I am ready to get back to our study of Galatians, but I want to present this as a basic explanation of what it means to be free in Christ. Truly, if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. And just as truly, if you are "set free" by yourself through your own works, means, righteousness, or anything apart from free and unlimited grace and mercy, you are, indeed, in abject bondage to Satan and his household. This gift offering will also serve to keep us on the right and proper track as we study Galatians—the people Paul wrote to because they had fallen from Christ into the cesspool of their own works and righteousness.
Only one thing makes a person a Christian: Christ! His Word is pure; ours is impure. A wise person keeps St. Augustine's statement in mind: "Even our good works need God's pardoning mercy." Satan, with our nature's as accomplices, is always tempting us to take confidence in our own works. There are two questions you can ask yourself while your heart is quiet: One is, "Will this thing I choose to do or leave undone make me a Christian?"; the Second is, "Will this thing I choose to do or leave undone make me a better Christian?" Catholics believe one must do certain works to be a Christian; Protestants believe one must abstain from certain things to be a better Christian. Both are EQUALLY demonic.
| 1. | A Christian is absolutely FREE. Christ died to set us free from all burdens of heart, mind, body and conscience. Our burdens in these arenas remain to the extent that we misunderstand and pervert Christian freedom. | |
| 2. | A Christian is bound only by the Word of God. This binding is freedom itself, as the Word frees the mind to believe that which is healthy instead of that which is sin and disease. | |
| 3. | The Word, through the avenue of the mind, frees the conscience—that small voice in the back of your mind which speaks to you of morality and the things you should do and should not do. Faith in Christ frees the conscience more and more. If the conscience is being more and more bound with things it should and should not do, this is NOT freedom, but enslavement. Most Christians treat the Bible as if it were a rule book and the more rules you follow equates to how good a Christian one is. | |
| 4. | The operative words of the conscience are must, should, and necessary. A conscience wherein Christ dwells has fewer and fewer musts, shoulds, and things which are necessary to be do and left undone so as to feel good about oneself. | |
| 5. | Through this process of BELIEF, the very soul/heart is saved and preserved in Christ. This process also brings about manifold psychological benefit. These benefits must in no way dismiss the action of the cross in the life of a Christian. While a true Christian is free inside, he is hated outside; but this hatred by the world of his belief is easily overcome by his faith in Christ. He feels pity for a foolish world who would fight against the truth of God. | |
| 6. | Only Christ has the power to teach, command and be master over the conscience. The conscience must be viewed as a bedroom where only Christ functions as the Husband. There was a time in my life when I thought I was a Christian, but at this very time my conscience was being mastered by doctrines of demons. That is, I believed I was becoming a better and better Christian because of what I did and what I did not do. Virtually every sermon brought new opportunity to be a better Christian because it told me something to do or leave undone. I had no idea Christ was being pushed out of my conscience and in His place were endless rules and regulations regarding eating, fasting, drinking, going to movies, where to educate children, hair length, jewelry, consumer choices, giving, time in prayer, Bible-reading, make-up, earrings, credit, mode of baptism, TV, and on and on. The burden finally got so great that I broke down under its weight. | |
| 7. | Commandments ("Do this") and prohibitions ("Leave this undone") MUST come from the Word. There really are not that many of these, and even these do NOT make one a Christian. ONLY BELIEF creates faith and makes a Christian. The Ten Commandments, with the exception of the Sabbath (the whole Christian life is a spiritual Sabbath), are enjoined upon the mind of a Christian. The only other two I can think of offhand are believing the Word and humbly and quietly serving those around you in your calling—this is faith and love in a nutshell. | |
| 8. | Whoever goes beyond what God teaches invades God's own sphere of action, burdens the conscience, creates sin and misery, and destroys all that God has left free, and expels the Holy Spirit with all his kingdom, work, and word, so that nothing but devils remain. True, these devils go to God's Word for support, but all they do is pervert God's Word and turn the New Testament into the Second Book of Moses. | |
| 9. | You can recognize these devils by their emphasis on EXTERNALS. These devils and those whom they deceive, are overcome with judging what is on the outside of a man. They speak much of faith, but are so very uncomfortable with believing simple faith abides within if they don't see evidence without—and the sooner the better. | |
| 10. | The opposite extreme of this legalism is licentiousness which says, "Anything goes—Christ has set us free." These use liberty as a cloak for maliciousness and perversion. | |
| 11. | A legalist makes sin where God would have no sin, and thereby kills souls and binds consciences. | |
| 12. | A Christian is a lord and puts up with no teaching, commandment or prohibition regarding things left to free choice. I will choose to and how much to drink; if I become a drunk, then I must question my faith. I will choose whether to baptize my grandchild by sprinkling or immersion, because the mode does not matter. I will choose how to conduct the Lord's Supper based on what I believe the family needs, so long as the words of institution remain: "This is My body, given to you for the forgiveness of sins." | |
| 13. | rotestants are the "cousins of the Antichrist Catholics. Luther: "We do as the papists, but we do not tolerate their teaching, commandment, and constraint. We refrain from doing like the Protestants, but we do not tolerate their prohibitions. Thus the pope and the Protestants are true cousins in teaching, for they both teach, one the doing, the other the refraining. We, however, teach neither, and do both." (Volume 40, p. 131) | |
| 14. | These hypocrites have a low regard for the teaching ("This is My body") and a high regard for the doing. | |
| 15. | Christ cannot remain in the conscience that goes whoring after alien teaching and the commandments of men. There faith must perish. | |
| 16. | These false Christians think of Christ mainly as an example. Christ is first and foremost our sacrifice, given to us for the remission of our sins. A dwelling on our sinfulness through a proper understanding of the Ten Commandments is far more needful that a dwelling on Christ as our example. To dwell on Christ as our example without a keen sense of our sinfulness breeds nothing but self-righteousness. | |
| 17. | To loose Christian liberty is to loose salvation. There cannot be genuine faith where there is an emphasis on works and externals. These same people who emphasis works and Christ as our example, ignore the true message of Christ and Christ's own words: "This is My body; this is My blood, given to you for the forgiveness of sins." | |
| 18. | A person with true faith in Christ is comfortable with Paul's words (Galatians 5:15): "The Spirit and the sinful nature are in conflict with each other, so that you cannot and do not do what you want." Do you want to be a Spirit-led Christian? Then STOP living your life based on the law, works, dos, don'ts, shoulds, and using Christ as an example. When you STOP basing your salvation and your spirituality on what you do and leave undone, the Spirit Himself will lead you to the good works you are to do—but even these Spirit-induced works must be ignored, according to Luther's statement: "When you look at what you do you have lost Christ." And Augustine's statement, "Even our good works need God's pardoning mercy." Human nature ALWAYS looks to justify itself by its works. | |
| 19. | A Christian can spite these hypocritical sin-masters and soul-murderers and do it with a good conscience. That is, if they tell you you should not drink, get drunk one night; if they say you should go to church three times a week, then don't go for a month. If they say, "You should not go to see movies," you could mention a porno flick. | |
| 20. | He who has the Gospel can be confident and calm. He who is works-righteousness is dejected, despairing and anxious. | |
| 21. | The Gospel evokes faith and a good conscience in the inner man. | |
| 22. | Faith comes by hearing. That is, faith begins on the OUTSIDE. Faith begins when one HEARS the Word of God in baptism and the Meal. Inward experience FOLLOWS and is effected by the outward. God has determined to give the inward to no one except through the outward. Hypocrites begin with the inner experience and attempt to construct their outward life according to their inner christ they have constructed for themselves. | |
| 23. | Hypocrites boast of their humility and their love for the Word. If you seek to trust in the simple, clear Word of God in baptism ("I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.") and the Meal ("This is My body; this is My blood.") then you will be truly humble in the eyes of God and you will have a true respect for God's Word, even though "your" religion is not showy, but simple. True religion is never showy enough for hypocrites. |
Go in the peace of Christ; serve the Lord.
