Freedom

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
- Galatians 5:1

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When it comes to freedom in any sense in which it ultimately matters, each of us will only ever define it one of two ways. 

Freedom is either being liberated from your Creator or being reconciled to Him. 

If we are free from one thing, it is only to another. Like Christ said, you cannot serve two masters; the implication is, of course, that you will inevitably serve something.

A good portion of the book of Romans is concerned with this issue. “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death,” Paul wrote in Romans 8:2, along with, “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness,” in 6:17-18. 

So, when the Bible speaks of freedom and of the people of God being free, it is a freedom from sin and to Christ. We are not made free to go do and be whatever we wish (Galatians 5:13). We are not set free to be kings unto ourselves or to rule our own lives. Christ did not die to give us autonomy, but righteousness. 

We are set free to live as we were meant to live: free from sin, in right relationship with our Creator. And your Creator is your king, your God, and your Father. Right relationship with Him, then, is one of submission, fealty, obedience, loyalty and love. 

Beware of any concept of freedom that tells you that God has no moral expectations of you, that His commandments were only cultural and restricted to a certain place and time, or that you are allowed to decide for yourself every single little piece of who and what you are meant to be. This is the kind of lie that Adam and Eve succumbed to in Eden and it persists to tempt every single one of us today.

Remember: a fish wiggling around on your front lawn is “free”. Too much of what we think we want usually destroys us. 

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Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. - II Corinthians 3:17