The Truth Shall
Make You Free
Malachi 3:15 So now we call the proud blessed, For those who do wickedness are
raised up; They even tempt God and go free.'"
The sad situation in Malachi presents an attitude that many people today hang
on to. The people were tired of being restrained in their behavior by the dictates
and laws of God. Once they removed themselves from the restraints of God’s
law, they felt a freedom to do as they please. It is not much different today.
People do not like restraints, and will seek any means to be free from such
restraints.
That is why many people reject Jesus Christ and His commandments. In order to
receive the blessings of Christ and God, one must submit to God’s commandments.
It is a matter of restraining oneself in service to God. As Jesus prayed: “not
My will, but Thy will”.
Romans 6:20 “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard
to righteousness”. As we say, when one continues in sin, they are not
bound to the rules of God concerning righteousness. Many people make up their
own rules concerning what they consider right from wrong. Yet our judge is not
ourselves or men. Our final Judge will be God, and God is not going to use our
rule books we make for ourselves. God will use the Bible to judge us. The words
of Jesus will judge us as we read in John 12:48.
So, what does Jesus mean when He says in John 8:32 “ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall set you free”? The freedom Jesus is talking
about is freedom from the bonds of sin. One of the things that sin does is to
restrain us from reaching out to God. Sin keeps us in bondage so that we will
not want to leave it. Sin gets a hold of us, and does not want to let go. And
as much as we may want to get away from sin, we cannot do so on our own. The
worst thing is that sin will drag us down to Hell. While we do have to make
the effort to leave sin, we must realize that without Jesus it is impossible.
We must believe that Jesus paid the penalty of our sin, which the bible tells
us in Romans 6:23 “the wages of sin is death”. It is through obedience
to God’s commands that we can access the one thing that can cleanse us
from our sins. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). We
access that blood in baptism. Acts 22:16 tells us that baptism washes away our
sins. So since only the blood of Jesus can wash away sins, our baptism is what
contacts that blood for us. There is no salvation available to mankind before
baptism.
Freedom works both ways. For those who want to be free from sin, they turn to
God and Christ, and obey Their commands, and live faithfully all their lives.
For those who want to be free from the restraints of righteousness, they just
start sinning and continue sinning. While some people think they can do some
righteousness and get away with sin, or think that some righteousness will make
up for the sin, they are wrong. Any un-repented of sin will keep one out of
Heaven.
To have true freedom in Christ, one must totally subject themselves to God and
be diligent to keep as many laws of God as possible, relying upon His grace
to make up for what we lack in ourselves.
Do you want to be free from sin? Come visit with us and let us show you God’s
remedy for this problem. We will teach you what the Bible teaches, and will
not rely upon the made up laws of men.
God is not willing that any lose their soul, so He made it possible for us to
avoid hell. However, in order to avoid hell, we must believe in the Christ as
the son of God. We must repent, which means to change the course of our lives
and turn towards following God. We must be willing to confess our allegiance
to Christ, and be willing to stand up for Him always, and we must be baptized
for the remission of our sins. That will begin our Christian journey through
life in which we will need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
Come visit us at the Eastside Church of Christ in Ranger, Tx. We meet at the
corner of Strawn Rd and Young St. On Sunday at 9:45am for class, 10:45am and
5:00pm for assembly. On Wednesday for Bible study and prayer meeting at 7:00pm.
Arrangements can be made for private bible study also.
By Carey Scott via the Ranger Times 9/25/2011
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