58. Paul’s radical message of liberty

Freedom in Christ! What a blessing! But what we do with this treasure is huge, because our choices ultimately determine our fruitfulness—that is, to what degree we end up glorifying God with our lives.

Paul’s radical message of liberty prompted his critics to charge him with promoting the freedom to sin rather than the freedom from sin he was actually teaching. His response: “Nonsense!” Still, it’s only natural to be a bit puzzled over it. Given our ingrained beliefs about personal responsibility to resist sin, this whole freedom thing sometimes just doesn’t add up.

I think we can all agree that any thought of maintaining a lifestyle of sin is absurd. Why bother being freed at all if we merely set ourselves up to be enslaved all over again? The point here is that God didn’t free us to give us a license to sin, but rather to lay the foundation for unfettered pursuit of Him—in spite of the weakness of our flesh.

From Free from the Power of Sin: the Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

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