When Being Good Isn't Good Enough: 21 Days of GraceSýnishorn

Free in Christ

The radical idea is this: If you are a Christian, you are free. No, I don’t mean you are free with a number of ifs, ands, and buts. I mean you are really free. No disclaimer. No addendum. No qualifying points. You are free.

I didn’t say it. Jesus did: “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. . . . Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed’” (John 8:31-32, 36). Freedom is a gift from the Son of God. If He says I’m free, that ought to settle it for me. And He does say it. So I dare anyone to say otherwise. 

What does it mean to be free in Christ? It means we are free from the rules we thought bound us to God. It means we are free from the manipulation other Christians use to make us like them—free from having to fit into the world’s mold, free to be different. 

We are free from the slavery of religion and from the fear of rejection, alienation, and guilt. We are free from the fear of death. We are free from masks, free from the sham and pretense; free to doubt, free to risk, free to question. It means we are free to live every moment. But most of all, we are free to follow Christ, not because we have to but because we want to.