Tag Archives: Freedom in Christ

Rebel Against The World…Not God

Leave a reply

Rebellion.  That word takes on so many different meanings in our lives.  I always remember growing up and even now that the rebels of this world are those that didn’t hang with the crowd.  Maybe they were bikers, got tattoos or piercings, road with the rough crowds.  These are just some broad examples, but you get the point.  When we typically think of rebellion we think of people that are around wilder elements and don’t live like the way people think they should.

Another kind of rebellion that we are so good at doing as a fallen humanity is rebelling against God.  We have really perfected this art in this world as we find it so easy to choose our own pleasure and seek to figure things out on our own rather than trusting in God and following where He is leading us.  Read the book of Jonah.  This book shows Jonah’s rebellion from God and trying to flee to Tarshish rather than going to Nineveh as God tells Him.  As my pastor spelled out however, this book also shows God’s unending grace and radical love in His pursuit of Jonah and seeing the people of Nineveh repent and turn to God.  You here his teaching at this link https://vimeo.com/161467082

Yet, there is another rebellion I really want to talk about.  This is the kind of rebel that Jesus was in His time on earth.  Jesus grew up in a time that was filled with laws and rules for the people of Israel.  The religious leaders of the day had the people jumping to hoop after hoop to follow their impossible to follow rules.  Jesus, however was not bound by that.  He lived with what John Eldredge referred to as a scandalous freedom.  As Lecrae says, Jesus was a rebel, a renegade outlaw, and a sanctified trouble maker.  Yet, he never sinned, living life by a different set of rules.

The type of rebellion that Jesus lived is the type of rebellion that we are meant to live.  A rebellion against this world, not against God.  Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is.”  Do not be conformed to this world.  That’s real rebellion.  Following the Father’s will for our lives.  Living a life of spiritual discipline where you walk with God daily, seek Him out, and be sanctified daily through Christ.

This all sounds so simple in theory and many of us talk of our faith and trying to live it out, but that is the key isn’t it.  Trying to live it out.  There are so many pressures in this life to live for our own pleasure and desires.  We turn to so many things that end up controlling our lives and hold us in bondage instead of giving us freedom.  Freedom

C.S. Lewis stated, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing”  Real freedom is found through Christ alone and in seeking out the heart of God every day.  Be the kind of rebel that Jesus was.  Don’t let this world define who you are.  Your real identity is found in the person of Jesus Christ alone.

I love the ending of the Rebel Intro by Lecrae where it states:

You’re just a conformist, if you’re drunk and naked and driving around on a loud motorcycle smoking cigarettes and breaking commandments
And getting pregnant out of wedlock
Everyone’s done that, it’s so tiring
If you really want to be a rebel, read your Bible, because no one is doing that
That’s rebellion
That’s the only rebellion left

Read your Bible, because that’s the only rebellion left.  That’s so true.  This world has pulled us further and further from the heart of God and everyday there is a stronger pull. You don’t have to follow what everyone else is doing.  Don’t minimize the Word of God and who we are in Christ.  Rather get to know Him more and follow Him more.

Trust me it will be difficult.  Just yesterday, I had to stand strong and say no something related to my kids and sports that we have been a part of for years.  We have always been told that was the way to go, but realized that it was running our lives and we had to change our priorities.  That simple little no may not have seemed like much, but it was a powerful statement for my life and my family.

My challenge to you all is to look over your life.  Look at where your priorities and commitments are and then gauge if those are things that draw you closer to or further from the heart of God and His will for your life.  Sometimes, it requires tough decisions that others may not understand and that may seem wrong to you, but the freedom that will come from truly standing against conformity and following the will of God is so great.

Unearned Freedom Given Out of Love

Leave a reply

Paul tells us something very substantial in Galatians 5:1; “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free and don’t get tied up in slavery to the law.”  This freedom that was given to us, unearned and unmerited is something so huge and substantial to our lives, but for us and our fallen nature we still can’t fully fathom and understand the depths of this freedom.  We still live lives that try to jump through religious hoops and trying to keep up with the world and a false sense of who we are.  We continue hiding, feeling ashamed if we stand out in the world on our faith and in the freedom given in Christ.

In his book, Beautiful Outlaw, a book that I highly, highly recommend, John Eldredge shares something substantial about the extraordinary freedom in Christ.  He says, “How much of what we do is motivated by fear of man?  Think of it – to be entirely free of false guilt, free from pressure, from false allegiances.  It would be absolutely extraordinary.  This is what gives Jesus the ability to say such startling honest things to people.”  Think about this.  Jesus is able to, without any fear, stare right back at the religious leaders and call them out for their hypocrisy.  Jesus is able to rebuke Peter saying, “get away from me Satan” when Peter talks of not allowing Jesus to die.  He clears the temple with a whip in hand causing utter chaos when he sees they turned the temple into a market place.  Those are just a few examples.  Jesus is direct and free from the feeling of guilt for being straight-up and honest with everyone.  He does not worry about this world.  Does not worry about what people think.  He is free from that.  He knows who He is.  He knows His purpose from the Father and set out to fulfill that purpose.

Eldredge adds something else to this.  “Neither success nor opposition have power over him.  One day the crowds love Him, the next they are shouting for his crucifixion.  Jesus in the same man – the same personality – through the whole swirling tempest. Jesus is free from the fear of man.  It is something more than integrity, though it certainly encompasses that.  He is true to himself, true to His Father, true to what the moment most requires, true to love.  In this forest of fig leaves, where you are never sure you are getting the true person, there is nothing false about Jesus.”

This is so substantial for all of us.  Jesus is the second Adam.  He is the example of what man was meant to be and how we were meant to live, with a life fully surrendered and fixed on the will of the Father.  Our world has fallen so much and this is what Jesus came for.  To set us free from our fallen self.  To set us free from sin, this world, death, judgement, and the evil one.

How much greater our lives would be if we could just put aside our worry about what the world thinks.  Free from the pressures of what going with the crowd.  Free from the religious non-sense that Jesus also confronted and tore the veil to free us from, but man through the enemies influence has tried to keep strong and keep a veil between us and the Father.  How much greater this life would be.

The beauty of it all is that we can choose to live this way.  The choice is ours to make. We can choose Jesus and choose to follow His lead seeking the Father’s will.  We are free and alive in Christ and we don’t have to be slaves to this world and to our sin.  My challenge to everyone is to choose to come alive.  Choose to live in the freedom and holiness that Jesus brought us and has given us.  We no longer have to bow to this world.  He don’t have to feel pressured by false guilt given by others to live how others think we should.  Seek God the Father’s will in all that you do and He will show you the freedom that is yours in Christ.

It’s an amazing feeling to know the freedom I have in Christ.  I know the freedom I can now live in and not subject myself to the will of others.  I live for my God alone through the freedom that was undeserved but is freely mind in Christ.  It is available to all of us who choose to accept it.  I will fight for this freedom everyday day as we all should.  Live in freedom!