Free From, Free To

A Christian Obeys God's Word

January 18, 1992

Romans 6:22 Therefore being made free from sin, and become servants to God...

INTRODUCTION:

Romans 6:22 is one of those golden texts that summarizes, or outlines, a great deal of wisdom in a single sentence. It begins with freedom from sin, and it shows the steps along the Pathway all the way to eternal life. Every step is essential, but I am particularly interested in the first two. They are two sides of the same truth:

  1. being made FREE from sin is wonderful;

    but it must be accompanied by

  2. becoming servants to God!

    There is a correlation between genuine FREEDOM and personal ALLEGIENCE TO GOD!

Last week I quoted from a poem to begin the morning's sermon. At the great risk of being taken for a tool of the English teachers of E.N.C. (or at least one of them) I want to read another poem to introduce my thoughts this morning:

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
-William Ernest Henley

Whoever or whatever else the poet is representing in this verse, the voice in this poem is not a Christian voice.

First, it is very vague about divinity. It says, "I thank whatever gods may be ... " Second, the voice claims to be its own master, its own captain. Every Christian has a Master. Every Christian confesses: "Jesus is Lord!" But because we own a Master, Christ Jesus, does that make us not free? Is the spirit of Invictus true freedom? What do we Christians know about freedom? What is the relationship of freedom and authority in the Christian life?

I. ABSOLUTE FREEDOM IS ALWAYS AN ILLUSION, PARTICULARLY IN MATTERS ETERNAL

  1. No one has absolute control in other areas of life:
    1. We come into this world without regard for our will: No one is free to refuse to be born. Not one of us asked to come into this world.
    2. We will leave this world whether we want to or not. No one is free to ultimately postpone death. Whether or not we go kicking and screaming or willingly, we shall all go to meet our Maker.
    3. We live in this world with many restrictions:
      1. Limits of nature
      2. Limits of circumstance and resource
      3. Limits of courtesy and civil law
  2. So how do we think that simply because we think or say it is so, that we can control those things of eternal destiny? We simply do not understand what mighty powers are at work!

II. THE DELUSION OF SELF-SOVEREIGNTY

  1. But brave Invictus says, "I know life has its limitations! But I'll stand on my own two feet! I won't use the crutch of religion! Given the limitations of life (as you have described them) I will still be my own master, and chart my own course. What's wrong with that?"
  2. This is "self-sovereignty" and it is a delusion. We cannot simply chart our own course!

    To say that self-sovereignty is a delusion is not to deny that we face responsibility for the choices we make. But those choices are made possible (1) only by God's grace; and (2) are choices that must be made between powers and forces far greater than we know.

  3. As soon as we choose to yield to sin and selfishness, we are no longer our own masters. Sin is a choice! As soon as we wilfully sin, we are no longer free. Paul writes:

    If you yield yourself to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of whomever you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness?

    Paul tells us, in fact, that there are none free, apart from God's grace, apart from God's Spirit who brings the law of life in Christ Jesus. He writes:

    I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me. "O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?"

  4. The delusion of self-sovereignty, of saying in effect "I am god in my little world," is the denial of the fact that actually we are trapped in sin's control, and cannot do anything but continue in sin.

    We sin because we are sinners. We cannot help ourselves. We are caught in the current of sin, being swept along to death and hell.

III. TRUE FREEDOM COMES FROM CHOOSING TO BE 'IN CHRIST'

  1. Freedom begins with this God-given power to choose which Master we shall serve. Freedom is of grace, the gift of God that enables us to see our need, and make for the Light!

    We cannot withstand the mighty tides of life apart from God's guidance. To be "free" apart from God is actually to be in the grip of other powers, seen or unseen:

    It is as though we are adrift on a vast ocean, with a double-ended skiff, and oars, and the ability to row. Some seem to be able to row more skillfully than others. But the currents are strong, and no one can row as fast as the tides.

    Sometimes where the tides meet there are great eddies, whirlpools, treacherous places. In other places the ocean currents are so broad the sense of movement is hard to detect. But in every case, the currents in this ocean of time are moving far faster than the fastest rowboat can row. The only hope of reaching a destination is to read the tides, to somehow choose a current, to make one's way across the drifts somehow, to move with the mighty flow.

  2. When we cry out to God for help, and by His grace He enables us to say from our hearts: "Jesus is Lord!" we are swept into the current of His life, and His love, and His grace!

    We find that we now have the power to become God's own children. We find grace to become like Jesus Himself, to love as He loved.

    With Paul we say

    It is no longer I that live (in my own strength - with such freedom and power!) Christ is living in me! The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me!

  3. We begin to experience the freedom that Jesus Christ patterned for us. His freedom becomes our own! How "free" was Jesus? And how can we ever be like Him?
    1. Jesus was free from sin! And by His indwelling power, we, too, can be "made free from sin": His grace makes us (1) Free from sin's GUILT: no condemnation. (2) Free from sin's POWER. (3) Free from sin's PENALTY. Christ paid the penalty so that we might live with Him forever.
    2. Jesus was free to do the will of God! And we are made free from sin, says our text, as we are made servants to God. Jesus was free from sin, and Jesus came to do the Father's will. The two go together!
    3. Jesus was free to live out His life in LOVE!

      The way is narrow— if you are on the outside looking in! No one ever faced a harder, more difficult road than our Savior! But He prayed, "Not My will, Thine be done!" He chose to obey and go the way of the cross.

      No one ever was more "bound" than Jesus! He was nailed in one place! But in that "binding" Jesus set free all those who would ever trust in Him! And in that narrow way of the cross Jesus won forever a perfect victory over the tyranny of sin and death and hell.

    4. Jesus says to every one of us, "Come, Follow Me if you dare! Take your cross, and follow! Come the narrow way of obedience! And I will give you rest!

CONCLUSION

  1. Henley's poem sounds so dramatic, so brave— so free:

    "Under the bludgeonings of chance
    My head is bloody, but unbowed.
    I am the master of my fate:
    I am the captain of my soul."

    But it is an empty boast.

  2. The text makes it clear: true freedom has two sides— we are never just free from something, we must also be free TO something better!

    Therefore being made FREE FROM SIN, (we) BECOME SERVANTS TO GOD; we have our fruit unto holiness- and the end is everlasting life!

    We can be free to do the right! To say from our heart, "Jesus is LORD!" sets in motion all the power wrapped up in this mighty text!

    CHRISTIANS ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE FREE TO OBEY GOD AND DO HIS WILL!

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, We ask you to help us to be Christians in all we do! Christians who are givers! Christians who give because they love! And Christians who delight to do Your will. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Hymn: He Touched Me - Exalt Him #85