Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Shortly after coming to faith in Christ this hymn, "And Can it Be" or "Amazing Love", by Charles Wesley, quickly became one of my favorites...it beautifully captured my experience and the awe in my heart toward God. The few lines above always fill me with awe and wonder at the power and glory of our great God. These words and other recent events have caused me to think and pray much about the freedom we are called to as followers of Christ.
"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Gal 5:1
This past July 4th proved to be one of those Ahaaa moments for me, somewhat of an epiphany if you will. My sense was that God, my heavenly Father, orchestrated my circumstances to allow me to see and understand freedom a little differently...quite possibly a lot!
The first circumstance is that I have been teaching a series in my class out of 1 John constantly asking the question "How can I know I am saved?" We are walking through 6 tests from first John for each of us to hold our lives up to and ask the question...do I pass the test? If we pass the test the question turns into a prayer requesting ever increasing growth in grace, longing to be transformed to be like Jesus. The tests are quite simple:
•Your walk, lifestyle (1:6), •Confession of sin/Brokenness over sin (1:9), •Keep God’s Word (2:3), •Walk as Jesus walked (2:6), •11th Commandment, love your brother (2:9), •World is passing away or being pressed out...are you being conformed to the world or transformed by the renewing of your mind? (2:17)
While we were unpacking the third test "keeping God's Word," I was making the point that John makes in 1 John 5:2-4.
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith.
What is that point? Simply, that when we, God's adopted children, walk by faith, trusting and believing in the promises of God, filled with the Holy Spirit...empowered by the Holy Spirit, living out the victorious Christian life...that IT IS EASY! I pointed to Matt 11:30 where Jesus tells us that HIS yoke is easy! How is it possible that HIS commandments are not burdensome? It is only possible to the degree that I surrender my life, to the degree that Christ becomes incarnate in me as I walk and live in repentance and faith, repentance and faith, enjoying the victorious Spirit filled life in Christ.
As those words came out of my mouth one man in our class almost came out of his skin with disbelief and a few others looked very perplexed. That particular morning we spent the rest of the time on that topic. God was gracious to me and brought to mind a few verses like Zec 4:6 “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts...and Phil 1:6, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." We stopped at this point two weeks in a row and I had several private conversations with friends in our class explaining how "it is easy".
Please don't misunderstand, I know that it is both easy and hard...HIS yoke is easy...the gate is narrow and the way is hard. Is it easy or is it hard...According to Jesus the the answer is yes! However, if you have never experienced those times when it is easy than you are probably not walking in and enjoying the victorious Christian life, the Spirit filled life, the abundant life in Christ, the life Christ died for you to live now.
That was the first circumstance that God brought about...for every spiritual leader there is a sense of anguish when those you love are not walking in victory...Remember what Paul said in Galatians 4:19? "My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!"
The second came this past week...I was thinking and praying about how to tie the lesson to July 4 and our celebration of freedom as a nation. Out of this God brought to mind two other times that people were set free. Thinking about July 4th 1776 and our Declaration of Independence the Lord brought to mind the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln September 22, 1862 and the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945.
Bringing these events together may appear strange on the surface...and, well...I have never claimed not to be strange:) An acquaintance of mine that lives in the Memphis area is the descendent of slave owners, the land that the family owned is still in the family and much of the family lives on sections of the property...nothing strange yet. The amazing thing is that a descendent of one of the slaves of the family still lives on the property with the permission of the family. She lives in a shack in basic poverty on the property! She was born free and yet she chooses to stay and live in poverty...WHY? Abraham Lincoln paid a price to push the Emancipation Proclamation through...Martin Luther King Jr paid a price right here in Memphis pressing for civil rights for Blacks...WHY would someone born free choose to live in poverty, why would they choose to live a life similar to that of a salve?
I remember learning about the liberation of Auschwitz and other concentration camps and the reaction of the prisoners when they were liberated. One would expect them to run out of the camp shouting for joy, leaping, jumping, screaming at the top of their lungs...I'm free, I'm free, I'm free! That is not what happened. Viktor Frankl, M.D., Ph.D. (March 26, 1905 – September 2, 1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. In his best selling book, "Man's Search for Meaning," Frankl talks about the strange reaction of the prisoners to their freedom.
Frankl recalls an experience a few days after being liberated:
"a few days after the liberation, I walked through the country past flowering meadows, for miles and miles, toward the market town near the camp. Larks rose to the sky and I cold hard their joyous song. There was no one to be seen for miles around; there was nothing but the wide earth and sky and the larks' jubilation and the freedom of space. I stopped, looked around, and up to the sky--and then I went down on my knees. At that moment there was very little I knew of myself or of the world--I had but one sentence in mind--always the same: "I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and He answered me in the freedom of space."
How long I knelt there and repeated this sentence memory can no longer recall. But I know that on that day, in that hour, my new life started. Step for step I progressed, until I again became a human being."
I pray that those few words will haunt you...until I again became a human being, until I again became a human being, until I again became a human being." You and I were created for a very great and glorious God, we were created in HIS image to ENJOY HIM...slaves know nothing of this JOY...ONLY SONS! You and I were created in HIS image, in the image of God, we are image bearers of the Sovereign God of the Universe!
Again, consider the incredible cost that was paid to liberate the prisoners in the concentration camps.
You may be thinking...Mark, all your learning has made you crazy! The truth is that I come by it honestly...it is not the fault of the learning:) What does this have to do with living a victorious Christians life? What does this have to do with freedom in Christ? I suppose that the answer to that question is the third thing that God did to grant a deeper understanding of freedom. Contemplate with me about the three different reactions in the physical world to freedom. Consider the varying reactions of those living in the Colonies during the Declaration of Independence, the slaves set free by the Emancipation Proclamation, and the prisoners liberated at Auschwitz.
The end result for each is the same...you are free, you are free, you are free! WHAT IS YOUR POINT Mark? Each of these were set free from a very different place, out of very different circumstances and so their reaction to freedom is radically different. My point is that the people that you and I love and care about, (this includes you and me) enter the freedom that Jesus purchased from very different places, out of very different circumstances. Therefore our reaction to freedom is radically different! As God's children, coming to faith in Christ is only the beginning, this is where sanctification begins...remember John's words in 1 John 3:1-2? "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." So sanctification begins at salvation...we were dead in our sins in trespasses and God's Word tells us in 1 Peter 2:9 that, "you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." So we were dead men walking in the shadow of death, HE made us alive together with Christ in the heavenlies, HE called us out of darkness into HIS marvelous light that we may proclaim HIS praises! Remember the words to the song? "Fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee."
Do you remember the reaction of the people of Nazareth to the offer of freedom? Jesus, the Word incarnate, read from Isaiah and the people rejected him, they rejected the freedom HE proclaimed and the freedom HE purchased.
Luke 4:17-19 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This is repeated in the Psalms, To hear the groaning of the prisoner, To set free those who were doomed to death Psalm 102:20, Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free Psalm 146:7, and it is repeated in the prophets, Zechariah 9:11 tells us that, "because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit."
Over and over throughout God's Word we learn of our freedom in Christ. "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36), the words of Paul tell us what we have been set free from, "And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:18). Paul also gives us the why in Romans 6:22, "But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life." In Galatians Paul warns us not to take our freedom for granted and then gives us instructions as to what we should do with our freedom! In Gal 5:1 he warns us to, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." A few verses later he tells us in Gal 5:13 that you "have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Again, we see in John 8:31-32, "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” In Revelation 1:5 we see again that..."Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. The sovereign God of the Universe purchased our freedom, purchased our liberty with HIS own blood...check out 1 Peter 1:19 and Acts 20:28.
Let me try to summarize:
1. Teaching that the Spirit filled life, when truly Spirit filled is easy receives a wide range of reactions from my class...from some nodding in agreement to others coming unglued with disbelief.
2. Contemplating our national freedom...the reaction of the colonist to freedom compared with the reaction of the salves and prisoners to the Emancipation Proclamation and the liberation of Auschwitz.
3. Contrasting how an understanding of the different reactions to freedom can be compared to the different reactions of God's adopted children to their new found freedom in Christ Jesus.
What does all this mean? I have gone on way to long so I hope to continue this discussion in future posts...let me leave with this thought. My passion, my burning desire is to know HIM and make HIM known...to expand slightly, to be mature in Christ and to lead others to a place of maturity in Christ (Remember Gal 4:19)...REGARDLESS OF THEIR PAST, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY HAVE DONE OR WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO THEM. To do that you must discern where a person has been and where they are before you can begin to take them where God wants them to be.
What does it look like to be completely free in Christ, filled with the Spirit of holiness, equipped with radical obedience to the one who purchased me with HIS own blood? I pray for the opportunity to unpack that here over the next few weeks
From the hymn "And Can it be" we have the powerful words depicting our freedom in Christ
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
2 Co 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Pursuing HIM together!
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