Freedom.
We’ve mistaken Cheap Grace for Freedom.
Freedom in Christ doesn’t mean do whatever it is you’d like and automatically you are forgiven. I know this may seem like a shocking concept, but what if, God isn’t in control? What if he wanted it to be that way for a season for a reason? He gave us freedom from the law but the christian life is best lived in repentance. Again I must note the shock value involved, but I’m a sinner and so are you. The goal starts with Jesus, and to understand that goal you must understand the Bible. So many of us will not live and die by the word, we will do so in ignorance. Mark Moore describes it best as biblical illiteracy, and he has marked it an epidemic in the West; the church to be exact.
It’s time to stop playing church, this includes myself. So many Americans want to get in bed with the church and not make a commitment to her. I think the same goes for Jesus, so many Americans want Jesus to admonish their sins, failures, lies, mistakes and what have you but they don’t want to get near him. We really have made grace into our game, we really are capturing hearts with smoke and mirrors and making slaves, not disciples. Oh but the beauty of HIS grace is it’s never too late. You really want to be free? Then start looking like Christ. You really want to look like Christ? Then start reading his word. You really want his word to come to life? Then believe with faith that the holy spirit will empower you to do all things.
This isn’t my Joel Osteen sermon, that you will have a “better life now” that you’ve suddenly submitted to his ways. It’s not like that, it’s not like that at all Mr. Osteen. It’s like the cross, it’s humble and completely contradictory to prosperity via the kingdom of money or anything else of this world. It’s an upside down Kingdom where the poor are rich, and the weak are strong! I’d rather be a beggar knocking at the gates of heaven to get in than a self sustained millionaire who has got everything he needs of this world; The rags are the riches in this Kingdom! It is better to serve in this Kingdom than to be a pawn of society. I pledge allegiance to my God and my King, not to a kingdom that so many honestly believe was founded on christian principle. Real freedom exists with a personal relationship with the great creator of all, the true lover of your soul.
He alone will free you.
