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True Freedom in Christ: From Bondage to Loving Service Under His Lordship · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform Thinking's deep Dive.
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  This is where we take a close look at the big ideas, the
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  doctrines that really shape our worldview, and we try to get to
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  the bottom of what they mean by going straight to the sources.
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  Today we're on a pretty critical mission.
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  I think we are looking at the true shape of Christian freedom,
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  what the Bible calls Christian liberty.
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  We've got some sources here that really break this down, defining
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  it not as, you know, a license to do whatever you feel like,
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  but as a very specific theological status, a status
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  rooted in the gospel. It has precise boundaries and a
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  very clear purpose. So our goal today is simple.
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  We want to unpack this biblical understanding of freedom layout.
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  It's what our sources call. It's Granite Foundation.
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  Look at the boundaries that protect it and then talk about
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  the hope that it points to. And this topic, it really hits a
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  nerve, doesn't it? It gets right to the central
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  tension of modern life, especially if you're trying to
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  live out a biblical worldview. Where do you find real freedom?
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  Is it incomplete autonomy, where you answer to no one?
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  You'd define your own reality. Which is what the world tells
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  you. Constantly.
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  Or is freedom found in a willing, even a radical,
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  allegiance to Christ? The sources we're looking at,
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  they don't leave any room for ambiguity here.
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  They give a very secure, very specific answer that's grounded
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  in the finished work of Jesus. And it sets up this stark
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  contract between the world's promise of self rule, which
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  often feels hollow, and the security you find under Christ's
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  lordship. It seems like getting this
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  definition right is, well, it's everything.
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  It is if you get freedom wrong, you'll get the Christian life
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  from. All right, so before we can even
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  start to appreciate the freedom that Christ offers, the sources
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  tell us we have to take a sober look at the default human
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  condition, the situation apart from him.
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  So let's unpack that difference between the world's definition
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  of freedom and where the Bible says we actually start.
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  Which, spoiler alert, begins with a rescue.
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  Right, it has to. Modern culture.
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  It sells a very attractive picture of liberty.
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  The sources define this modern view almost entirely with two
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  words, autonomy and self determination.
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  That's the operating system of secular thought today, isn't it?
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  To be free in that way of thinking means you answered to
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  absolutely no one. The individual self becomes the
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  ultimate reference point. You're your own God in a way.
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  In a very real way, you set your own rules, you define your own
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  identity. Your feelings are the supreme
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  authority, and we hear this all the time in phrases like follow
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  your heart or be true to yourself.
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  Or no one can tell me who I am. That's a big one.
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  It sets up any external authority, especially God or
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  Scripture, as the enemy, as something that's holding you
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  back from being your true self. Exactly.
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  If a moral code, an objective standard, clashes with your
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  inner feelings, that standard is automatically labeled
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  oppressive, Something to be thrown off.
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  But this philosophy, this this sovereignty of the self, it has
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  a huge practical problem, and our sources call it the dark
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  underside. The dark underside.
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  Tell us about that. Well, the assumption is that if
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  you cast off all external authority, you'll find peace.
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  You'll be liberated. But the sources argue that
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  actually the opposite happens. The more people insist on being
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  their own masters, the more anxiety, restlessness and moral
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  confusion seem to grow. Because that's a heavy burden to
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  carry to be the source of all your own meaning.
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  It's an impossible burden. The self is finite.
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  It wasn't designed to carry that weight.
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  So you get this strange outcome. The culture promises wholeness
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  through self rule, but the end result often feels, and this is
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  a quote, more like aimlessness than liberation.
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  That makes a lot of sense psychologically.
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  If you define all meaning internally, and your internal
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  state is always changing your feelings, your desires, then
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  your meaning is totally unstable.
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  It's built on sand. Right, there's no anchor and the
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  human heart craves an anchor. When you cut that rope, the soul
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  just drifts. And this self-made freedom, it
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  ultimately fails because it can't solve 3 undeniable
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  realities. Guilt, our own internal
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  corruption, and the fact that we're all going to die.
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  You can't be true to yourself out of those things.
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  No amount of self definition cancels a real moral debt.
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  No amount of positive thinking can make the grave disappear.
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  And so scripture offers this radical, completely different
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  diagnosis. It says that apart from Christ,
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  people aren't autonomous free agents who just need a bit of
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  guidance. They are, and this is a shocking
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  phrase, slaves of sin. That phrase completely reframes
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  the problem. Sin isn't just a list of bad
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  choices we make. It's presented as a power, a
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  reigning power. The sources call it a tyrant.
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  King, a tyrant king. That's a perfect description.
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  It's a power that shapes our desires.
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  It blinds our minds, and it bends our will away from God.
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  It makes true repentance feel impossible on our own.
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  I mean, Jesus himself said everyone who practices sin is a
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  slave to sin. So it's a spiritual bondage that
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  masquerades as self-expression. You think you're choosing
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  freely, but you're actually just obeying the commands of your own
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  corrupted nature. That's it.
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  Your will, left to itself, cannot and will not choose God.
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  Paul says in Romans that the mindset on the flesh is hostile
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  to God. It's incapable of submitting to
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  God's law. So the rescue has to come from
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  the outside. The problem isn't just
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  ignorance, it's allegiance to the wrong master.
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  And this bondage is it's multifaceted.
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  The sources talk first about bondage to the law.
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  The moral law itself is good and holy, but for the fallen Sinner
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  it functions as a covenant of works.
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  The terms are stark. Do this and live, fail and die.
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  And we all fail. Every single one of us.
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  So the law's primary function for us becomes revealing our
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  guilt. It shows us our condemnation.
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  That's the critical point. Since nobody keeps the whole law
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  perfectly. Sinners are legally under a
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  curse. We stand directly under the
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  law's righteous sentence. The law is like a perfect X-ray.
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  It shows the deadly cancer inside, but it offers no cure.
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  It just silences every excuse and holds the whole world
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  accountable to God. We're not just moral failures,
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  the sources say. We're covenant Breakers.
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  Much more serious charge. And that leads to the next form
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  of slavery. Slavery to fear and death.
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  That legal curse, that guilt. It creates this deep
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  restlessness and dread. The book of Hebrews talks about
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  people being held in lifelong slavery by the fear of death.
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  Even if we try to suppress it. Oh.
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  Especially then, you see it in the frantic pursuits of our
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  culture, the endless need for validation, for achievement, for
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  distraction, for entertainment. Our sources suggest these are
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  just symptoms of a deeper spiritual problem.
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  There are attempts to outrun that final judgement.
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  Trying to build a life that's so busy and loud you can't hear the
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  clock ticking. Exactly.
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  Death is the last enemy, and apart from Christ the Sinner is
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  held captive not just by the fact of death, but by the terror
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  of the judgement that follows it.
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  So this self-made freedom the world offers, it just collapses.
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  It can't fix the legal curse, it can't fix our internal
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  corruption, and it certainly can't stop death.
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  Which means the Gospel isn't just good advice, it's rescue
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  operation. A necessary rescue operation for
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  helpless captives. That's the only way to see it.
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  OK, so if our natural state is this deep spiritual and legal
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  bondage, then freedom has to be an act of rescue.
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  It has to come from God. Our sources point us to two non
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  negotiable pillars that form what they call the Granite
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  Foundation of Christian Liberty. This isn't built on our efforts,
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  it's built on God's action. And the first pillar is union
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  with Christ. Yeah.
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  Is this so central? The sources are clear that
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  salvation isn't just some external transaction.
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  Like God hands you a legal document stamped forgiven and
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  sends you on your way. Right.
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  It's much more intimate than that.
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  Much more. It's that believers are
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  spiritually, mystically, the very really joined to Christ.
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  We are in Christ. The New Testament is full of
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  analogies for this A branch to a vine, a body to its head, a
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  marriage. And this union is the absolute
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  prerequisite. One source says it point blank.
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  Without this union, there is no freedom.
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  It's the definitive basis for everything else in the Christian
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  life. Everything flows from this.
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  And what's so staggering is the scale of this identification
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  through this union. Everything that happened to
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  Christ as our representative is, in a legal and spiritual sense,
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  counted as having happened to. Us.
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  Yes, it's a total identity shift.
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  When Christ died on the cross, in God's eyes, we who are united
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  to him died. We died to the law's
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  condemnation. We died to Sin's ruling power.
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  And when he was raised. We were raised with him to walk
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  in a new kind of life. Believers have decisively died
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  to the old realm of sin and condemnation and have been
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  transferred into a new realm of grace.
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  We're citizens of a new Kingdom, and the old regime has no claim
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  on us anymore. This new identity in Christ is
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  the very source of all our freedom.
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  It makes Christ the entire context for who we are now.
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  If he is raised, we're free. If he's still in the tomb, we're
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  still in our sins, as Paul says. So this union makes that second
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  pillar even possible. And that second pillar, which
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  flows right out of our union with Christ, is justification by
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  faith. This is the immediate legal
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  ground of our freedom from guilt and condemnation.
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  Without this legal verdict, there is no rest for the
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  conscience. There's only performance
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  pressure. OK, let's get into the specifics
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  of this verdict because it is so often misunderstood.
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  Justification is defined as a legal act of God.
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  He's the supreme judge, and he issues a ruling in heaven's
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  courtroom. He declares A Sinner to be
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  righteous in his sight. The key there is declares.
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  It's a pronouncement. It's an objective verdict about
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  your legal standing, not a description of your internal
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  state. So.
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  It's not about God making us righteous inside, it's about Him
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  declaring us righteous. Exactly.
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  And the basis for that declaration is what makes it so
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  secure. The verdict is not based on
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  anything inside of us. Not our personal goodness, not
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  our future spiritual growth, not our repentance.
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  It is based solely on the perfect righteousness of Christ,
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  His perfect life, and His atoning death.
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  And that righteousness is imputed to us, credited to our
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  account. That's the word imputation
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  that's credited to us, and we receive it by faith alone.
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  And this is the difference between freedom and slavery.
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  If justification depended on God infusing righteousness into us,
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  making us actually internally perfect, we'd never be justified
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  in this life because our internal righteousness is always
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  flawed. Always mixed bag.
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  Always. But because it's based on
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  imputation, the crediting of Christ's external perfect
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  righteousness to our account, the verdict is perfect and
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  final. From the very start, Christ took
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  the entire curse of the law for us.
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  He's satisfied divine justice completely.
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  So the result is what the source is called, the silencing of
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  condemnation. Because Christ's payment was
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  sufficient, the verdict is definitive.
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  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are
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  in Christ Jesus. The laws voice which used to
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  accuse us is silenced. It's condemning power is broken.
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  And this is where true freedom from that lifelong spiritual
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  treadmill begins. Justification, finally and
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  forever answers that haunting question that every human
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  conscience asks. Have I done enough?
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  The question that drives so much religion.
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  It does, and the answer from Heaven's courtroom is it is
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  finished. The conscience is set free from
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  that crushing weight of trying to save yourself because your
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  acceptance with God is anchored completely outside of you.
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  It's as secure and unchanging as Christ himself.
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  So if. We were, to use an analogy,
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  Union with Christ is like a prisoner being adopted and made
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  a citizen of the King's country. That establishes the new
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  relationship. Then justification is the King's
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  official public decree of a full non revocable pardon for that
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  new citizen. A perfect analogy.
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  And the pardon isn't based on the citizens promise to do
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  better, it's based entirely on the fact that a substitute
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  already paid the debt in full. So this freedom, resting on this
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  granite foundation of union and justification is apparently very
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  precious and needs to be guarded.
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  The sources warn that it's susceptible to distortion.
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  There are two major ditches on either side of the road that
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  lead right back into bondage. That's right.
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  The first is legalism, which is the bondage of works, and the
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  second is antinomianism, the bondage of license.
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  Let's start with legalism, the source says.
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  Justification by faith alone is the essential guardrail against
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  this. It is.
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  Legalism is any attempt to sneak human works back into the
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  equation as the basis for getting or keeping God's favor.
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  But since our freedom rests on that objective verdict that God
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  has already pronounced, our acceptance with him can't be
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  shaken by our day-to-day performance, good or bad.
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  And that security is what liberates the conscience from
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  the crushing weight of self salvation.
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  The second we shift our focus from Christ's perfect
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  righteousness to our own very imperfect spiritual efforts as
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  the reason God accepts us, we've fallen right back into legalism.
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  And that makes people live as if God's favor fluctuates with
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  their spiritual productivity. Life becomes a scorecard.
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  Am I praying enough? Am I serving enough?
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  Am I avoiding these particular sins well enough?
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  They're trying to maintain God's favor through their own
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  religious activity. They're back under the law as a
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  covenant of works. Do this and live.
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  But Christ ended that for the believer.
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  He fulfilled the law perfectly, and He bore its curse for those
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  who are united to Him. So we are no longer under the
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  law in that condemning sense. Our peace is secure because we
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  are standing on someone else's righteousness.
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  So even when we sin, even when we stumble badly, our
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  foundational status, our justification, is untouched.
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  We might face God's fatherly discipline, and we should feel
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  sorrow for our sin, but we never faced the threat of renewed
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  condemnation. Never.
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  The logic is unshakable. If God himself has justified us,
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  if the Supreme Judge has declared the case closed, than
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  no other charge can possibly stand.
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  And that freedom from performance anxiety allows a
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  believer to stop striving for acceptance and start serving
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  from a place of acceptance. That's a huge shift.
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  It's the death of legalism. All right, so on the other side
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  of the road we have the opposite ditch antinomianism.
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  The sources define this as cheap grace, a major perversion of
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  liberty. A very dangerous one.
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  The term antinomianism literally means against the law.
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  It's the line of reasoning that says, well, since I'm justified
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  by faith and not by my works, by obedience must be optional.
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  It's treating Christian freedom as a license.
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  Permission to sin without consequence.
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  Exactly. Using God's grace as an excuse
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  for moral laziness or even outright sin.
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  It's a terrible distortion, but the Bible's refutation is very
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  strong. The sources stress that freedom
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  from sins guilt, which is justification, is always always
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  joined to freedom from sins, dominion, which is
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  sanctification. They're two sides of the same
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  coin. You can't separate them.
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  They both flow from the single reality of being united to
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  Christ. He didn't just die to save us
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  from hell. He died to redeem us from our
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  sin and to a life of righteousness.
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  So that union with Christ involves A decisive break with
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  sins, dominion. When you become a Christian,
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  you're transferred out of the Kingdom of darkness and into the
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  Kingdom of the sun. Sin is still there.
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  It's still a struggle. The sources call it remaining
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  corruption. It's a battle, but it no longer
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  reigns over you like a tyrant king.
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  It can't dictate the ultimate direction of your life anymore.
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  So true freedom isn't the ability to ignore God's law.
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  It's actually the power to pursue holiness, a power we
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  didn't have before when we were slaves to sin.
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  That's it. The justified Christian has been
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  given a new heart and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
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  Because of that, he cannot live at peace with sin, because he
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  now belongs to Christ and internal war has begun.
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  So if someone claims to be free in Christ but is happy to live
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  in habitual unrepentant sin. The sources would say they have
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  fundamentally misunderstood the nature of saving grace.
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  Grace secures our acceptance so that we can pursue holiness with
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  joy. So obedience isn't a burden we
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  have to carry to stay saved. It's the natural, necessary
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  expression of our new identity in Christ.
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  We've laid the foundation and we've put up the guardrails.
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  Now let's talk about the purpose of this freedom.
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  The sources say that Christian freedom is never an end in
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  itself. It's always unto something.
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  And that something seems to be a huge paradox.
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  It really is. The purpose is communion with
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  God and loving self giving service toward other people.
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  And that creates what the source is called the great paradox of
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  Christian liberty, because the call to freedom is at the same
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  time a call to servanthood, which sounds completely
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  counterintuitive to a modern person.
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  Freedom means independence, right?
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  Not in the Bible. Believers are told very clearly.
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  Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.
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  Instead, through love, serve one another.
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  This is that great irony we talked about earlier.
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  The world chases independence and ends up enslave to sin and
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  self. The believer embraces dependence
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  on Christ and finds true liberation.
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  It's all about belonging to the right master.
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  Think about the Apostle Paul. He's the great champion of
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  freedom in Christ, but how does he introduce himself in his
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  letters? Paul, a bondservant of Christ
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  Jesus. A bondservant.
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  A slave, he gloried in that status.
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  He didn't see it as a loss of freedom.
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  For him it was freedom. To be grateful slave of Christ
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  is to be free from the tyranny of sin, free from the lost
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  curse, free from yourself. And that new allegiance, that
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  new master, is what frees you up to actually serve other people
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  because you're not constantly trying to serve your own needs
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  or build your own Kingdom. And it flows directly from the
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  security justification. You're freed from obsessing over
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  your spiritual scorecard. Christ work is finished.
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  It's perfect. So you can stop focusing all
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  your energy inward. Instead of asking how am I
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  doing? Am I acceptable?
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  The free believer can start asking.
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  How can I pour myself out for the good of others?
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  Right. And that's the rest takes all
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  kinds of forms. It can be humble, unseen tasks.
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  It can be preferring others, bearing patiently with people
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  who are difficult for giving people who wrong you.
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  That's liberty in action. Another purpose of this freedom
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  is joyful obedience. Living in spirit empowered
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  holiness. Yes, grace restores the moral
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  law to its proper place in the life of a believer.
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  It's no longer a covenant of works that condemns you.
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  It becomes the moral rule of life for God's adopted children.
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  This is such a key distinction in Reformed thought.
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  The law isn't thrown out. Its relationship to us is what
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  changes. We're free from its condemnation
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  so that we can be free to obey it as our guide.
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  And the sources say this transforms our whole
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  perspective. True freedom becomes the ability
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  to delighten them as the wise and goodwill of our Father.
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  You can finally say with Psalmist, Oh how I love your law
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  because you see it as a blueprint for human flourishing,
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  not a list of impossible demands.
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  So obedience is the fruit of freedom.
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  It's not the price you pay to get God's favor.
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  Never the price. The moral law, like the 10
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  Commandments, still binds us, but it binds us as a guide to
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  grateful living that flows from our salvation, not as a
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  condition for our salvation. That structure keeps you out of
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  both ditches, legalism and antinomianism.
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  Now there's a really practical dimension of this that affects
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  our daily lives, the conscience. This is about who or what has
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  the final say in our decisions. A huge area, the sources stated
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  very simply and powerfully. God alone is Lord of the
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  conscience and he binds it only by His word.
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  This is a core principle of Christian liberty that came
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  right out of the Reformation. It guards US against man made
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  rules and the arbitrary use of human authority.
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  So why is that principle that only God through Scripture can
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  bind the conscience? It's so vital for our freedom.
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  Because the moment the church or your family or your culture or
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  some popular Christian author tries to demand your absolute
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  submission in an area where God has not spoken clearly in the
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  Bible, they are putting you back into bondage.
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  The conscience is so easily wounded and enslaved by the
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  opinions and expectations of other people.
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  So this protects us from turning things that are morally neutral
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  matters of Christian liberty into new laws, things that
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  become tests of fellowship or requirements for spirituality.
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  Exactly. True liberty means you have to
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  learn how to evaluate traditions, cultural norms, even
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  Christian fads against the standard of Scripture.
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  The question is always, is this a clear command of God, or is
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  this a human expectation we have to allow no voice but God's to
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  bind the conscience? It takes real spiritual maturity
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  to know the difference between, say, good order in a church,
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  which is helpful, and a rule that creates guilt where God
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  creates none. It does.
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  But when your conscience is cleansed by Christ's blood and
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  regulated only by the Word of God, you are truly free from the
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  spiritual tyranny of men. And that produces incredible
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  courage. How so?
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  Because you're standing with God is securing Christ.
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  It doesn't depend on what your neighbor thinks or what your
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  pastor thinks about your discretionary choice.
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  The fear of man starts to lose its grip, and that frees you up
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  to obey God's clear commands, even if it costs you your
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  reputation or your comfort. So we have this incredible
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  freedom right now. We're justified.
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  We have the power to pursue holiness.
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  Our conscience is free. But it's not the whole story
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  yet. Our liberty is incomplete.
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  We're living in the already. Not yet.
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  That's a great way to put it. What we have now is a foretaste,
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  a down payment of the perfect unending freedom that is still
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  to come. And it's important to understand
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  that distinction because if we don't, we can start to distort
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  our present freedom. The sources point to one major
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  distortion today, the prosperity or therapeutic gospel.
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  Yes, this is the teaching that recasts freedom in Christ as
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  freedom from discomfort, sickness, poverty or low self
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  esteem. Right now the message becomes if
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  you just have enough faith, your life should be easy, healthy and
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  prosperous. It reduces Christian freedom to
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  just having a more comfortable life in this age.
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  And that view just truncates the biblical horizon, as one source
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  puts it. It confuses the beginning of
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  liberty with its final full expression.
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  And when you look at the Bible, that idea gets refuted
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  immediately. Think about the Apostle Paul
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  again. He wrote some of his most joyful
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  letters about freedom from a prison cell.
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  After being beaten, shipwrecked and constantly under threat, his
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  life was the opposite of comfortable.
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  Exactly. His experience proved that
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  material ease is not the measure of Christian liberty.
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  We are still living in a fallen world.
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  We still groan inwardly, as Paul says, waiting for the full
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  redemption of our bodies and the liberation of all creation.
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  Our freedom now isn't a ticket out of suffering, it's the power
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  to endure suffering with an unshakable hope.
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  So what does that full consummated liberty look like?
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  What are we waiting for? Fullness of freedom arise with
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  Christ's return. First, we will have freedom from
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  the presence of sin. This is the ultimate liberation.
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  It's the complete and final eradication of that remaining
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  corruption. We talked about the struggle.
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  The internal war will be over forever.
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  We're told we shall be like Christ because we shall see him
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  as he is. No more disordered desires, no
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  more mixed motives, no more divided hearts.
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  The law of God will be perfectly and joyfully expressed in every
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  thought, every feeling, every action.
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  And that state is what the Source is called, the unimpeded
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  ability to do what we were created to do forever.
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  We were made to glorify God and enjoy Him.
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  So ultimate liberty is the perfect unhindered ability to
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  love God with everything we are in our neighbor as ourselves,
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  with no resistance, no weariness in a perfected world.
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  And secondly, this full freedom includes freedom from death,
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  decay and misery. The last enemy, death itself
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  will be destroyed. The perishable will put on the
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  imperishable. We will be free from death,
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  sickness, decay, and all the miseries of this life.
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  God himself will wipe away every tear.
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  And that future hope, that guaranteed reality, is the
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  present fuel that strengthens us to persevere right now.
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  Knowing that our final liberty is secured in Christ lets us
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  endure our present sufferings because we know that the glory
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  that's coming is completely incomparable to the hardships of
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  this short life. So this deep dive really gives
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  us a vital contrast. The world tells you to seek
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  independence, autonomy and it leads to anxiety and slavery to
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  your own sin. Christ offers belonging
• 23:41
  servanthood and that leads to objective security and a joyful
• 23:45
  purpose under the right Master. It's a gift that you have to
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  guard. You have to always remember to
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  guard it against legalism. On one side, trying to earn
• 23:52
  God's favor and license, on the other, using God's grace as an
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  excuse to sin. So the real question for you,
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  the listener, to think about is this.
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  When you think about your standing with God, are you
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  really resting in the objective verdict of Christ's finished
• 24:06
  work alone? Or do you find that your sense
• 24:09
  of acceptance goes up and down with your spiritual performance
• 24:12
  this week? That's a searching question.
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  It is, but resting in Christ's finished work is the only place
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  you'll find true, unshakable freedom.
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  And building on that, if God alone is Lord of your conscience
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  and he only binds it by Scripture, what traditions or
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  human expectations or even just opinions are you allowing to
• 24:29
  have that kind of absolute authority in your life right
• 24:32
  now? It's a challenge to take those
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  man made claims and hold them up to the light of Scripture and to
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  stand firm in the incredible liberty that Christ has won for
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  you. Thank you for joining us for the
• 24:41
  Deep Dive. We'll talk to you next time.