Freedom in Christ

Summary

This past Tuesday, on July Fourth the United States of America celebrated two hundred and forty-one years of independence.  On May seventeenth Norway celebrated two hundred and three years of its constitution.  This coming December sixth, Finland celebrates a centennial, one hundred years of freedom.

This twenty-first century might be the point in history in which the greatest numbers of people are free in the history of the world. This is important, freedom. We talk a lot about freedom in the Western world.  We even at times wave it around.  We proclaim and declaim upon it.  We are proud of it, and rightly so, but we also can use it as an excuse.  We can use it as an excuse for all sorts of things.

I have heard people proclaim, “I can be as loud as I want, it’s a free country!”  as they blast their music at 3 in the morning while partying.  Or, I have heard people declaim, “I have no responsibility for anyone else.  They have the freedom to make their way, like I made mine.”

In other words, sometimes we use the word freedom as an excuse to live selfishly and destructively.  Be it as individuals, or as nations, or even as regards the earth.

It reminds me of our reality as humans.  The very thing that makes us human, which is the ability to make a choice, is also what sets us upon the path to our downfall.

Sin.  Sin is not a word that we like to hear.  Sin is a word that almost immediately dredges up some sort of guilt from within.  For the word sin is not simply a noun that names something, but it is also a verb that is active in each of our lives.  In other words, each of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s expectations and hopes for us.  Each of us have sinned, do sin and will continue to struggle with sin and its affects in our lives.

And in today’s scripture from Romans, Paul spells out this reality, by using his own life as an example.  Listen to Paul’s honesty and vulnerability, “I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

Doesn’t that sound familiar?  I mean, he could be speaking for me.  Can’t you just hear the regret and sadness in Paul’s words?  Can’t you just almost feel what Paul is feeling?

In these words Paul is sadly connecting us, one to another, all together as people.  We are incapable of not sinning.  To be human, means to be one who sins.  We are sinners, period.

Whether it be gossip, lying, cheating, abuse of some sort, gluttony, apathy, racism, classism, or struggles with addiction, anger, greed, or manipulation, stealing, violence, or many other things, and what seems to lie at the root of most of these problems, selfishness.  When it comes to living out our freedom of choice, we all fail, we all sin.

We are not capable of always making the correct or the right decision.  To paraphrase Paul in his letter to the Romans, “When I want to do good, I often fail.  When I know what is right, I too often do what is wrong.”

This is what is called original sin.  Into this condition we were born.  And when we truly study the reality of sin we can only be left in despair.  Paul at the end of these verses can only finally declare, “What a wretched man I am!”

I know how he feels, and you probably do too.  I know what it is to feel wretched, for my sins can leave me feeling no other way.  For, when it comes to battling my sins all I can do in the end is fail.

Thankfully, when it comes to sin it is not up to me! It is up to Jesus.  Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Now this isn’t to say that I am not trying, that I am not fighting against the habits or temptations from which my sinful behavior springs.  No, rather I am praying to Jesus to give me the strength that I need to break those sinful habits, to resist those temptations that lead me to fail.

Let’s take for instance the relationship straining, reputation destroying sin of gossip and rumor sharing.  If I am in the habit of passing along bits of rumor or gossip concerning others, unfounded or not, simply to feel important or to pass judgment on another person who I don’t like, I am sinning.  In the passing on of that talk I might be destroying someone’s reputation or hurting my relationship with them because I have broken the trust that they have put in me.  And so, that seemingly innocent sinful habit is one that I would need to try and break.  That sin of destruction would need to be one from which I flee.

Now, please know as your pastor, rumors and gossip are not one of the sins that I usually am dealing with, I was just using myself as an example to highlight the destructiveness of sin, especially a sin many people think of as lesser, and pass over to highlight more “dangerous” ones.  No, I have my own sins with which I go before God in repentance.

But this does lead me to the most important point today.  When we try to stay away from sin, when we fight to do what we know we should and fail, our Lord, our sweet Jesus is there for us.  Jesus wants us to repent.  He wants to hear our confession of sin and then forgive us of that sin.  This was his very reason for coming to earth, to give us the opportunity, again and again to live life fresh and new.

You see where we find true freedom in our lives, is in our lives lived in Jesus’ gracious love and forgiveness.

Sin, unchecked, unforgiven can ultimately only lead to our deaths, for we cannot on our own overcome sin.  We cannot live perfect lives we cannot conquer sin and death.  But Jesus can and he did in his death and resurrection.  And so we are given the opportunity in Jesus to live lives of freedom in his love and forgiveness.

This freedom in Christ doesn’t mean that we don’t still sin.  That we can ever overcome.  This freedom doesn’t mean that we don’t still try to break our sinful habits, or fight against the temptations that can lead to sin.  No, here on earth sin still haunts us each day.  But what this true freedom means is that when we do fall to sin, when we do make a mistake, Jesus wants to give us life again beyond that mistake.  By forgiving us Jesus wants us to leave the guilt and shame behind us and follow him into the future that he gives us.

That is what I call freedom! Freedom from the bonds of sin.  Freedom from the life crippling shame.  Freedom to try and be the people whom God calls us to be.  Freedom to live lives of joy and love with our neighbors in this world by sharing Jesus’ love.

We are given freedom as Christians not to condemn, or ridicule, or put-down, or hate our fellow man or woman.  Jesus gives us freedom as Christians to live out his calling in our lives, to try and leave our self-centered, self-righteous selfishness behind and offer in God’s love a hand of friendship and help to our neighbors in this world.  We are given freedom in Christ to love people into Jesus’ church, into his presence so that they can experience and live in Christ’s freedom too!

As we gladly celebrate our freedom on whichever day we claim as our own, let us each day, thank Jesus for our eternal independence, which is given today and every day, thanks be to God!

Amen.

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