Lesson Six: Called to Be Free

LESSON SIX

CALLED TO BE FREE

(Chapter 9)

CENTRAL IDEA

As followers of Christ we are free. Free from the drive to earn God’s favor by our actions. Free from the oppression of trying to live up to man-made religious rules and regulations. Free to let the Holy Spirit create in our lives something beautiful and pleasing to God.

Warm-up

What thoughts come to your mind when you hear the word freedom?

Called to Be Free

Legalism is, first of all, anything we do or don’t do in order to earn favor with God. It is concerned with rewards to be gained or penalties to be avoided. This is a legalism we force on ourselves.

Second, legalism insists on conformity to man-made religious rules and requirements, which are often unspoken but are nevertheless very real. To use a more common expression, it requires conformity to the “dos” and “don’ts” of our particular Christian circle. We force this legalism on others or allow others to force it on us. It is conformity to how other people think we should live instead of how the Bible tells us to live. More often than not, these rules have no valid biblical basis.

Despite God’s call to be free, we are often more afraid of indulging the sinful nature than we are of falling into legalism. Yet legalism does indulge the sinful nature because it fosters self-righteousness and religious pride. It also diverts us from the real issues of the Christian life by focusing on external and sometimes trivial rules.

Keeping man-made rules is a prevalent way in which legalism creeps into our lives. We build fences, or make rules, to keep ourselves from committing certain sins. Soon these fences —instead of the sins they were designed to guard against —become the issue. We elevate our rules to the level of God’s commandments.

Many of our “dos and don’ts” begin as a sincere effort to deal with real sin issues by building a fence. But very often we begin to focus on the fence instead of the sin it was designed to guard against. We fight our battles in the wrong places; we deal with externals instead of the heart.

Should we scrap our fences, then? Not necessarily. Often they are helpful; sometimes they are necessary. But we have to work at keeping them in perspective —they are just fences, helpful to us but not necessarily applicable to others. We also have to work at guarding our freedom from other people’s fences.

A second area of legalism arises from believers holding differing opinions about certain practices. God allows equally godly people to have differing opinions on certain matters. We tend to universalize God’s particular leading in our lives and apply it to everyone else.

When we think like that we are, so to speak, “putting God in a box.” We are insisting that He must surely lead everyone as we believe He has led us. We refuse to allow God the freedom to deal with each of us as individuals. When we think like that, we are legalists.

We must not seek to bind the consciences of other believers with our private convictions that arise out of our personal walk with God. Even if you believe God has led you in developing those convictions, you still must not elevate them to the level of spiritual principles for everyone else to follow. If we are going to enjoy the freedom we have in Christ, we must be alert to convictions that fall into the category of differing opinions. We must not seek to bind the consciences of others or allow them to bind ours. We must stand firm in the freedom we have in Christ.

Another area where we tend to become legalistic is the activities I call spiritual disciplines: having regular private devotions, studying the Bible, memorizing Scripture, meeting with a group Bible study, or faithfully attending a weekly prayer meeting.

We should actively promote spiritual disciplines. They are absolutely necessary for growth in our Christian lives. And since ours is a largely undisciplined age, many believers are losing out on the benefits of those disciplines that could help them grow to maturity in Christ. But we should promote them as benefits, not as duties. Perhaps we should stop talking about being “faithful” to have a quiet time with God each day, as if we were doing something to earn a reward. It would be better to talk about the privilege of spending time with the God of the universe and the importance for our own sake of being consistent in that practice.

Another reason why we fail to enjoy our freedom in Christ is that we are afraid of what others will think. We do or don’t do certain things because of a fear that we will be judged or gossiped about by others. But standing firm in our freedom in Christ means we have to resist the urge to live by the fear of what others think.

We’ve talked about fences, differing opinions, spiritual disciplines, and fear of what others think. These are only some of the areas in which we practice legalism with each other and with ourselves. We need to guard against these potential pitfalls and diligently apply ourselves to learning to live under the reign of God’s transforming grace. (Taken from chapter 9 of Transforming Grace.)

Exploring Grace

Closing Prayer

Focus on thanking God for the freedom you enjoy as followers of Jesus Christ. Ask the Lord to help you respond more to the working of the Holy Spirit in your lives.

Going Deeper (Extra questions for further study)

PONDERING GRACE (FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION)

A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.

Martin Luther

Only what God has commanded in His word should be regarded as binding; in all else there may be liberty of actions.

John Owen

Let us never surrender our judgments or our consciences to be at the disposal and opinions of others, and to be subjected to the sentences and determinations of men. . . . It is my exhortation therefore to all Christians to maintain their Christian freedom by constant watchfulness. You must not be tempted or threatened out of it; you must not be bribed or frightened from it; you must not let either force or fraud rob you of it.

Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom

↑ Back to top