Is the writing on the wall?
This week a senior official in the U.S. Justice Department called the Alliance Defending Freedom a “hate group.” The ADF is the nation’s leading legal advocate of religious liberty. The Justice Department has done nothing to rescind his remarks. The writing on the wall says that the liberty we have in Christ is going to be under increased pressure by the bondage and oppression of cultural enemies.
Do we really appreciate what it means to have liberty in Christ? It is not something to be taken for granted.
“And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage)” (Galatians 2:4).
Just what is the liberty we have in Christ? Let the Apostle Paul explain:
And having been set free from sin… But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:18,22-23).
We have been set free from the penalty of sin – Christ paid that penalty in our stead. And with that penalty forgiven and removed, through Christ, we have the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. We are free to follow God’s truth. Our minds have been opened, and in God’s law is liberty. We are out of bondage while we walk in the light of His law. We have the freedom to do that now, unhindered by the laws of man.
If minds within the leading law body of the United States are wanting to shut down that freedom, then it is only a matter of time before man’s hatred (enmity) of God’s law will turn on those who embrace and uphold it.
Satan’s desire is to bring all those who have freedom in Christ to be brought back to his bondage. He will find ways to bring pressure on God’s people to compromise with God’s law.
“For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption… For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning” (2 Peter 2:18-20).
Satan knows the truth of this and seeks ways to entangle God’s people. But he can’t entangle someone who cherishes their freedom in Christ and embraces the “perfect law of liberty.”
Brian Orchard
