Jesus died to set you free.
Jesus died to save you from eternal death, to free you from despair and endless hopelessness, without God, without friendship, without comfort.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NRSVue
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Rom 8:1 NRSVue
Jesus died to free you from your twisted, selfish human nature.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor 5:17 NKJV
Jesus died to free you from loneliness.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Cor 13:14 NIV
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 Jn 1:7 NIV
Jesus died to free you from sickness.
… “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Mt 8:17 NRSVue
Jesus died to free you from legalism.
Welcome those who are weak in faith but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.
Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.
Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat, for God has welcomed them.
Who are you to pass judgment on slaves of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.
Those who observe the day, observe it for the Lord. Also those who eat, eat for the Lord, since they give thanks to God, while those who abstain, abstain for the Lord and give thanks to God.
Those who do not eat meat do so for the glory of the Lord, and they also give thanks to God. Rom 14:1–6 NRSVue
Jesus died to free us from authoritarian leadership.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21 NIV
Submission is mutual.
You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise!
In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. 2 Cor 11:19–20 NIV
Here Paul teaches through the Holy Spirit that Christians have the right, even the duty, to resist arrogant, authoritarian, or cruel church leaders.
God sacrificed Jesus to free women from the arrogant rule of men.
The extreme subordination of women was not God's intention in creation. After the Fall, God sadly predicted that because of sin, women would be enslaved by men.
To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Gen 3:16 NIV
But in the new covenant, women are free.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:28 NIV
It is wonderful that Jesus wants to give us freedom, but we do not receive that freedom automatically.
There are people everywhere who do not believe in freedom, even in the church.
There are many people who do not want to allow you to be free.
But Paul says:
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Gal 5:1 NRSVue
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