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Freedom is surely one of the highest held values for most of us, especially in the west. One of the best ways to understand the nature of what it means to be a son or daughter of God is freedom.

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36, ESV

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” Luke 4:18-19, NIV

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Galatians 5:1a, NIV

The prevailing modern idea of freedom means being able to do whatever you want to do, free from constraints and restrictions. But what is this liberty that’s to be found through faith in Christ and he alone? This morning, we consider together the paradox — or puzzle — of freedom that we find taught in the word of God.

Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 1 Peter 2:16, NIV

One of the passages of Scripture that speaks to this apparent paradox is found over in Romans 6. There the apostle Paul asks, and then answers, an important question.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? Romans 6:15-16, ESV

It’s very likely that a significant percentage of the followers of Christ living in Rome at the time either were slaves or had been slaves, and as such they knew what it meant to be committed to obeying a master. Recognizing that to be true, Paul draws upon their experience to make the point that just because we who are in Christ are dead to sin and alive to God doesn’t mean we’re free from having a master, for we are all slaves, slaves to the one we obey. Whether we call ourselves religious or irreligious, we all have a god, that something or someone that we long for, that we worship and serve above all else.

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. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. Romans 6:17-19, ESV

Slavery to sin leads to an ever-increasing distortion in our lives, as it shapes our will and character so that it becomes easier and easier to sin again and again.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. Romans 6:20-21, ESV

While in the future, one who is a slave to sin will ultimately suffer condemnation and separation from God for eternity, in the present they also know a desperate brokenness of life

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. Romans 6:22, ESV

Those who present themselves to obedience grow in the fruit of the Holy Spirit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control and consequently come to enjoy life now as God always designed it to be lived — in liberating obedience to him — as well as life throughout all eternity in heaven, in unending union with him.

“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, NIV

Living in obedience to God’s will and ways is key to a life of true freedom because obedience to God enables us to increasingly enjoy the abundant life Christ has brought to us. We who are believers have been freed from slavery to sin in order to live for Christ, and in reality, such a slave of God is the freest person there is.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23, ESV

“If ever there is a genuine paradox to be found in Holy Writ, it is at the point of freedom and bondage. The paradox is this: When one seeks to rebel from God, he gains only bondage. When he becomes a slave to God, he becomes free. Liberty is found in obedience.” R.C. Sproul

We are freed by Christ, but not freed to just do our own thing, for real freedom is not doing whatever we please, but rather doing what we should.