Estudo | Glenio Fonseca Paranaguá - The free slaves
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The free slaves
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, and do not let yourself be burned again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5: 1.
The slave doesnft have freedom. A slave can be released from his slavery, and, in this case, he wonft be a slave anymore. An ex- slave could have been released, however, a slave is a contradict of a term. If he is a slave, he wonft be free. If hefs free, he wonft be a slave anymore. The question is: "Is a Christian a slave of Jesus Christ? But hefs free! So, now there is no contradiction.
We were slaves to sin. Jesus was emphatic when he said: "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin". John 8: 34. As we all were born sinners, all of us are slaves to sin. In this case, there is no freedom.
Adam and Eve were created free. Besides, they were the only created people, which had free will. Only they were in the condition to choose to sin or not to sin. Their descendents were born slaves to sin. We canft not sin, because we came to this world with the slavery of sin inside our DNA cells. All of us were born slaves to sinful rebellion.
However, Jesus was very sharp, when he said: "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed". John 8: 36. All of us came to this world slaves to sin, but we can become free. We can not free ourselves from sin, although we can be set free from sin. The point of the problem is the person that was made free from sin and became slave of Christ. Yet, Christ set us free for freedom, since we will only be his slaves being free.
Christfs proposal is for freedom that transforms us in free persons of incredulity, of pride from selfishness, though, permanent servants of the Triune Divine. "But now, that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." Romans 6: 33. This implication leads to freedom from slavery to the Abafs son, as slaves free in Jesus Christ.
To be slaved of the freedom is something extraordinaire. It means to live as a slave in the slavery of freedom. Nothing more than the freeing emancipation in Christ can contaminate Godfs sons. Thatfs why "He has rescued us from the domination of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossian 1: 13-14.
A Christian is a free guy, in spite of living subject to the slavery of freedom. He is an object of Christfs deliverance. But he only exists under freedom, as a freedom fellow. His experience as a freedom fellow has as scope the freedom of other slaves to sin, to freedom of the free slaves. Only the slave of freedom can protect the freedom of the slaves to sin. The true freedom consists in an observance of the law of freedom.
The liberation of the Empire of darkness does not let us live haunted anymore with the dark haunts of the despotism of fear, of prejudice, of legalism and of all of the prisons of religions. Someone who Christ sets free is a lawyer of liberation of the slaves. In this way, this person will never preach something that will restrict reedom.
Restrict or protect freedom shows total ignorance in its essence. Watched freedom is a pseudo freedom which is more like a disguised prison. No one can follow Jesus, in a free way, giving account to an intruder whom speculates and demands reports, and wanting all the control of those acts made before the throne. No one can be settled free with an inspector around him.
It was for freedom that Jesus set us free and it is only, remain in freedom, that we can really continue free, promoting freedom to the prisoners to sin and justice among wronged ones. "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted". Romans 6: 17.
Obedience in hatred or by force does not proceed from the free way of Jesus Gospel. It is necessary a free will to have a volunteer obedience. If, in fact, we are free, we will be involved with the program to set others free from the handcuffs of religions and from the prison of sin.
It is impossible to someone to be free and, in the same time, be a forceful prison guard of a penitentiary of maximum security. The church never was a jail, or an Assembly of Godfs people in a detention camp with ready guards. On the other hand, no one who is free is a libertine, or can became a clerical police chief, giving voice to prison to prisoners to sin, that still do not know the sufficiency full grace they can have in Jesus Christ.
There is no son of God who is a legalist. The one who was set free will never live as someone enslaved by law, legally enslaving victims of fear, with rules of arbitrary regiments. All those free from sin are libertarian and promoters of the full freedom in Jesus Christ. The message of grace is release and never detention. The preacher of the Gospel is a herald of the eternal habeas corpus that God gives us.
We have to understand that, talking about conditional freedom has nothing to do with the work of the Holy Spirit. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" II Corinthians 3: 17. If my freedom in Christ presupposes a condition to enjoy it, so this conditional became an indisputable limiter, that restrict all and any sense of true Christian freedom. This condition pack freedom in a prison.
Now, if we were born slaves to sin and we can only sin, the freedom of slavery must be, necessarily, the possibility that in some point, too, we will not sin. The human being shall be free indeed if he can do or stop doing something that he always does. "Everything is permissible for me- but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me- but I will not be mastered by anything". I Corinthians 6: 12.
Why did he have this attitude of not being overcome by anything? Because he was free. A free person can do or not do anything. The person who is a slave of doing something, only will do what he is enslaved of, as well as the one who is enslaved of not doing something, will do nothing. In this case, both slavery of doing and the slavery of not doing something, are oppressive.
The drunkard is a slave of alcohol and the abstemious is a slave of the absence of alcohol. In practice, in community life, the abstemious take an advantage, but in moral and spiritual terms, he can become a haughty legalist person, pointing fingers to the others who are dependent on alcohol. The convenience of doing or not doing something must be let me convenient to not impose my life model to others who has different style of life. .
Someone who is free has a free behavior. Living among genuine Christians is like living with people deprived of straitjacket, because the law of the Gospel is the law of freedom, where Abafs son live to themselves, depending on the law of love. "But the man who looks intently into the perfect law gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it- he will be blessed in what he does". James 1: 25.
Who is free does not worry of imprison no one. Every maximum security system presupposes absence of freedom. Try to control brothers in Christ and judge their appearance is, at least, ignore the True Judgefs county, not recognizing the code which can correct the behavior of the authentic Godfs son. "Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom". James 2: 13.
I am not suggesting generalized anarchy, through anonymity, that means, absence of law. In Christian life the presence and the vitality of law is the love. The law of freedom is controlled by the essence of Godfs love spilled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So, this is the point: if I love- I do not kill. Everything sum up in a universal principle. "Love does not harm his neighborhood. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law". Romans 13: 10.
See this as a fully true. Only free people can love with the freedom of free love. The Christian faith does not put any halter on the sheep of the cattle. All of them need to be free to obey with the freedom of obedience based on the Fatherfs love. Any obedience that is required it is like a moral abuse by the connection of the arm wrestling. Love never decrees an expected behavior, nor demand for his offered affections. Love does not pay what receives and does not charge what it gives.
The freedom is not the right to do what we want to, but it is the privilege of doing what love moves us to do through its essence. Agostinho declared with pinpoint accuracy: "Love and do what you want to". Who loves carry out Godfs law, because love is the code which guides the free soul of Abafs son, to live the legality of love everyday.
"Whatever is love, it is neither passive nor destructive". "Now about food sacrificed to idols: we know that we all posses knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up". I Corinthians 8: 1
Christ has set us free from the slavery of sin, so we can freely be slaves of freedom, loving others that still live in slavery of sin. Who is free in Christ preaches the freedom that guides to freedom we have through Christfs Gospel. The Lords flock was not herd by enforcement, neither is kept by a foolish servile.
In Jesus Christfs church there is no herd imprisoned by fences of rules or tether by reins of duty, interest or fear. We are a flock that was set free by grace to serve the freedom of love without boundaries, because, as John Knox used to say: "Greater than army is goodness, stronger than swords is freedom". Freedom, yes, never liberalism or licentiousness. "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love". Galatians 5: 13
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