Freedom, born to be free.

1. Intro
I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You're so self satisfied I don't need you
I've got to break free
God knows God knows I want to break free

Sounds familiar this song of Queen. Wanna break free from the selfish behaviour of others. Even God knows. One of the first words of babies is “self”, I can do it myself. Yeah, the sin of all sins, We want to sit on His throne! Forget it man, forget it! And we continue to struggle to receive our freedom. As always, God’s solutions are brilliant in its simplicity. You want to break free? You can have it! You are born to be free! Lets dig in His solution!

2. Being freed from what?
Good question. Don’t tell me I am a slave. I am able to handle my own business and not controlled by others. It is popular today to believe that the individual is or should be in full control of him or her self. What a mess we often face when people brake out to be free. Isn’t this often selfish and missing real joy, peace and love? In addition it’s never satisfied! 19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. (2 Peter 2:19). ……all people, are under the power of sin (Romans 3:9b). True freedom comes from abandoning your life to God. True freedom is not “freedom to sin”, it is freedom from the power of sin.

3. The World’s freedom.
7 Don’t be misled. Remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it. You will always harvest what you plant!. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.(Galatians 6:7-8). It would certainly be surprised if you planted corn and pumpkins came up. It’s a natural law to reap what we sow. It’s true in other areas too. If you gossip about your friends, you will loose their friendship. Every action has results. If you plant to please your own desires, you’ll reap a crop of sorrow and evil. If you plant to please God, you’ll reap joy and everlasting life. What kind of seeds are you sowing? 17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways (lustful pleasure). Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed. (Ephesians 4:17-19). The ungodly are living in their futility of their thinking which refers to the natural tendency of human beings to think their way away from God. Intellectual pride, rationalizations, and excuses all keep people from God. Don’t be surprised if people can’t grasp the gospel. The gospel will seem foolish to those who forsake faith and rely on their own understanding. The world’s freedom? They are hopelessly confused, full of darkness, far away from the life of God, immoral and filled with all kinds of impurity and greed. The world’s “freedom” is the freedom to be miserable! The New Testament also affirms that we are not our own rulers. We do not have ultimate control of our lives. Just as we are not in control of our physical circumstances because nature or some other person is more powerful than ourselves, so we are not in full control of even our inner selves because the powers of sin and grace are stronger than ourselves (Romans 7:15-25). Just as the slave's master determines the service that the slave is to perform, since the master is more powerful than the slave, so it is our master, not ourselves, who determines the general direction of our life (Romans 6:16). Who is your master?

4. True freedom.
As mentioned True freedom is freedom from the power of sin! 12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become a tool of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace (Romans 6:12-14). Wow, this one is cool. We are free to choose!! You can choose for sin and its consequences and you can choose for new life. Don’t blame me! You are free to choose! It’s your turn and your choice.
18 Now you are free from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteous living (Romans 6:18). 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life (Romans 6:22). Some people have always thought that we are no longer bound by the law but are “free” in Christ to act however we like. The Scriptures constantly remind us that following our every desire is not what freedom is. We are free from our former master, sin; but we are still servants. As servants of Christ, though we have the freedom to disobey our master, it is our responsibility to direct our actions to fulfil the purposes of Christ. Do we have freedom? Yes. Are we free? No. The Bible affirms that our choices are not determined; we make them ourselves. But it also demonstrates that we are not in total control of ourselves. We live under the ultimate control and direction of a power greater than ourselves. The comforting thing about this is that “in everything, God cooperates for good with those who love God” (Romans 8:28).

5. Finally.
13 For you have been called to live in freedom, not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13).

Slavery to God and to one another is voluntary. But it is a product of love and the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, it becomes a source of glory to God, and joy, peace, and blessing to yourself and others. Freedom is not the right to do as one pleases, but the power and capacity both to will and to do as one ought. True freedom is never freedom from responsibility, but responsibility not only for choice, but right choices. Freedom is an inner contentment with who we are in Christ and with what we have. It means to covet only heavenly treasure. It means the willingness and ability to allow God to be in control of your life. It means single-mindedness which turns the control of one’s life over to Christ which in turn frees us psychologically and volitionally to follow the Lord. It means the liberty for self-responsibility to both God and man under the grace of God.

45 I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments (Psalm 119:45).

9 Through you I am saying to the prisoners of darkness, ’Come out, into the light’! I am giving you your freedom! They will be my sheep, grazing in green pastures and on hills that were previously bare (Isaiah 49:9).

17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17).

5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children (Galatians 4:5).

1 So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law (Galatians 5:1).

7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son and forgave our sins (Ephesians 1:7).

20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. …… (Colossians 2:20a).

My dear friends, true freedom comes from abandoning your life to God. True freedom is to celebrate God’s love and live a full, joyful life. True freedom is freedom to love!


Kees Heijstek. November 2008.





Note: I would advise you to use the commentary out of the “life application study bible” for your personal devotions, which have been used for these devotion too.