Freedom

Freedom is admittedly a concept I have not yet explored extensively.

I am the daughter of a pastor and somewhere along the way the exhortations to obey God in scripture morphed into a checklist of rules that imprisoned me. Discipline and self-restraint were friends because in my brain freedom was linked with a license to be wildly irresponsible.

Real freedom is the result of forgiveness and faith. And rather than being an obstacle to obedience it is the gateway to it. For the first time I am beginning to understand what freedom actually is.

Faith in Jesus is how sins are forgiven. Forgiveness abolishes the weight of sin and alleviates the guilt that inspires efforts to make oneself worthy of the love of God. The love of God is made evident in this: that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Freedom from condemnation, freedom from self-saving pursuits, freedom from the weight of failure.

Faith in the complete forgiveness that Jesus Christ has won is the key to freedom. Without forgiveness we are trapped in an endless cycle of vain attempts of self-redemption; desperate efforts to make ourselves worthy.

God has made us worthy. Jesus has set us free.

In Christ, freely gaze upon the glory of the Lord; freely be transformed into His glory.