Religion has actually convinced people that there is a invisible man living in the sky watching everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you, and he needs money. He always needs money. He's all-powerful, all-knowing, all-perfect and all-wise, somehow he just can't handle money
~George Carlin~
In my time in the church, I'd heard the phrase bantered around like some well intentioned catch phrase. Freedom in Christ. I was told that to know Christ Jesus meant that I would experience that freedom which comes from a life spent following Him. Funny thing is, the same church which preached this freedom of Christ to me was also the same institution (Let's be honest, the church IS an institution) which saddled me with countless rules and traditions I needed to adhere to in order to be free in following Jesus. How is it that I could be free in following Jesus while I continued to be burdened by the traditions of the church? Yet one of the things I have learned along my journey to truly knowing my life within Christ is that I was following the wrong path in my younger days. For instead of seeking Him first and foremost, I was following the instructions of man. I believe that the calling of the pastor is one of the most honored of vocations. That being said, it is also the preachings and the teachings of those pastors which misled me in my journey to truly knowing Jesus. Therefore, I could not fully know Jesus while I followed the teachings of man. As a result, I could not know that freedom which comes from living in Him while adhering to the theology and traditions of the mainstream church. As Jesus has proclaimed, one cannot follow two masters {Matthews Account 6:24}. Yes, one cannot treasure God and money, but I also believe that one cannot follow the teachings of the church and fully know their life within the Father. That is not freedom. I also believe, as it was for the apostle Paul and myself included, that knowing the truth of our life in Christ comes not from book learning but from the revelation of the Father {Paul to the Galatians 1:15-16}. As one prominent in the ranks of the Jewish Pharisees, the man Saul never knew the truth of his life in Christ. What he did know were the teachings and traditions of the Jewish elders. To those like Saul, the teachings of Jesus were considered blasphemy. However, it was the revelation of the Father which introduced him to the truth of the Lord Jesus. It was that revelation which led him to the freedom of a life lived in Christ.
I spent some time pouring over verses in my study for this writing. Paul has spoke that for our freedom Christ Jesus has set us free {Paul to the Galatians 5:1}. Paul speaks to being free from the yoke of slavery (Sin). He also speaks to the truth that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 3:17}. But this seemed odd to me, as Gods spirit is everywhere we see. The spirit of the Lord surrounded Saul as well, but he never realized his freedom in Christ until his own "Come to Jesus" moment on that road to Damascus {Acts of the Apostles 9:1-19}. So it is that by the revelation of the Father that a man dead set on the persecution of the followers of Jesus was brought to his knees through the truth of Christ Jesus. This revelation didn't occur in some synagogue or through traditional religious teachings. Likewise, my own revelation didn't come from some Sunday sermon or church tradition, but from the Fathers revelation of who I truly am in Him. As with Paul, my own revelation didn't come in the church, but one of the most unlikeliest of places. Standing outside the door of a local strip club one night, it was God who reminded me that "This is not who you are." As with Paul, this experience turned my world upside down. In time I would come to realize that freedom cannot be found in the halls of man-made religion. True freedom in Christ comes from knowing our life in Him {Johns Account 14:20}.
As free, and not as having freedom for a cover over evil, but as Gods slaves
Peter to the Dispersion (1) 2:16, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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