"Liberty In Christ"

The apostle Paul wrote, in Galatians 5:13, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an oportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Do you feel free and liberated as a Christian or do you feel trapped in a life that does not let you do the things that you want? Or...are you a Christian that simply continues to do the things of the world which you will?

These are questions which we must all answer and we must all answer them truthfully and honestly. When the gospel of Christ called you to the hope of a home in heaven someday, you vowed to give up the "works of the flesh" and live for that "hope" all the days of your life. Sometimes, I think that we forget the calling to which we responded and the vision of the "hope" becomes dim in our minds. This is not a new problem, but one that is as old as the church, itself. Paul begged the Ephesian brethren in Ephesians 4:1 to "...walk worthy of the calling with which you were called..."

The liberty that we enjoy, in Christ, is not the liberty to do as we wish in the world. Paul said, "...do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh..." What, then is it? It is liberty from the guilt of doing wrong in God's eyes. Why do we feel the guilt of sin? It is because we know that it jeopardizes the "hope" that have for that home in heaven.

Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:5-7 to spend our energy in building our Christian character by adding the Christian graces of "...faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly-kindness and love..." He goes on to say that if you do not do this that you are "...shortsighted, even to blindness...having forgotten that you were cleansed from your old sins." He says to never forget the cleansing. We must never forget who we are and whose we are, and what our goal is.