Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: It says in Romans Chapter 5 where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. So no matter how much we blow it or fall short or are weak or fail, God's grace is greater.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Galatians. Let's listen as JP gives us part four of Freedom Reigns.

JP Jones: Hebrews Chapter 2 says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, Jesus too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those all their lives who had been in slavery to him by their fear of death." Christ became a man, lived a perfect life, died on a cross, and destroyed the works of the devil and destroyed his power over us to set us free from bondage.

That is what is true of every person who's a believer in Jesus Christ. We actually have freedom because we have a new birthright. We have a whole new relationship with God. It's our spiritual identity. As I was thinking about this whole concept of birthright, and if you are part of Crossline you know that I have a mind that's kind of a victim of its own ADD syndrome, I'm thinking about the birthright that we have and the power of sonship and the lyric of a song came to my mind.

I know I'm dating myself here, but it is a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of my favorite groups when I was in high school. Written by John Fogerty. Proud Mary, Lodi, Bad Moon Rising, all that. Your parents can tell you about it. Here is the lyric to the song "Fortunate Son":

Some folks are born made to wave the flag, oh they're red, white and blue. And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief," they point the cannon at you. It ain't me, it ain't me, I'm no senator's son. It ain't me, it ain't me, I'm no fortunate one. Some folks are born silver spoon in hand, Lord don't they help themselves. But when the taxman comes to the door, Lord their house looks like a rummage sale. It ain't me, it ain't me, I'm no millionaire's son. It ain't me, it ain't me, I'm no fortunate one. Some folks inherit star-spangled eyes, oh they send you down to war. And when you ask them how much should we give, oh they answer more. It ain't me, it ain't me, I'm no military son. It ain't me, it ain't me, I'm no fortunate one.

The whole point of this song is your birthright. He talks about the birthright of the senator's son, the birthright of the millionaire's son, the birthright of the military man's son. Who you're born into, what family you're born into, that's your birthright. Do you realize that every person who's a child of God, every person who's been born again spiritually, every person who's come to a relationship with Jesus Christ has a new birthright? They're heirs. The Bible says we are sons of God. We are spiritual heirs of all that God has for us. We've been set free. It's our birthright.

Because it's our birthright, we get to claim it. Because it's our birthright, we get to draw on it. Because it's our birthright, we get to live in it. Paul says in Galatians 5, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore do not be burdened again by any form of yoke to slavery." Christ has set us free and we have been set free to live in freedom.

We have been set free to live in freedom. God has given us a new spiritual position so that we can live a new life. God's intention is not just to inform us, it's to transform us. The goal of this discovery this morning isn't so that all of us can leave here with big heads about our spiritual position. It is so that we can live new lives. We've been set free to live in freedom.

It is that dynamic that is the powerful motivator and hope for every Christian, for every believer in Jesus Christ. If we're just talking here about pie in the sky when you die, who gives a rip? The message of Jesus Christ is real to every person, relevant to every person, dynamic to every person, because he sets us free so that we can live in freedom.

My son is a sophomore up at Cal Poly. I just had a conversation with him yesterday on the phone because his car needed some work on it and he needed a little money for me to put into his account. Every month I put some money in his account for rent. He's living with five guys in a house in San Luis Obispo. These are going to be the best days of his life. He's just having a blast on dad's dime.

I put money in his account every month to pay his rent. Let's suppose that he comes back at the end of the year and we have a conversation and he says, "I've been making some great investments and really earning a lot of interest and really doing some good stuff with my money." I go, "What money are you talking about?" "Well, that money that you put in my account." I would say, "I put that money in your account to pay rent."

Do you know God has put spiritual currency into our account, not so that we could squander it and not so that we could ignore it, but so that we could use it to pay rent? What's the rent? Living life. Getting up every day, making decisions, living with the people that we love, following God's plan for our life, living in freedom. We've been set free to live free.

God has given us all the spiritual resources that we need to live free. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Living in freedom is based upon our new spiritual position, understanding that we've been set free. Living in freedom means we have an internalized understanding of grace and truth in our life. We live on a daily basis filling ourselves up with grace and truth because Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

Grace is the unconditional acceptance by God, that knowledge that we are loved by God and accepted by God, and we live every day in that secure relationship with God. It says in Romans Chapter 5 where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. No matter how much we blow it or fall short or are weak or fail, God's grace is greater.

Living in freedom is based upon our new position. Living in freedom is living with an awareness and a reception and an immersion every day in the grace and truth that are ours in Christ. Living in freedom is becoming a slave to righteousness. How's that for irony? Because freedom is not the permission to do anything we feel like doing. Freedom is the power to do what God wants us to do and what we really as new people want to do.

Paul described it this way in Romans Chapter 6: "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey, you are slaves of the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed that form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."

Isn't that amazing? You are either a slave to sin or you're a slave to righteousness, and being a slave to righteousness is being set free. If we make choices to do our own thing, to follow our own inclinations, to live independent from God, we fall back under being slaves to sin. So we get to choose. We really are free. We're free to choose condemnation or choose freedom, choose righteousness.

Being a slave to righteousness is true freedom because we have the power to do that which glorifies God and blesses others and brings our own joy. Christ has set us free so that we can live in freedom. We experience freedom when we surrender to righteousness. Peter says this in 1 Peter 2: "Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God."

Galatians 5:13 says this: "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love." Living in freedom means being a servant. It is not all about me. It is about God and others. When I embrace that and I live in that, which I can do because Christ has set me free, that is when I really live freely.

If I still try to make it about me, I don't live freely, I live in bondage. Christ didn't set me free to live in bondage. He set me free to live in freedom. I live in freedom by every day embracing what's true about me: I am free. I immerse myself in grace and truth and I present myself as a slave of righteousness and I live as a servant. That is when I'm really living in freedom.

That was the experience of Agnes Bojaxhiu. You probably know her by another name: Mother Teresa. She left her home in Macedonia to become a nun. She went to India. She was a teacher at a school in India and she just couldn't escape the plight of the poor. Even the security of the nunnery was something she felt she had to give up to fully identify with the poor.

In her own words she said, "Our Lord wants me to be a free nun, covered with the poverty of the cross. I learned a good lesson today," this was taken from one of her journals, "the poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home, I was walking and walking until my arms and my legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul looking for a home, for food, for help. And then the tempter came to me and said: You only have to say the word and all that can be yours again. A free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain with the poor and do whatever your holy will for me is." Out of free choice.

Do you know what it means to live free? To live free means to have the power to do what you know is the right thing to do. To live free means to have the power to live a life that pleases God. To live free means to have the power to live a life of being a servant, a slave of righteousness. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. That is what Paul says in Galatians 5:1.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free. And then he adds this: "So stand firm and do not be burdened again, do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." We need to stand firm in our freedom and not become enslaved again. In this verse, Galatians 5:1, there are two commands: stand firm and do not be yoked.

Paul uses the language of an oxen that would be yoked together and makes that a metaphor for any kind of spiritual teaching or path to God that really is enslaving rather than freeing. He makes the positive statement: "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." Then he gives two commands: "Stand firm and do not be yoked again to any form of slavery."

I think that is interesting. Think with me a little bit. He makes a positive statement of the truth: Christ set us free and Christ set us free for freedom. Then he gives an exhortation based on that. His exhortation isn't: "It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore live free." No, it was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore stand firm and do not be subject again to any form of slavery.

The point is there are all kinds of forces that'll try to enslave you again. There are all kinds of ideas and desires and methods and people who will try to put us back into slavery. We have to fight for what is already ours: freedom. We have to stand for what Christ has given to us: freedom. We have to resist against anything that would rob us of what Christ has given to us: freedom.

Christ has set us free, but there are all kinds of things that want to put us back into slavery and we need to recognize them and we need to resist them. That is what Paul's saying here in Galatians 5. It was for freedom that Christ set us free, stand firm therefore and do not be subject again to any form of slavery. It is kind of like the difference between the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment.

Let's take a little trip down U.S. history, shall we? The Emancipation Proclamation. Who gave that? Abraham Lincoln, 1862. He ratified it again 100 days later, 1863. How many slaves were set free by the Emancipation Proclamation in actuality? How many actually started living freely because of the Emancipation Proclamation? Zero.

It gave the legal right for them to be free. But guess what had to happen for them to actually live free? The Civil War. Then the 13th Amendment was signed and slavery was abolished. Heaven is going to be our 13th Amendment. Heaven. There's not going to be any sin, any devil, anything to lead us to sin. It's going to be absolute blessing, bliss, peace, freedom.

The Emancipation Proclamation has already been given for us. Christ died on the cross. He rose again from the dead. We've been set free, but we've got to fight to live free. That is why I think Paul says here in Galatians 5, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free. We are free." But then he says the command is to fight for it, stand in it, resist anything that would pull you back into slavery.

Every day is going to be a struggle. That is the good news I have to share with you this morning. It is. Every day is going to be a struggle to believe what we believe and to live how we know we're supposed to live. Because there's all kinds of forces to yoke us again to slavery. There are religious yokes, just weird wacky religious ideas out there.

There are some crazy religious ideas. And there are some that actually sound pretty good, but they're enslaving. They're religious yokes. There are philosophical yokes, all kinds of -isms: existentialism, fideism, fatalism. All kinds of stuff that you study in school in philosophy class but gets its way worked down into some idea that sounds right but will just enslave you.

There are cultural yokes. I was looking this past week, my father-in-law sent me this email about this zip code finder that has all this census data on it. It's amazing data that comes from the Census Bureau about people who live here and what we make and how we live and demographics and religious background. Do you know our area right here, the average household income for us is about $105,000?

You may make less than that, you may make a lot more than that. That's the average household income for people in our zip code. Do you know what the average household income for the United States is? $40-something thousand. I looked where my parents live up in Northern California; it's $33,000. I come from poor white trash, I just want to let you know that. Trailer park people. We work on our cars up on the lawns.

Just think, this is just one aspect of this cultural yoke. We're used to nice things from nice people to have a nice life. And that can become a yoke that will rob us of our freedom in Christ. I just came back from India. The average household income of the people I was with was maybe $100 a year. Not exaggerating. Bob just came back from Honduras, probably the same thing.

It is a yoke. It can be a yoke. There are religious yokes, there are philosophical yokes, there are cultural yokes, there are fleshly yokes. I tell you what I mean by that. Colossians 3:5 says, "Put to death," that's pretty strong language, "put to death immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry."

Now, what is idolatry? It's worshipping idols. What is worshipping an idol? It's a religious experience. What is being called a religious experience? Immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed. Our lusts, our desires, and the pursuit of satisfying them is a religious experience that will yoke us to slavery if we don't put them to death.

There are all kinds of yokes. Paul says, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Stand firm and don't be yoked again to any form of slavery," whether it's religious or philosophical or cultural or lustful. Anything that would take our eyes off Jesus Christ is a yoke. Anything that would rob us of our identity in Jesus Christ is a yoke.

Anything that would cause us to live a life other than the life that Christ has set us free to live is a yoke, and we've got to resist it. We need to stand firm in what's true about us. What is true about us? We're free. We've been set free. We need to stand firm in our freedom and not become enslaved to any yoke.

We stand firm first and foremost by believing what God says is true. 2 Corinthians 1:20-22 says this: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, he set his seal of ownership on us, he put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

Boy, that's a great scripture. I'm going to read that again. 2 Corinthians 1:20-22: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they're yes in Christ. And so through him the amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, he set his seal of ownership on us, he put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, he guarantees what is to come."

We stand firm in our freedom when we believe what God says is true. Freedom is an awesome, awesome thing. They've written songs about it, they give speeches about it. God says we have it. "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." Let's stand in it.

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-581-1588. You can also visit our website at crosslinechurch.com. Be sure to join us next time as JP Jones concludes the series Galatians, right here on Truth That Changes Lives.