John 8:36 says, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
It’s completely backwards from the saying we like to use in America- “freedom isn’t free”. When it comes to Christ, it actually is free. It’s literally impossible for us to work for or be deserving of the freedom Christ gave us. He gave it as a gift, not expecting us to pay Him back. Even if we wanted to, we could never have covered the debt we owed without Jesus (the law in the Old Testament shows us this). Without the new covenant, we would still be living as slaves to sin. But because Jesus came and washed us clean, we are able to freely stand before the Father.
Yet we seem to have this mindset that we need to be perfect for God to love us, and that if we don’t measure up to certain standards, we won’t be enough for Him. Think about this: Jesus chose to die for us at a time when we hated Him and eventually tortured and killed Him. I don’t think you can get any further from “measuring up” than that, and Jesus still chose us. Because He made the ultimate sacrifice, He paid the debt we owed in full, and now we are able to live in complete freedom. What we need to realize is that our standing before God is not dependent on our performance, but on Jesus‘. When God looks at us, He sees his Son. We have been justified by His grace and can now live as free heirs to the Kingdom. Because of Him, we are no longer slaves to the grave, and we are no longer slaves to our flesh or this world because we have God’s eternal spirit in us.
I don’t know how many of you have seen the tattoo of the birds on my collar bone or heard the reasoning behind why I got it, but a lot of it has to do with the idea of freedom. I got the tattoo when I was in Peru while I was on the Race. During my first few months of traveling, the Lord spoke to me a lot through the image of birds. Whether that be the idea of how birds always trust the wind to carry them, or how they don’t worry about the future, or how, just like baby birds jumping out of a tree and flying for the first time, we won’t know what we can do until we try. But one of my favorite things the Lord showed me about birds is the amount of freedom they have.
Birds have a way of defying gravity like nothing else. They can chose to leave the ground at anytime. After they take off, they glide up, closer and closer towards the sun. This is actually impossible for humans, no matter how much we flap our arms, as I’m sure you know, or maybe even discovered as a kid… I’m not speaking from experience I swear… But one of the biggest reasons birds have the ability to do this is because there is almost nothing weighing them down. They are of the earth, but they aren’t bound to it. There’s nothing holding them back from leaving the ground that the rest of us seem to be stuck on.
In the same way, we are not bound to the world or its ideas of who we are or what we need to be or believe. The less we are weighed down by the world and the things that try to keep us rooted in our flesh, the closer we will be able to get to the Son. It seems simple, but it’s so hard to actually live out. There are so many things that try to tempt our flesh and keep us rooted in the world, but we are free from all of it, if only we would choose to reach out and take ahold of the freedom we’ve already been given.
I think a big part of the Christian journey is realizing the fact that we are already free from a lot of the things we continue to enslave ourselves to. Jesus has already unlocked our chains, but so often we choose to stay in them. For me, I often make myself a slave to the love I receive from people. Too often I feel like I need their love to have worth.
In doing this, I’m letting myself stay chained up to the world when the love of the Father has already set me free from needing people’s love or approval. The truth is, we don’t actually belong to this world. His love for us is the only thing that will satisfy the desires of our hearts because He is the one who gave those desires to us. The more we let go of the things keeping us rooted in the world, the more we can walk into the freedom the Lord has already given us, and the closer to the Son we will be. We won’t be weighed down or held back from seeing the eternal and unconditional love the Father is constantly lavishing on us. We will be able to clearly see and walk in the reality that we are FREE INDEED.
***CGA Update: I am about $850 away from reaching my final goal of $5950. Thank you so much for getting me this far! I wouldn’t be where I am in my walk with the Father without you. I can’t thank you enough! That being said, there is still a bit left to fundraise. Would you consider donating to help me reach my final goal? If so, please click that donate button on the upper right side of this page! I also just launched a fundraiser where I will be selling shirts that I designed! I have crewnecks and tees, and they each come in 5 different colors. All proceeds will go towards my CGA funds! Click this link to take a look!- https://www.bonfire.com/free-indeed-crewneckstees/
Love you all!
-Abby
