Living Free!

Living Free. Romans 7:1-6.

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? Romans 7:1 (NKJV)

When you are born into this world, the sinful nature of your parents is passed on to you. Each child may live different lifestyles than their parent lived; however, every person born is responsible for their own sin. The Law of Sin and death is bound to us; therefore without Christ there is no escape.

For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Romans 7:2-3 (NKJV)

Paul speaks to the control of sin like that of a marriage contract. He wants to communicate that there is a possibility of being released from the contract. We can be free from the penalty of sin by death. Now this reference is effective if we are people who honor a marriage contract.

The two metaphors are pretty close when describing the relationship of people, the law, sin, death, and Jesus Christ. We are attached to law like we are married to it; we listen to it and we are to obey it. The law dictates to us on how we should live our life and even when we disagree with it, the Law stands strong correcting us. Yet though we may argue, the law is always right.

Wherever we go and whatever we do, how we act is judged by the law and we are faithful to it or we are unfaithful. Like a wife, the Law will be attached to us until the day we die.

The work of Christ on the cross gave a power to every person that if they believe in Him, repenting of their sin, they can be forgiven their sin and therefore the Law's hold on us dies. Like a long term companion the Law is no longer the say so in our lives. It is dead to us and its demands can no longer sentence us with the penalty of death.

Then being free from the Law, we meet our new love, Jesus Christ. He wants us to be His bride and join into a relationship with Him that will bring abundant life. Then through our relationship with Him, become happily married in God's righteousness.

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7:4-6 (NKJV)

Many people think of their life as fun and church life as boring. Therefore, they avoid church like a plague. Who is to blame people for feeling like this when many churches are boring?

I have sat in services that bored me to tears; poor worship, humdrum sermons then after, meeting faces of people that feel the same way as I. Everyone comes and goes with little affect and very little fulfillment from their church experience.

Yet this is not what Christ died for. He came that we might not just live, but live with abundant life. He came to add a dynamic to our lives that can reach deep into the souls of people causing them to select Him over the pleasures of sin.

I recently attended a meeting of a church of people wanting to break out from the normal church atmosphere and create a new church experience that will reach the youth of today. Yet the overtones of their past experiences were still clinging to them like static. Though they wanted to present something new and innovative, they were bogged down with many of the same issues they were trying to flee from; they were only wrapped in a different approach.

In reaching people, dynamic leadership does just happen. You cannot produce it in a seminary, you cannot teach it in the classroom; but it is acquired by looking to and using the resources God brings your way. These people had begun to look for resources, yet getting out of the way could be a problem to them.

People – People are resources and the little kids that we watched grow up are the ones that God will expect to carry the cross until it is their time to pass it to the next generation. To these, must be given the freedom to be who God made them and do those things that God has places on their hearts.

Though we do not just hand them the keys and walk away, we must guide them without stopping God's work through their lives.

Getting out of the way – A road block only makes a detour. There are too many people in churches that are getting in the way and not stepping to the side. They make it difficult for change to happen and the youth flee. Some churches are so youth challenged that their youth ministries are almost nonexistent.

Reaching the lost – God will not compromise holiness to have people come to church. The spirit of God wants to fall on the leadership and direct the church; however, attitudes that suppress God's work will keep it from happening and a boring church it does make. Just as a person must die to sin and come to Christ; so must people not miss God's direction when they are involved leading a church. To miss God's direction is to sin.

Though there is freedom in Christ, we are stilled in Christ. Where we were married to the law, it became dead to us and we became alive to Jesus Christ. He is the groom and we are the bride. The dynamic we are to live in can happen if we listen to our spouse. When we do, life becomes wonderful.

How can we expect people to choose a new life in Christ that looks like a marriage of disappointment? The truth is that you cannot keep people in your church, in your life, or in your friendship if you are going to miss the mark and not live a life that is exciting and new.

So what then, what are we to do with our old boring selves? We are to submit to Christ, pray for change, and become an encouragement to those that He brings our way. Like a bride to her husband, we are to be "help meets", making away for Him to lead the family, bring in the increase, and live in harmony. If we are focused on Him, He will make life abundant and we will be happily married.

The point Paul wants to instill in us that our life with the law and sin is over, we are remarried to Jesus and that is to produce new life and new fruit, living abundantly free without being tied down to rules, traditions, and suppressing practices.