True and false freedom pt 1

http://billrandles.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/true-and-false-freedom-pt-1/ ^ | 07/02/10 | Bill Randles

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TRUE AND FALSE FREEDOM pt 1 Posted on July 2, 2010 by billrandles

“If you continue in my word you shall be my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”(John 8:32)

“Promising them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of corruption, for by what a man is overcome, by that is he enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19)

There is a true freedom, according to Jesus, for whom the Son sets free is free indeed.. And yet Peter warns us against the slavery of a false freedom. How can we know the difference between the true and the false freedom? Only by appealing to the only document of true human liberty. the Bible.

The Bible addresses the subject of human freedom right from the beginning in the garden of Eden. God created man in a state of freedom, but it was not autonomy. “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat for in the day you eat therof you shall surely die.”(Gen 2:17)

Adam and Eve were free to start a life, have children, build a family, they had meaningful work to do, they were free of want, strife, and need. they were free to walk with God and to know God, and free to worship God. However they were not free in an absolute sense. They were put under a limitation, there was a commandment to obey. They were not autonomous, their freedom was under God. But Adam and Eve were ‘free indeed’.

But we are told that the Serpent seduced Adam and Eve, into thinking they weren’t free after all. Satan led a ‘liberation movement’, and the first couple bought into it. He was going to set free, they were going to ‘throw off the shackles’ that God had imposed on them by the one prohibition that he put on them. “Promising them liberty… they became slaves of corruption, and so did we their seed.

The deepest bondage is not political, it is moral and spiritual. This is brought out in the context of Jesus’ famous ‘the truth shall set you free’ discussion. We are told that it was to those who believed on Him, that he directed this remark. But they didn’t believe that it applied to them,

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.(John 8:31-35)

Behold the power of self deception. They couldn’t see that even politically they were in bondage, “We were never in bondage to anyone!”, What are they talking about? what about the Babylonians, the Assyrians, not to mention the Egyptians, and in the context of that very day, the Romans! And yet the Jews of Jesus’ day are a microcosm of the whole world, Man is in bondage and his pride doesn’t allow him to realise it.

But Jesus goes beyond the political, and adresses the deepest bondage of all, SIN, and slavery to sin. But the promise is that the Son has the power and willingness to set us “free indeed” from the guilt and power of sin, and to allow us to “abide forever!’

Next -Exodus, the primer of true freedom