Unmasked: Our Identity in Christ – Free

There’s a stampede of children running through the school. It’s the last day, the last hour, the last second before summer vacation. Their faces beam with joy, as they burst through the door, laughing and screaming. They are FREE!

Oh, the joys of childhood freedom: a full summer of long, lazy days; playing outside with neighborhood kids until the glow of lightening bugs lead us home. Three months of freedom!

Wouldn’t you love to capture that sense of childhood freedom, bottle it up, and pour it over yourself on the days when life overwhelms? I would.

And yet, as followers of Jesus, we have His freedom available to us.

“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36 NASB

Indeed. Without question. Truly, undeniably free.

And the beauty of it is, we are free from SIN. Oh, happy day!

“Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.” Romans 6:18 NLT

Are you like me, though? Do you know this truth of freedom, and yet don’t walk in it? I continue to live in fear over faith, anger over peace – you name it. What sin still has you in bondage?

So now I must ask this:

If we are free, and free indeed in Christ; if we are new creations; if we are empowered with resurrection power – WHY THEN do we still have a slave mentality when it comes to sin? Why do we stay shackled?

Possibly, we become like the Israelites who were tasked with spying out the Promised Land (Numbers 33). They saw that the land flowed with milk and honey. They also saw fortified cities, and large, strong people who were descendants of the giant Anakim people.

I wonder: Did they not want to overtake the Promised Land because of their fear of the unknown? Or perhaps they were comfortable with the status quo. Maybe, just maybe, it would take too much work to overcome those giants. Perhaps, they lost sight of the fact that God gave them this land, and saw themselves as less-than.

“There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Numbers 13:33 NASB

When faced with my new, God-given self, I must admit that sometimes I want to run and hide. I’m familiar and at home with my old self and my old ways. And I’ll admit, it’s hard work and takes courage to walk in newness of life. How about you?

Another reason we don’t step confidently into our new-found freedom, is that we have memory lapses. We step out in faith, do something in His resurrection power, and then promptly forget how faithful the Lord was to us. We have our memorial stones scattered here and yon, instead of piled high. When we remember God’s faithfulness, His goodness in strengthening us and providing for us – well, my goodness, we should walk in freedom every second of every day!

I think it’s time to stack my memorial stones and see how high they will go – a visible reminder of all the times Jesus has walked with me or carried me through.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 NASB

Join me, won’t you, as we walk in freedom with Jesus!

Grace be with you,