Day 10: Say Yes to Change

When you hear the word “freedom” what reaction does it evoke from within you? Maybe the notorious scene of the late Scottish hero and knight, Sir William Wallace in the movie Braveheart as he lets out a guttural cry of freedom for the liberation of his country and people, that seems to echo into the souls of all those that stand watching him in his final hours of life? Maybe, on a more personal level, an allusive reality that is tied into the fabric of wishful thinking concerning the day to day demands and struggles of daily life and your personal journey with Jesus? Maybe it is the distant mirage of hope that stands on the other side of the personal struggle of sin that seems to be squeezing the very life, joy, and peace out of you? 

The truest things about you are who you are under the blood of Jesus. Who you are as a result of the finished work of Jesus. What is now available to you because of the glorious new covenant that we have been brought into as sons and daughters of the living God. Truth needs to teach our feelings to work for us and not against us. The truth is, that freedom is not something you GET, it is something that you ARE. 

The day that you gave your life to Jesus, you were given a blood transfusion with the King of kings and Lord of lords. You were instantly born again and brought into this beautiful reality of the gospel, where it is now no longer you who lives but Christ who lives in you and your old self has been killed off and you have been raised to newness of life with Jesus himself and now you get to live and move and have your being in him. What if freedom is not a distant reality and hopeless heavenly tease but rather what you are actually seated in right now? What if we are trying to get something that we already are and already have as a reality and result of our inheritance in Jesus? But the lie and deception of Satan whispers to us a different narrative that seeks to gather its information from the current weakest parts of our lives that are still learning to catch up and step into revelation of this glorious gospel and finished work. 

I was a drug addict for years. Suicidal. Angry. Hopeless, and a list of many other death sentence phrases. But something changed for me when the reality of the gospel confronted my heart through the words of a spiritual mentor as I was entering into my discipleship journey as a young man; “Matthew, when are you going to realize that you are no longer a drug addict that needs to be fixed, you are a son that needs to come into the revelation of his royalty.” 

First, I weep with you if you have only known, as St. John of the Cross says, a “dark night of the soul” that has left you in bondage, heartbroken, struggling, relapsing, and ashamed. I pray that you would find the arms of our Heavenly Abba that in the words of Christian writer Dane Ortlund, “HE is reaching for the things that you hate most about yourself so that HE might hug them tightest.” 

Second, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, according to the riches of the gospel and ask Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart, that you may see and behold the glory of Jesus as the all perfect Lamb of God that has taken away the sins of the world. That as you behold him you will inevitably become like him and be transformed into his likeness and then freedom will have its perfect way in you, bringing you along into a sanctification that is easy and light rather than tiresome and heavy.

As we close, let us return to the text, “wherever the Spirit of the Lord is…there is freedom”. Dear reader, that is YOU. You are the home address of God the Holy Spirit. If he lives in you then the very attribute and reality of freedom has taken up residency within you as well. You are not the sum of your failures, you are the result of the accomplished work of Jesus that has made you free, holy, and righteous. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look (behold) full in his wonderful face and the things of this Earth will grow strangely dim, as the old hymn recites. Even if you fail and fall as you are learning to walk this out, as we all are, there is a perfect high priest, interceding for you, speaking better words over you rather than the self hatred we scream within ourselves. There is boundless grace and mercy to carry you into your perfect inheritance. Come to Jesus and find that it is not you holding onto him, but rather him onto you, and discover the freedom with which you have been seated in.