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- Feb 9, 2004
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Inner Combat - Message #039
- August 07, 2005
Most of us have a rather perverse notion of freedom. We think it means doing whatever we want to do. All constraints are gone. Sorry. That's not the liberty we celebrate on July fourth. It's not the freedom we should celebrate on the other days of the year either. This perverted idea of independence, which justifies all sorts of deviant behavior, is actually a form of bondage.
Listen to how one individual in the Bible puts it. "I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:23). Pagan Paul realizes he is a prisoner of all sorts of evil urges rising up within him. He is not free at all. He therefore cries out in anguish, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24).
There is only one answer to this cry of distress: Jesus Christ. We gain freedom, a new start in life through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Listen to pagan Paul once again. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death" (Romans 8:2). This freedom is liberty to serve God, to do good, to live with a clear conscience. This is true freedom.
Contributed by Dr. Dennis J. Prutow
- August 07, 2005
Most of us have a rather perverse notion of freedom. We think it means doing whatever we want to do. All constraints are gone. Sorry. That's not the liberty we celebrate on July fourth. It's not the freedom we should celebrate on the other days of the year either. This perverted idea of independence, which justifies all sorts of deviant behavior, is actually a form of bondage.
Listen to how one individual in the Bible puts it. "I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:23). Pagan Paul realizes he is a prisoner of all sorts of evil urges rising up within him. He is not free at all. He therefore cries out in anguish, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24).
There is only one answer to this cry of distress: Jesus Christ. We gain freedom, a new start in life through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Listen to pagan Paul once again. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death" (Romans 8:2). This freedom is liberty to serve God, to do good, to live with a clear conscience. This is true freedom.
Contributed by Dr. Dennis J. Prutow
