There are two things that will rob us of our freedom in Christ. One is legalism. If we insist on writing laws for ourselves or submitting to the manmade laws of others, we end up focusing on the “have to’s” of life rather than the “want to’s.” We build another man-made system of do’s and don’t’s, which simply rob us of our freedom. Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf, and as he said on the cross, “It is finished.” Now, this legalism is one extreme. The other extreme can enslave us as well. That’s licentiousness. Paul starts to describe what slavery to this might look like in Colossians 3:5-10. Just as we are to put to death the rituals and rules that make slaves out of us, he wants us to put to death licentiousness. He writes, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you, too, once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
Sin is another great taskmaster. When we surrender ourselves to sin, we become its slave, and we lose our freedom. There are more 12-step recovery programs than you can count. Each one is designed to help slaves of any particular sin find freedom. Our freedom from the tyranny of legalism and licentiousness is not total freedom. Since Bob Dillon is right, “everybody serves something,” We need to think carefully about freedom and slavery. “Many people, driven by a desire for freedom, have ended in slavery. The Russian people revolted against the control of the Tsars only to discover themselves enmeshed in a new tyranny. We are free to jump from a high building but not free to suspend the natural consequences. This is because whatever freedom we have is a limited and responsible freedom; it is a degree of freedom within boundaries.”[1] Surrendering to the sins of the flesh is like taking drugs. We get hooked easily. We are then slaves to our particular sin. Christ sets us free from that slavery, and we can now willingly submit ourselves as slaves to Christ. Paul talks more about this in Romans. We are to be servants (slaves) of Christ. Paul refers to himself that way many times in his writings. When Jesus sat his apostles down, he once informed them, who argued about greatness, that the greatest was the one who would be the “servant of all.”
Martin Lloyd-Jones said, “If you are a Christian, you are a servant of God, you are the slave, the ‘bond slave of Christ,’ even as was this mighty Apostle. Show it in your work, show it in everything you do — in your home, in your pleasure, in your recreation, at your lunch, at your tea, everywhere, always, let this come out. So you will realize that, whatever your calling, whatever your lot or position in life, it is a glorious one.”
[1] Seccombe, David. 2013. Romans: Dust to Destiny. Edited by Paul Barnett. Reading the Bible Today Series. Sydney, South NSW: Aquila Press.