John 8:32. We are earnestly warned not to presume upon or abuse our liberty in Christ. I Peter 2:15-16 [Peter writes] For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Physically, freedom is possible within limits, but humanity cannot agree on those limits because it has rejected the source of righteous standards—God! Without limits, freedom leads to confusion and then to chaos. Freedom and limits are often perceived as incompatible, but a healthy middle ground exists where freedom is balanced with acceptable limits. This liberty can only be provided by God who first frees us from a life of sin. The true spiritual enemies from whom God through Christ liberates His people are revealed to be sin, Satan, and death, as I mentioned earlier. And when freed from the enemy, we are in a state of Christian liberty. Please turn to Romans 6, verse 1. So sin is present as a master whose slaves are unable to escape his control except by dying or becoming the property of another. So we, the elect, passed from the power of sin through our death with Jesus Christ, and Paul says those who have died to sin can no longer live in sin. And that is part of the focus of the Days of Unleavened Bread. We can no longer live in sin. Romans 6:1-11 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. [That is the life we should live, to live for God, to God. In everything we do and say we are to glorify Him always.] Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:14-18 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. What an encouraging set of scriptures that is, that passage there. Having died with Christ, we now walk in newness of life, as verse 4 states, living from that time on in the service of God and enjoying sanctification and its ultimate goal, eternal life. The Days of Unleavened Bread explains and memorializes the second major step in salvation, that is, our sanctification. The first significant step is the justification that Passover pictures. Verse 22 gives us a three-step process to eternal liberty and everlasting life. First, Jesus Christ liberates us from sin. Second, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we serve God in obedience to the law of liberty. And third, in liberty from sin, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we produce righteous fruit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control, and all the other wonderful attributes of God that we are to imitate and internalize. Please turn over to James 1, verse 23. We must remember that God requires us not only to hear about the perfect law of liberty, but to continually do something with it. James 1:23-25 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. So sin has dominion over humanity as long as they are under the penalty of the law. Freedom from the penalty of the law was a central element in Paul's explanation of the process of salvation in Romans 6. It is inseparably bound up with freedom from sin, although law is not equated with sin. In Romans 7:1-4 the law is depicted as a husband to whom his wife, the Christian, is bound as long as they both live. The husband's death frees her from that bond and enables her to marry another spiritually, Christ. Please turn over to Galatians 3, verse 23. The law is also represented as our schoolmaster as well, as it is in a family situation. Galatians 3:23-25 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. So the law's true purpose is to lead us to Christ. And now we are sons being reconciled to God and made one with one another and with all who throughout history have been justified based on God's promise. Please turn over to Isaiah 61, verse 1. Christ's ministry was one of liberation. He is described in Luke as announcing Himself as the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1, which announces good news to the meek and release of captives. Isaiah 61:1-2 [the heading in this section of my Bible says The Good News of Salvation] "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn." Christ came to proclaim liberty to captive people and in a general sense, everyone has been captive to sin until being called and being released from that. And we continue to overcome for the rest of our lives, right? It is the process of sanctification. Since Jesus started no physical liberation to free slaves, His well-known statement in this vein is spiritually intended when He claims in Luke 4:18 that God has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and to set at liberty those who were bruised. So with this explanation of Isaiah 61 and the resulting activity, He showed that the liberation He proclaimed was not the kind that many of His contemporaries anticipated, that is, liberation from imperial Rome. The disciples thought their liberation was going to be physical, but He was speaking of spiritual liberation. Political liberation was proclaimed by the adherents of the "fourth philosophy," as Josephus called it in Antiquities 18.1.1,6. (If you have ever seen the Antiquities, the only way you can find things in it is to go to that route, which is similar to the way the Bible is laid out. Josephus was a historian just after the time of Christ.) I am going to repeat that. Political liberation was proclaimed by the adherence of the "fourth philosophy," as Josephus called it, that is, the followers of Judas of Galilee who developed into the the party of the Zealots in due course. So neither in the teaching of Jesus nor in the rest of the New Testament does political liberty play a significant part. It is very minor. It just has to do with what was happening at the time, just in a general sense. The incident of the tribute money in Mark 12 shows that Jesus did not regard the payment of taxes to Caesar as an obstacle to the interests of the Kingdom of God at that time. Please turn over John 8, verse 34. So ignoring zealot obsessions with the national liberation from Rome, Christ declared that He had come to set Israelites free from the state of slavery to sin and Satan in which He found them. John 8:34-36 Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." He said he had come to overthrow the prince of this world and release his prisoners. Exorcisms and healings were part of this work of dispossession, and Jesus appealed to these as proof of the coming among men of the representative of the Kingdom of God. Liberty is a concept that describes salvation, in a sense. In all its aspects, this freedom is the gift of Christ who by death brought us out of bondage. I Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So freedom from the law, sin, and death is conveyed to us by the Spirit that unites us to Christ through faith. Liberation brings with it adoption. And those set free from guilt become sons of God and receive the Spirit of Christ as a spirit of adoption, assuring us that we are, in truth, God's sons and heirs. Now our response to the divine gift of liberty and the means of receiving it is a free acceptance of bond service to God, Jesus Christ, righteousness, and all men for the sake of the gospel. Christian liberty is neither an excuse for abolishing responsibility nor a license to act without restraint. Please turn over to I Corinthians 9, verse 18. We are no longer under the penalty of the law for salvation, but we are not without law toward God, as interpreted and exemplified by Christ Jesus. The divine law remains a standard expressing God's will for us, the freed bondservants. So we are under the law of Christ. I Corinthians 9:18-21 What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel [Paul speaking here], I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law. The law of Christ, the law of liberty, and the law of love are all the same law. And the principle is the voluntary and selfless sacrifice for the good of humanity and the glory of God. So this life of love is the response of gratitude that the liberating gospel both requires and stirs up in us. Christian liberty is precisely freedom for love and service to God and mankind. And it is abused when it is made an excuse for an unloving license or irresponsible consideration. Paul wrote, I Corinthians 8:9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. So we must use our liberty responsibly with an eye to what is excellent and expedient and edifying and tender regard for others. The limits that permit even enhanced true liberty are those of a covenant between God and man. To serve the Creator God is not as much servitude as liberty. It is not servitude if the one that we serve is the very One who, in being served, makes us free. John 8:36 states, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." In the spiritual adherence to the word written in the heart through the Holy Spirit, we can be part of a glorious Kingdom in which chaos does not need to be restrained by change because chaos will not arise. Paul wrote in II Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Our liberty is best utilized through the responsible fulfillment of the law of love toward God and toward one another. Now we shift gears. We must provide service that makes sense, not just infuse ourselves into people's lives. And it seems like Facebook really helps us do that, does it not, infuse yourself into other people's lives. Please turn to Romans 12, verse 1. Beginning in Romans 12, God inspires Paul to provide insight into God's righteousness in everyday life. The gift of God's saving righteousness leads to a new life. And Paul discusses some practical implications of God's saving mercy. The first two verses summarize what our response to God's grace should be, and they encapsulate what it means to live in a way that pleases God. Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The mercies of God are essentially necessary for us. We must give ourselves entirely to God because of His saving grace. Sacrificial language from the Old Testament is used to signify our new life as Christians, and this means that the word "bodies" here refers to Christians as whole persons because both body and soul belong to God. So we are a living sacrifice, meaning that we are alive from the dead since we enjoy new life in Christ. Living also means that we will not be put to death as the Old Testament animal sacrifices were because Christ has fulfilled what was predicted by those sacrifices. Whereas the Old Testament worship focused on offering animal sacrifices in the Temple, Paul says that spiritual worship in a broad sense now includes offering one's whole life to God, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and so on. Here is an example. Hebrews 13:15-16 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. This present evil age still threatens those who belong to Christ, so we must resist its pressure. Our lives change as our minds are renewed, allowing us to discern God's will. And therefore we must discover the value and substance of God's mercy by applying it or testing it in practical use. And that is, we should have mercy toward others. Let us examine two specific aspects of the living sacrifice we are to offer. 1) the specific nature of this sacrifice: it is an offering of our bodies presented to God as something holy and pleasing to Him. 2) the specific motive for the sacrifice: why we should make that sacrifice. Few things move us to hushed awe as much as a person's sacrifice of his or her life for someone else. It is the ultimate proof of true love. In John 15:13, Jesus says, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay one down one's life for his friends." Now please turn over to I John 4, verse 16. This is what Jesus did for us, and what we must do for Him. If we truly love Him, we are sacrificing ourselves for Him daily because He loved and gave Himself for us. We who love Him are likewise to give ourselves to Him as living sacrifices. Of course, it is not only the Son of God who loves us, but God the Father Himself also. I John 4:16-20 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in Him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And that hate includes anger carried on and things like that. But there is a tremendous difference. Jesus died in our place, bearing the punishment of God for our sins so that we would not have to bear the penalty of death. Our sacrifices are nothing like that. They are not an atonement for sin in any sense, but they are like Christ in this at least, that we are the ones who make them and that the sacrifices we make are ourselves. This is what Paul is referring to in Romans 12:1. So it bears the question then: what exactly is meant by sacrifice and how are we to do it? The first point is obvious. The sacrifice is to be a living sacrifice, not a dead one. This was quite a novel idea in Paul's day when sacrifices were always killed. The animal was brought to the priest, the sins of the person bringing the sacrifice were confessed over the animal and symbolically transferred them to it. Then the animal was put to death, and it was a vivid way of reminding everyone that the wages of sin is death and that the salvation of sinners is by substitution. In these sacrifices, the animal died in place of the worshipper. It died so that he or she might not have died. But now, with a burst of divinely inspired creativity, so to speak, Paul reveals that the sacrifice we are to offer are not to be dead but rather living. We are to offer our lives to God. II Corinthians 5:15 And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. We are to be living sacrifices, yes, but with what life? Indeed, not our old sinful lies in which when we lived in them we were dead already. Instead we are to offer our new spiritual lives that have been given to us by Christ. And we must trust to give ourselves to God as He requires. Other people may offer God their money, their time, or even work for a church, but only a Christian can give back to God the new spiritual life in Christ that they have first been given. Truly we can do this because we have been made alive in Christ. Please turn over to Romans 6, verse 12. Now the second thing we need to consider about the nature of the sacrifice God requires is that it involves giving our bodies to God. In other words, we must give God the use of our minds, eyes, ears, tongues, hands, feet, and all different parts of our bodies. Paul does not elaborate on what he means by presenting our bodies to God as living sacrifices in Romans 12, but he already presented this idea in Romans chapter 6. Romans 6:12-14 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under [the penalty of the] law but under grace. I added the penalty of the law there. Not under the law, or not under the penalty of the law, but under grace. Paul makes the same point there as he first begins to discuss sanctification as seen in Romans 12:1: we are to serve God by offering Him our bodies. Sin can control us through our bodies, but it does not need to. So rather than offering our bodies as instruments of sin, we are to offer our bodies to God as instruments for doing His will, that is, for doing good. We do good toward others which glorifies God. The next word Paul uses in Romans 12:1 to describe the nature of the sacrifices we offer to God is "holy." We must be holy. So our problem is that often we do not want to give ourselves to God. We will give Him things. It is relatively easy to give to God, although we are often far less generous in this regard. We will even dedicate a certain amount of our time to God, and we will volunteer for charitable work, but we will not give ourselves. Yet without ourselves, these other gifts mean nothing to the Almighty. Please turn over to I Peter 1, verse 15. We only achieve reasonable service and holiness when we know that God does not want our money or our time without us. We are for whom Christ died. We are those He loves. So when the Bible speaks of reasonable service, it means we are those God wants, and we are pathetic if we try to substitute things for the greatest gift. Any acceptable sacrifice must be holy, without spot or blemish, and offered entirely to God. Anything less is an insult to the great and holy God we serve. I Peter 1:15-16 But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." Additionally, the author of Hebrews states in Hebrews 12:14, "Without holiness, no one will see the Lord." So this is the very heart of what we are talking about when we speak of living sacrifices: holiness is the ultimate goal, the point to which the entire epistle to the Romans has been leading. Romans is about salvation, and salvation does not mean that Jesus died to save us in our sins, but to save us from our sins. The next word Paul uses in Romans 12:1 to describe how we should present our bodies to God as living sacrifices that are "acceptable." I will read that again just to refresh in your mind. Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So if we do what Paul has urged us to do, offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy to God, then we will also find that what we have done is acceptable to God. Now notice that the word acceptable occurs twice in this short paragraph. The first time we see this it indicates that our offering of ourselves to God is pleasing to God. And the second time, at the end of verse 2, it indicates that when we do this, we will find God's will for our lives to be pleasing, sound, and perfect. So how could it be otherwise if God is all wise and all good? He must will what is good for us. That our offering of ourselves to Him should also please Him when we know ourselves to be weak, ignorant, and half-hearted even in our best efforts, is astonishing. The Bible tells us that at our best we are to think of ourselves as an unprofitable servant. Luke 17:10 "So likewise you, when you have done all these things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'" But it also says that if we live in Christ, offering back to Him what He has first given to us, then one day we will hear Him speak, as He did in, Matthew 25:21 "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord." So what motivates people to be their best? Speaking of you and I in this, what motivates us to be our best? There are several answers. One way to motivate people is to challenge them. What motivates us to live a Christian life or, to use Paul's language in Romans 12:1, what motivates us to offer our bodies as living sacrifice? If we thought clearly all the time and always had our priorities straight, we would not need any encouragement to offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices, but it would be the most sensible and sincere thing for us to do. Our God, our Creator, has redeemed us from sin by the death of Jesus Christ. He has made us alive in Christ. He loves us and cares for us. It is reasonable to love God and serve Him in return, but we are not as sensible as that and need urging because we have human nature. In Romans 12:1, Paul urges us to offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices, and the motivation he provides is God's mercy. In the Greek text of Romans 12:1, the word mercy is plural rather than singular, so the reason for giving ourselves to God is because of God's multiple mercies. He has been good to us. Please turn to II Corinthians 1:3. What is mercy? This is not the first time mercy is mentioned in Romans. Mercy is one of the three words that often are found together in Scripture—goodness, grace, and mercy. So God is the Father of mercies. II Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. His compassion is over all He has made, and we are saved by grace because of His merciful love. Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). Jesus was often moved with compassion, and He wants us to be merciful as your Father also is merciful. We are to put on heartfelt compassion, and the merciful are blessed and will receive mercy. James 2:12-13 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Matthew 5:7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." So goodness is often found together in Scripture with mercy and grace. Goodness is the most general term involving all that emanates from God: His decrees, His creation, His laws, and His wisdom, and it extends to the elect and the non-elect, although not in the same manner. And grace is also found with mercy and goodness. Grace expresses God's freely given gifts. It is involved in the entire process of salvation and provides us with whatever is necessary to successfully carry out God's purpose. Mercy and goodness are aspects of grace. Giving everything you have to God is reasonable because only spiritual things will last. Everything we see and touch and handle will pass away. John wrote, I John 2:17 (NIV) The world and its desires pass away, but he who does the will of God lives forever.
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