"What is freedom in Christ?"
"How do we get set free from our sins?"
"What does it mean to have true freedom in Jesus?"
In today's episode, I will be answering the above questions that you or a loved one may be asking yourself. We will discuss all about how we can receive freedom in Christ, what it means to have freedom in Christ, and I will be pairing this with some prayer and scripture.
First, I want to say a quick prayer: Lord, I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. Please put a hedge of protection over your people. LORD, I pray that you open up our eyes, our ears, our hearts and our minds to you. Holy Spirit, please move me to do the will of God the Father. Work through me to make an impact of the life of whoever is reading this and use me as a vessel for your work LORD. I pray that whoever is reading this can truly see how we get freedom in Jesus Christ. I pray that whatever it is that each person is supposed to receive from this episode, that they receive it, and they implement it in their daily lives. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen."
It is a new year guys. It's 2025. As I'm recording this episode, it's actually January 1st, so it is the first day of the new year. I knew that I needed to record some new episodes, but I didn't know exactly what episodes at all that I was going to record until this morning. Whenever I was spending quiet time with God doing my Bible study, he put on my heart three different episodes that I'm going to be batching today. So, we are going to be going into freedom in Christ because I know that as a Christian, whenever you're trying to live your life for the Lord, sometimes it can feel like people that are living in the world are free to do whatever they want and we have all of these rules that we need to live by because we're trying to be more like Jesus. It can seem very daunting for a person that wants to become a Christian but they're like, "but there's all these rules to Christianity and I don't want all these boundaries on my life, and I just want to be free to do whatever I want." So, I wanted to get into everything because there is true freedom in Jesus Christ and in living our life for Jesus.
Let's get into some scripture:
"Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin— in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you don’t join them in the same flood of wild living—and they slander you. They will give an account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged in the flesh according to human standards, they might live in the spirit according to God’s standards." -1 Peter 4:1-6
So, I wanted to read these verses first because yes, as believers of Jesus Christ, whenever we are following Him, we are seeking every day to deny our flesh, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus, we are going to live differently. We have the Holy Spirit within us whenever we're saved by Jesus Christ. We want to portray the fruit of the Spirit, and we also want the Holy Spirit to move in us and to move us to do the will of God the Father. I actually went over everything about the Holy Spirit two episodes ago, I think. So, if you didn't check that out, you can go check that episode out.
Yes, we are going to live our lives differently whenever we are saved by Jesus Christ and we have the Holy Spirit within us, because we no longer are going to live by our human desires, but we are going to desire to live like Jesus. There will be so many people in this world that are not going to understand why we live differently, especially if you're a new Christian and you're trying to live your life for Jesus. The friends that you had before life with Jesus are not going to understand if they're not Christians, if they don't love the Lord, they're not going to understand why you are doing the things that you're doing and why you're changing your ways.
If you truly believe in Jesus Christ, He's going to change you completely. He's going to change your heart; He's going to change your desires. There will be things that you no longer desire that you used to whenever you were in the world and whenever you just gave into the flesh and people aren't going to understand it. To them it's going to seem like you're a slave. It's going to seem like the way they're living is so much better, but we know whenever we are saved by Jesus, that He actually does free us. If you've been saved by Jesus Christ, you know He has changed you completely. There are so many things in my life that He has completely freed me from. There are so many strongholds that He has delivered me from and so many chains that He has broken. In this world I was just full of darkness. Before I truly gave my life to Jesus, I was all in the world. I was doing whatever I wanted. All the things in this scripture, it's talking about drunkenness and all this stuff, I was doing everything. I have true freedom in Jesus Christ now. The people that are still living the way of the world, they're not going to understand that true freedom is actually found in Jesus.
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit."
-2 Corinthians 3:17-18
"Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free." -John 8:34-36
Jesus Christ is talking about himself in the verses above. He is the son of God. He sets us free. Whenever we ask Jesus Christ to come into our hearts and forgive us of our sins and we're saved by him, we are set free from sin. We are no longer a slave to sin, but we are free in Jesus Christ.
"For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery." -Galatians 5:1
So, living in this world without God, without being saved by Jesus Christ, we are a slave to sin. Without Jesus, we give into our fleshly desires, we give into sin, we do anything and everything that we want, that our heart desires, and that the world wants us to do. We just fully give in to the darkness and to sin, but we are a slave to that because that leads to depression, that leads to anxiety, that leads to broken families, broken homes, broken hearts that leads to destruction, deceit, and it leads to everything that is not good in this world.
Whenever we do have Jesus Christ, when we are saved by Jesus, we have freedom in Him. We have the fruit of the spirit because we have the Holy Spirit living within us. We have eternal life in heaven with Jesus and God the Father. We have the truth of God's words. With the fruit of the spirit, we have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. All of these things that we can't get in this world because that is not of the sinful nature that is only fruit of the Holy Spirit. We have the love of the Father and of Jesus Christ. We have the Holy Spirit to counsel us and guide us and we have true freedom and eternal life in Jesus Christ.
I'm actually going to go back into 1 Peter chapter 4 because I forgot to read a little devotional. I have a study Bible and so there is a devotional in here that I wanted to read with you guys. It says: "Our God does not simply point to our sorted past and say, don't live that way anymore. No, our God cups our face in his nail scarred hands and says, my child, you don't have to live that way anymore. You are free." Whenever I read that this morning, it brought tears to my eyes. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. His hands were pierced with nails.
Just close your eyes and think of this picture really quick. Think of the moment you found Jesus, or maybe, maybe you're reading this right now and you want to be free in Christ, you want to know about Jesus, but you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Maybe you came on here wanting to know how you can get free in Christ or just being curious because of the title of this episode or God led you to this, whatever the case is. I just want you to close your eyes for a second and just think about the picture that this devotional is giving us right now. Being so stuck in our sin, being so stuck in this world and just living life the way that we want with our own selfish ambition, desires and living by our flesh. Jesus Christ with scarred hands from being pierced on the cross for our sins, putting his hands on our face and saying, "My child, you don't have to live life like that anymore. You are free."
Jesus died a sinner's death for us so that we would have freedom in Him and have eternal life. We don't have to live that way anymore. We don't have to be bound or a slave to sin anymore. We don't have to be stuck in depression and anxiety and the weight of the world on our shoulders. We don't have to be in the darkness anymore. There is true freedom in Jesus Christ. All we have to do is, first and foremost, if you're not saved by Jesus Christ, the very first thing is to ask Jesus to come into your heart, to confess with your mouth that he is your Lord and Savior, that He died on the cross for our sins and rose again three days later, and that who whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life in heaven with him and God the Father. You have to repent, ask him for forgiveness, and ask him to come into your heart and forgive you of your sins and save you. Jesus Christ will save you. Then we just have to deny our flesh every day, pick up our cross and follow Jesus.
Following Jesus is not easy. It may seem like life was easier without trying to live like Jesus. If you really think about it, because I think about it all the time, even though it's hard trying to deny my flesh every single day because I've lived so much of my life just giving into my flesh that now trying to deny my flesh is super difficult, but I would do it every single day, a million times over. I would way rather live this life with Jesus Christ and being in step with the Spirit, then living in the world and just doing whatever I wanted, being in the darkness again, and not having any hope, not knowing what my future was going to hold, not having any purpose in this world. True freedom is found in Jesus Christ.
Alright, there's a little bit more that I'm going to read from this devotional. It says: "We are free to walk today in a life that is alive in Christ. We are free to love, to serve, to forgive and be forgiven. We are free to glorify our Father and not ourselves because it was always His glory to begin with. This changes everything. This is what matters. May we walk boldly today and every day free in the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ."
"I will walk freely in an open place because I study your precepts."
-Psalm 119:45
I have a note on my Bible where this verse is that says, "We get freedom in Christ when we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus." If you haven't read the gospels in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, I highly recommend that you do read those. Specifically, if you haven't gotten into any of them, I would start with the book of John. You can really see the way Jesus Christ lived his life and it's a perfect illustration of how we should strive to live our lives. Of course, we're not going to be perfect. We are never going to reach the perfection of Jesus Christ until we go to heaven with Him. On this earth we do want to seek to live and have a heart like Jesus and keep our eyes fixed on him. A big way we can keep our eyes fixed on Him is by seeing his character and how he lived on this earth, and we can see that in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
"What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not! Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
-Romans 6:15-23
So, these verses may a little confusing, because I know I said true freedom is found in Jesus Christ and in these verses it's like, "Okay, we're free from sin, but now we're slaves to God. So, are we really free?" But as you can see in this last verse that I just read, "For the wages of sin is death." So, we were dead in our sins, but we're alive in Jesus Christ. With Jesus Christ we have eternal life. We are free in Jesus. Yes, we do need to live our life for God. We do need to go through a sanctification process where God is purifying us and making us clean. You'll notice whenever you truly give your life to the Lord, when you're saved by Jesus and you are walking in step with the Spirit and wanting to live your life for Christ, you're going to notice that you're being purified. He's cleansing you from impurities. He will reveal things that you need to remove from your life in order to be closer to Him. He will remove those things, and He will deliver you from things that are holding you back.
We go through a sanctification process whenever we are saved by Jesus Christ, and we do want to live our life for Jesus. God is full of righteousness, mercy, grace, love, and all things good. So, this is why it seems so daunting and scary to people that aren't believers because they're like, "Okay, so I'm going to go from living my life the way that I want. Yeah, it may be tough, I may be depressed sometimes I may be lost, I may be lonely. All these things may happen, but I'm going to become a Christian and then I am going to be a slave to God instead of a slave to sin. And then I'm going to have all these rules and regulations and all these things."
We cannot work our way into heaven. I want to make that very clear right now that I am not preaching a gospel of working your way into heaven. I'm not preaching a gospel of doing certain things, being a good person, and that's going to get you into heaven. What I am preaching of is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Freedom in Jesus Christ by being saved by Him and then having that relationship with Him and seeking to live and have a heart like Jesus. When you seek to live and have a heart like Jesus and you're letting the Holy Spirit move you and work through you, you're going to go through a sanctification process and you're going to seek to be righteous. You're going to seek to do things that are good and pleasing to the Lord. I'm telling you this life is a million times better than the life that I lived without Jesus Christ. I was so full of anxiety, I was so full of depression, I was full of darkness and sadness and nothing good. There were moments when I was partying and trying to live my life the best that I could, but life with Jesus is so much better than anything this world could ever give you.
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." -Romans 8:1-4
So, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin when we're saved by Jesus, and we have the Holy Spirit within us. We are set free from sin; we are dead in our sin and alive in Jesus. Now we walk according to the Spirit and not to the flesh and it's going to look a lot different than the people walking according to their flesh. The way that you live now as a Christian, if you have been living your life for Jesus for a while, or if you've just been trying to live your life for Jesus, you've been trying to walk and step with the Spirit, the way you live now is a lot different or it should be a lot different than the way you lived in the flesh
"For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness." -Romans 8:5-10
We have the Holy Spirit within us. When we're saved by Jesus Christ, we're no longer goanna live by the flesh. We are going to live according to the Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit within us, and we have true freedom in Jesus Christ.
So, I hope this episode helped you guys to see how we have true freedom in Jesus Christ. If you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I pray that this episode was a stepping stone to your salvation. The only one that can save you is Jesus Christ. He will freely save anyone that comes to Him, repents, ask for forgiveness, confesses with their mouth that He is their Lord and Savior, and asks Him to come into their heart and forgive them of their sins. So that is it for today's episode. Next week we are going to go into glorifying God in all that we do, so make sure you stay tuned for that
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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Scripture taken from The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
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