Christian Freedom: A Fundamental Blessing

If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. .... .. Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to 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. (Jn. 8:31-32, 34-36)

Christian freedom lies at the very heart of the Gospel.  It certainly would be Good News for  people to be saved from their sin only to the point that the threat of Hell was removed and their souls annihilated rather than punished.  Compared to what we deserve, that would be Good News.  But, God has done so much more than that.  The Gospel proclaims that we are not only saved from the threat of Hell but instituted and constituted as the eternal Family of God, with freedom of the Household.

Incredible.

This freedom we are to enjoy, for which such an incredible price was paid, is furthermore foundational to the whole work of the Holy Spirit in salvation.  To understand the Freedom we have been granted one must understand the Bondage from which we have been freed.  Therefore Christian Freedom is a lens through which we can understand the wonderful blessings of regeneration and adoption.

What Does It Mean to be Free?

Jesus says: the truth shall make you free... and then later he says... if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed...

So we not only need to ask " what does it mean to be free?" but also, "What does it mean to be free indeed?"

First - a definition:  To be "free, indeed" means to be empowered and unconstrained with regard to pursuing and achieving the desires of our heart

Freedom means to be empowered...
To be free to do something it has to be within your power to do it.  No matter how much I may desire it,  I am not “free” to just suddenly fly around this room in which I am sitting.  To be “free” to fly around I would need wings or something that substituted for wings.  Therefore, to be "free indeed" I must first be "empowered" to exercise that freedom.

Freedom means to be empowered and unconstrained...
To be "free indeed" , I must have both the power to do something and the absence of restraints on doing it.  I have the power to make rude noises in public.. but there are many things which hopefully will restrain me from doing that.   I am empowered in such a circumstance, but not unconstrained.  Therefore when we think of "freedom" we have to also consider what "constraints" are removed before we are "free indeed."

And then lastly - Freedom means to be empowered and unconstrained with regard to pursuing and achieving the desires of our heart..

Notice that Freedom is not a guarantee of achieving the desires of one's heart.  Rather, Freedom is being empowered to PURSUE with the intent of achieving them.  Being "free indeed" means that we are empowered and unconstrained in pursuing and achieving because all that is necessary unto the attainment of our goals is available to us.  All that is lacking is our own exercise of that freedom and the manner in which we persevere in the undertaking.

Now here is the key concept.  For Freedom to have any meaning.. It must be toward the end of achieving something that is very important to us.  To the extent that we are empowered and unconstrained, to be "free indeed" means that we can pursue our heart’s desire.

Freedom is meaningless to us if our heart is not oriented toward the objects that we are empowered and unconstrained in pursuing.  I am free and empowered to eat anchovy flavored ice cream if it was offered to me, but, I can say with great certainty, that  I have absolutely no desire in my heart, what so ever, to eat such a concoction, therefore my freedom in this particular  regard is meaningless.

Thus we can see that "Freedom" is only important when it is with regard to the desires of our hearts.  Therefore, to be "free indeed" means to be empowered and unconstrained with regard to pursuing and achieving the desires of our heart.

We are MADE "free indeed" - it is not something we attain to or achieve of ourselves and from our own resources.

Now notice something in this passage - in both sentences where Jesus uses the word “free” he speaks of it as a state which is "made", by the Truth and by the Son (the TRUTH).  Jesus says, " The truth shall MAKE you free ...  if the Son MAKES you free, you shall be free indeed."

In both cases - Jesus is talking about going from one state, a pre-existing state, to another, subsequent state.  Now, immediately we recognize that Jesus' fundamental presupposition in these verses is that men are not “born free”, as we are sometimes taught, they have to be  “made free”.   And therefore we can conclude, that if we are not “made free” then we are not “free at all”, much less “free indeed.”

Jesus speaks of the "bondage of sin in these verses.  He speaks of how a sinner is one who is a slave of sin.  A slave is a "true slave" when one is a "slave from the heart."  In this sense the "slave" is free in the sense that the "true slave" is empowered to pursue the desire to serve sin.  We can speak of such a person as being "unconstrained" in the sense that to some extent the law of God does not physically bind them in pursuing the desires their sinful heart impresses upon them.  We can speak of such a person being "constrained" by the law in the sense that the person is aware that sinful behavior is counter to God's will.  The point is this - a person who commits sin, as Jesus says, is a slave to sin because that person serves sin from the heart.  They are not "free indeed" because they have no desire to do anything other than sin.  To this extent we can say that the "freedom" of a sinner, is that they are "free to sin" but not do otherwise.  They have the freedom of a true slave.  This is the boundary of a sinners "free will."

In another sense a person is a slave of sin in that they  are neither empowered or unconstrained in achieving the desires of their heart in the areas of spiritual fulfillment and contentment.  Though a person willingly and sincerely serves sin from the heart in their unregenerate state, yet they do so in pursuit of other deeper desires.  They desire to fill the void in their souls.  They desire to be autonomous and "happy."  They desire to find meaning and purpose for their lives.  They long to achieve security in the face of death.  Many and varied are the inner longings of the human soul, both regenerate and unregenerate. 

But for the "slave of sin", in this area, he or she is neither empowered nor unconstrained in pursuing and achieving these desires.  They are limited by their nature to sin.  Each and everything thought, action or impetus in their lives is other than for the glory of God.  Each and everything they do, think or say is with "self" firmly centered in their thinking and personal autonomy the framework of their doings.  In all things and in every way, they sin and can only sin.  Hence they are absolutely destitute of any ability to achieve their hearts' desires in this framework, because sin can never bring the fruits of righteousness and ultimately, it is the fruits of righteousness that they desire.

Thus, the unregenerate state of man is a complex of "freedom" and "bondage."  He is free to sin in accordance with his heart's desire to sin and he is "bound" by the iron chains of sin from attaining to the desired fruits of righteousness.

Jesus,as the Son,  through the Word of Truth, makes the sinner "free indeed."

When Jesus sets a person free, He acts through the Word of Truth, through the power of the Holy Spirit, using the instrument of Scripture applied to the life and heart of the individual (either preached or otherwise communicated) to the end that both forms of "bondage" are removed.  The person's heart is changed such that the desire to sin no longer reigns as the expression of their will.  They now discover that their longing is not for the fruits of righteousness, but for righteousness itself.  That which they desire to do is to conform to righteousness though faced with arduous obstacles to overcome.  The sin inclinations in their members war against this desire for righteousness but sin has lost its dominion over them.

They are now empowered and unconstrained in pursuing the desires of their heart.  Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus said, because they shall be filled.  In regeneration the first bonds of slavery to sin are burst and in sancitification and glorification all remaining chains are dispatched also.  In every way, the blessings of freedom accrue and a person is fully and finally, "free indeed."

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