REAL FREEDOM

Thursday 26 December

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NKJV)

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1 (NKJV)

The word that we use for religion today has its etymology in the Latin word religio, which means ‘to bind’. This can have both negative and positive connotations depending on what you are being bound to.

There are many people that are bound to some sort of ideology in the many religions in the world today. It doesn’t make their practices necessarily correct.

James 1:27 says

‘Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.’

We can see from this scripture that James highlights to us true religion, which indicates that there is such a thing as false religion.

Therefore caring for the widow and the orphan and staying unpolluted from the world is true religion whereas every other outward ritual is false. It’s important to take note that Apostle James doesn’t discriminate between religion in the church and other religions.

Do you know that all of the outward rituals that are performed in most churches today have stemmed from the Roman Catholic Church? The Latin Vulgate is where the King James Version was translated from which is why we must seperate the ritualism in the Old Testament from the real in the New Testament.

Many are bound by the traditions of men which Jesus told them was the reason why they had ‘made the word of God of no effect’ (Mark 7:13). The main reason for this is a lack of knowledge. Jesus said to the Pharisees who were the religious leaders of His time ‘you err because you don’t know the scriptures’. They thought they knew. That was the problem.

When Jesus said ‘take my yoke, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light’ He was making a distinction between law and grace. He was saying if you’re going to be bound to something, make sure it’s Him and not the assumptions of men about Him.

Religion has done so much damage in the world and all in the name of God or some other deity that people profess to be their god(s). Even in the Body of Christ, people have bound themselves to the wrong thoughts and ideas because they have been taught incorrectly and have not been given the right ‘dividing of truth’.

If we find ourselves believing something that is contrary to the Word, it is our responsibility to leave that bondage and come into the ‘glorious liberty of the sons of God.’

We are meant to be living by His grace. This alone builds us up and delivers us into our inheritance in Christ. Make up your mind before the year is through that you are going to leave the bondage of religion and keep journeying into the Word of His grace.

‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ (grace) has made me free from the law of sin and death’ (Romans 8:2).

Religion robs you of the real. When you first came to Christ, you were immersed into the freedom of His grace. Apostle Paul urges us to stay in the ‘freedom position’ and don’t get entangled with dead religion again!

For the letter of the law (religion) kills but the Spirit of truth that is reality gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6)

For the law came by Moses, but grace that is reality came by (the Spirit of truth) Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)

Jesus said ‘I AM the way, the truth, that is the life! (John 14:6)

APPLICATION

I dare you to ‘take stock’ of your activities, in the name of God and search the scriptures to see whether or not they are within the parameters of the freedom of Christ or the bondage of religion.