Freedom in Christ Session 5: Our daily choice

The following sermon is taken from the Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course by Neil Anderson & Steve Goss.

Introduction

How often have you heard someone describe a Christian as a ‘good person’. But as I hope we all realise, there is much more to being a Christian than simply being a good person, after all as Christians we don’t have the monopoly on being good! But there is a perception that many people have, that once you become a Christian you automatically become a much better person, and do everything right. But, as I am sure we all know, it doesn’t work like that. We want to please God, but we often fail to live the Christian life as we want to, and often when we become Christians we don’t necessarily feel that different. For example, some of our bad habits don’t instantly disappear. In fact our struggle with sin may even seem to intensify. Why?

We need to understand what happened when we become Christians, what did not happen, and how to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

What did happen

The moment we become Christians, some dramatic changes take place.

We have a new heart and a new Spirit within us

We have a new heart whose desires are oriented towards God, rather than self or sin. Of course, this doesn’t automatically stop us from sinning, but when we do sin we become much more aware of it because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We have new life “in Christ”

When we become a Christian, we become a new creation, we become alive in Christ.

We have a new master

Our new spiritual authority becomes God, he is the one who now guides and directs our life.

What Did Not Happen

Our “flesh” was not taken away

When we become Christians how we think and react to situations doesn’t change straight away, it takes time, as we train ourselves to think in a way that is in line with what God would want us to think and do. This is a process that the Bible calls “renewing our minds” (Romans 12:2), choosing to throw out the old ways of thinking and behaving, which have no reference to God, and replacing them with God’s ways.

Sin did not die

As Christians we are still faced with the temptation of sin. When we become a Christian, sin does not die – far from it. In fact, it is still enormously appealing, and it tempts us every day to meet our legitimate needs for significance, security and acceptance through things other than God.

So how do we defeat the power of sin? The bad news is that we ourselves can do nothing to defeat sin. BUT, the good news is that Christ has already done it for us! The key to freedom, is knowing the truth about sin.

Paul in Romans, makes the point before we became Christians we were slaves to sin, but now as Christians, sin has no power over us any more. We therefore are to consider ourselves to be alive to God and dead to sin (Romans 6:11). Paul is helping us to grasp the truth that we died with Christ and that His death ended our relationship with sin.

But, just like Paul, we find that whenever we want to do good, evil rears its ugly head and tries to throw us off course – Paul describes this as the “law of sin” (Romans 7:23).

So, if the law of sin is still effective, how do we overcome it? By a greater law: “Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)

For example, there’s no way I can fly because every time I try, the law of gravity keeps me stuck to the earth and I haven’t found a way to stop it working. What can I do? Well, I can get into an aeroplane and I can fly! I overcome the law of gravity by the laws of aerodynamics and the power of the engine. It’s not as if the law of gravity has stopped working but simply that I have taken advantage of a more powerful law to overcome it.

The law that is now at work in you as a child of God is the law of the Spirit of life and it is far greater than the law of sin and death. Whereas before we had no choice but to stay on the ground in my sin, now we can choose to fly above the law of sin and death!

Our Choices

It’s becoming clear that we face some very real choices:
Even though we no longer have to think and react according to our flesh, we can choose to do so
Even though sin has no power over us, we can choose to give in to it

So, although nothing can change the fact of who we now are, and God’s love for us, the outcome of that in our day to day lives is very much down to our individual choice.

Although, through God’s grace and mercy, when we become Christians we become new people, we can very often continue to live in a way more akin to a non Christian. In other words, through the choices we make we try to live independently from God following the prompting of our own hearts desires, rather than of God’s Spirit. But when we do this, rather than experience the peace, joy and love knowing that we are accepted and loved by God, and realising our worth in Christ, we can be plagued by feelings of inferiority, insecurity, inadequacy, guilt, worry and doubt.

Barriers to Growth

But the wonderful truth is that God has given us everything we need to live a life that pleases Him (2 Peter 1:3). Therefore we simply need to learn to use what we already have to deal with the barriers to growth in our lives. Here are some of those barriers:

Ignorance
Very often Christians are not aware of who they are in Christ.

Deception
In order to grow we need to be firmly rooted in Christ. As Paul writes in Colossians 2:6-7, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Paul goes on to warn us saying: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

It is easy for us to be led astray by deceptive ways of thinking. Common areas of deception include thoughts like:
- “this might work for others, but my case is different and it won’t work for me.”
- “I could never have faith like so and so.”
- “God could never use me”

Unresolved personal and spiritual conflicts
For many, the reason that we do not move on is that we simply have too many unresolved personal and spiritual conflicts in our lives. May be something has happened in our lives, for example we’ve been hurt or let down by others, and if not dealt with, this can hold us back from growing and maturing as Christians.

Choosing to Walk by the Spirit Every Day

Once we have committed ourselves to believe truth no matter what we feel, and we have dealt with any unresolved spiritual conflicts, we are genuinely free to make a choice every day. We can choose to obey either the promptings of the flesh or the promptings of the Holy Spirit. The two are in direct opposition to each other.

There was a man who had a very difficult childhood in which he was largely ignored by his parents and sometimes abused by them. He became a Christian and later a church leader, but the pain from his past did not go away and he turned to alcohol to try to escape from it. It destroyed his marriage and his ministry. After years of alcoholism he got hold of the truth that the power of sin was broken in his life because of who he is as a child of God, and he walked away from the alcoholism, resolved his spiritual conflicts and found his freedom in Christ. Yet, he says that there is not a day in his life when his flesh does not tell him that he is “a useless waste of space.” His fleshy thought patterns have not gone away. But he has learned to make a choice every day simply not to listen to them – no matter how strongly they might come over – because they are based on lies. Instead he makes a daily choice to listen to the promptings of the Spirit, and walk according to what is actually true.

So What Does Walking By The Spirit Actually Mean?

Walking by the Spirit is Not:

Just a good feeling
Sometimes the Holy Spirit comes upon us in such a way that we feel full of joy. That’s a lovely gift from God when it happens, but being filled with the Spirit day by day is much more than that. If we base our life on having a good feeling, we’ll be continually looking for “the key” to feel better and we’ll be chasing God continually for a new experience – whereas He wants us to take hold of what He has already done and live accordingly.

A licence to do whatever we want
Some think that freedom means being able to do whatever we want, as if we can cast off all the guidelines God has given to help us lead responsible lives. But actually that leads to bondage. Walking by the Spirit prevents you from doing whatever you please: “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other.” (Galatians 5:17)

Legalism (slavishly obeying a set of rules)
The Old Testament law revealed the moral nature of God but nobody could live up to it. The point of the law was to lead us to Christ by teaching us our need for Him (Galatians 3:24). Yet so many of us, even as Christians, tend to live as if we still have to obey certain rules in order to be accepted by God or to be a “good Christian”. But Paul writes in Galatians (5:18) “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Walking by the Spirit enables us to live a righteous life by faith.

Walking By The Spirit Is:

True freedom
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17)

We have the freedom to be the people God created us to be and to make the choice to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Being led
In the West we drive our sheep or use sheep dogs to chase them. In Israel the shepherd leads from the front. The sheep recognise his voice and follow him. Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

Walking at God’s pace in the right direction
“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Nothing will get done if we expect God to do it all, and neither can we accomplish anything lasting for eternity by ourselves. Being yoked to Jesus doesn’t work if only one is pulling. Only Jesus knows the right pace and the right direction to walk. When we walk with Him we learn that His ways are not hard and we will find rest for our souls.

How Can We Tell If We Are Walking By The Spirit

Just as you can tell a tree by its fruit, you can tell whether you are walking by the Spirit by the fruit of your life. If you’re being led by the Spirit, your life will be increasingly marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

If you are living according to your flesh, that too will become evident in your life.

If you have become aware that you are living by the flesh, what is the appropriate response? Simply to confess it and to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and to start living according to your new identity in Christ.

Walking by the Spirit is a moment by moment, day by day, experience, you can choose every moment of every day either to walk by the Spirit or walk by the flesh.

But once you’ve understood the truth of who God is and who you are, why ever would you want to walk by the flesh any more?