Freedom in Christ
5 min read
16 They came to Balaam and said: “This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Do not let anything keep you from coming to me, 17 because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me.”
18 But Balaam answered them, “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the LORD my God.”
Numbers 22:16-18
Balak was determined to hire Balaam to curse the Israelites for him. Balak was a man of power and means, and nothing was going to stop him from getting what he wanted.
Balak very much represents the ethos of our society today. People who have power and means are feared and respected and envied. People strive to be like them. People believe that having the power and the means and the will to get their way is the key to freedom.
However, what the world doesn’t really understand is that no matter how much power and means a person may have, one “could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the LORD” our God. And even if we might agree with that principle in our heads, many people might still think, feel, and act as if they value power and means as the key to freedom.
Freedom comes when we live within the “command of the LORD,” the word of God. And the word of God tells us that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
There is no freedom in this world that exists outside the boundary of abiding in Christ—the Living Word of God. When we try to operate outside the boundary of living in Christ, we only find ourselves bound in the prison of sin. The Spirit of the Lord is not there.
When we abide in Christ, the Spirit of the Lord is there. When we abide in Christ, we live with the understanding that there is no amount of wealth in this universe that could ever surpass how much God values and loves each and every one of us. When we abide in Christ, we find that there is unlimited freedom to love one another, as God loves us. When we abide in Christ, the Spirit in us bears witness to the world that Jesus is alive, and that we are His disciples, and that in Christ we have freedom from all the mess and the brokenness of sin.
If the freedom of abiding in Christ makes no sense to us, then we need to make every effort to make it make sense—and to make it real for our lives. If we want to live in truth. If we want to live in freedom.
Father, In You alone, there is true freedom. And it is for true freedom that You have set us free. But I confess that so often I misunderstand what true freedom is, and so I chase after worldly freedom that only entangles me in sin. Open my eyes to see, my ears to understanding, and my heart to obey Your word, so that I can truly be free. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
