Daily Devotional

Word of the Day

Liberated from Bondage

True liberty comes from the presence of God, where the Spirit of the Lord is. The moment you walk outside of the Spirit you're in bondage, a slave again to sin and all of your passions. Many of us think that liberty is being free from the law, but it's not. Jesus did not do away with the law, but fulfilled it. We need to understand that the law is good, perfect, and just. We belong under the law if we're living lawlessly. But if we are fulfilling the law, then we are not under the law. To fulfill the law is not to be under the law, for the law is for the lawless (1 Tim. 1:9). We are under the law--positively-- when it's the schoolmaster chastening us, reproving us, and instructing us. We are under the bondage of the law when we trust in our own works to try to fulfill the law. We want to receive some type of meritorious reward. "I did this; I must be right with God. I fulfilled that; God is obligated to bless me. I fulfilled that law; I must have received credit in heaven." All of our obedience is meaningless, because James says if we are guilty of one, we're guilty of all. The best we can do in serving the law is as filthy rags.

Many of us have trouble with contrasting fulfilling the law and being under the law. We seem to think that anybody who puts boundaries on our life brings us into bondage. Boundaries are not bondage; boundaries are God's method of providing guidance and protection. Boundaries are established for the finite mind by the infinite God who sees beyond the boundaries. He knows what the effect will be in our lives if we move outside of these boundaries.

Maturity is not what our "liberties" are but what our liberty is. We have been liberated from the flesh to serve one another instead of self. That's the real liberty that the Bible talks about. The three areas that we have been liberated from are the bondage of the law, the power of sin and the power of fear. The liberty given to us is a liberty to be no longer under the bondage of the law--condemnation, having to please God through our works, thinking that somehow God relates to us by every jot and every tittle. In fact, God relates to us through the finished work of Jesus Christ. He sees us already perfect. He sees us having finished the course. The crown has already been prepared to be placed upon our heads. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He that's begun the work in us will finish it. He will keep that which we've committed to Him against that day. That's liberty! We're free from self.

We think that liberty is freedom to indulge the old man, but liberty is becoming the new creation, where old things pass away and all things become new (2 Cor. 5:17). The things I used to love, I now hate. Why do you run back to sin like a dog to its vomit? It's because you've lost your first love; you're living outside of the Spirit. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Liberty to do what? Take a drink of beer? Smoke a cigar? Watch an X-rated movie? Liberty to stay out of church to be lazy and flesh out? Liberty to do your own thing? The spiritual liberty does not liberate you UNTO yourself but liberates you FROM yourself. That's what God wants to do in each one of our lives.

Previous Devotional | Next Devotional

• Subscribe to the Daily Devotional
• Unsubscribe from the Daily Devotional