Jesus Died to Set you Free

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 one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Rom 8:1 NIV

Jesus died to set you free from your twisted, selfish human nature.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 2 Cor 5:17 NRSV

Jesus died to free you from loneliness.

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 NASB95

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 Jn 1:7 NLT

Jesus died to free you from sickness.

Jesus healed all who asked for healing.

 “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Mt 8:17 NRSV

Jesus died to free you from legalism.

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters.
One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.
Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. Rom 14:1–6 NIV

Jesus died to free us from authoritarian leadership.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21 NIV

Submission is mutual. We must not submit to leaders to demand unconditional obedience to themselves.

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 or 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 of man, God sadly predicted that women would be enslaved by men because of sin.

To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Gen 3:16 NKJV

But in the new covenant, the woman is liberated.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:28 NKJV

It is wonderful that Jesus wants to give us freedom, but we do not receive 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:

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Gal 5:1 NASB95

Are All God's Instructions for Ever?

The Bible does not explicitly say we should oppose slavery. In fact, several Bible texts command slaves to obey their owners.

The leader of the campaign to abolish slavery in the British Empire was William Wilberforce, an evangelical Christian. A prominent pioneer in the anti slavery movement in the USA was Charles Finney, the Billy Graham of his day. However, the slave owners righteously stood on the Word of God and accused the abolitionists of rebelling against Holy Scripture which they fervently quoted.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Ephesians 6:5 (NIV)

If you study the spiritual principles of the Bible, it should become apparent that God intensely dislikes slavery.

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; Isaiah 61:1 (NKJV)

When the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, God heard their cries and sent Moses to deliver them. 
In the New Testament, Paul said slave traders would not be accepted in heaven.

…fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching. 1 Timothy 1:10 (NRSV)

Why then, did Paul tell Christians to treat their slaves kindly but not necessarily to give them freedom?

The New Testament is God’s manifesto for the restoration of God’s glory but also human freedom, equality and dignity.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 (NRSV)

So does Paul not order all slaves to go free immediately? In the Old Testament and the New Testament God makes rules to make a bad society more equitable and humane but He does not step in personally and take over everything. That will happen in the future when Jesus returns to Jerusalem and rules the nations with a rod of iron.

In the Old Testament there are rules which are not nice at all.

No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the LORD. Deuteronomy 23:1 (NRSV)

Surely God Himself is authorising cruel discrimination against victims of abuse. However, God’s purpose was to prevent this abuse happening in the first place. In the pagan nations surrounding Israel, people would castrate boys, because eunuchs could be promoted to prominent positions as pagan priests or government officials.

God’s laws were made to regulate a bad world to make it less bad but they often do not reflect the ideal will of God.

When the Jews were invaded and taken into captivity in Babylon, the ablest noble born Jews were enlisted to become government officials in the Babylonian Empire, however this involved compulsory castration. It is probable that the great prophet Daniel was a eunuch but he was blessed and honoured by God.

Isaiah 39:5-7 (NRSV) 
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: 
6 Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD. 
7 Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

When God says: “Love one another” he is giving instructions now and for ever.
When God says castrated males may not attend worship, he is giving a temporary injunction to prevent abuse.
When God says: “Slaves obey your masters,” he was not permanently endorsing slavery.

When Paul says,
“And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” 
1 Timothy 2:12 (NKJV)

…why should we assume this must be a command expressing God’s permanent judgement and eternal will?

Charles Finney was the first evangelical leader in America to campaign against slavery and also to promote women as full partners in preaching, ministry and Christian leadership. 
God’s agenda of restoring men and women it still a work in progress.

WOMEN'S ROLE AND GOD'S PURPOSE

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:27-28 (ESV) 

There are some who teach authority and hierarchy is the most important principle of God’s dealing with us. 

But before hierarchy came PARTNERSHIP. MALE and FEMALE He created THEM.

God told Adam and Eve to SUBDUE and HAVE DOMINION but this was secondary. 

Before DOMINION comes the command to BE FRUITFUL and MULTIPLY. This is through PARTNERSHIP, COOPERATION and sexual procreation. Sexual procreation is a picture of equal partnership. 

The man is stronger and more assertive but the woman is the one who bears and produces the new life in her body and from her body. Each partner is stronger than the other in a different way. 

The false spirit of religion tries to make a men bosses and women their servants but this is not God’s purpose in creation.

Genesis 2:18 (ESV) Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 

The word HELPER is the Hebrew word AZAR which is most often used to refer to GOD Himself as the Helper of mankind.

Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. Psalm 33:20 (NASB) 

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? Psalm 121:1 (NASB) 

Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. Psalm 124:8 (NASB) 

How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, Psalm 146:5 (NASB) 

The hierarchical relationship between man and woman was actually a consequence of the fall. When men are bossy masters over women, we should see this as a manifestation of the sinful nature.

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”Genesis 3:16 (ESV)  

The New Covenant was introduced by Jesus, who was born of a woman. When Jesus was presented in the Temple 40 days after His birth, he was hailed by a woman who was a significant spiritual leader in the Temple in Jerusalem at a time when the official male priesthood was seriously corrupted.

Luke 2:36-38 (NKJV) Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity;  and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.  And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. 

In first century Greco Roman culture and in post Babylonian Jewish tradition, a woman was not able to give evidence with the same authority as a man but the cross paid the penalty for the fall of mankind and women were restored to the position of equal dignity designed by God in the beginning. 

The first witness to the resurrection of Jesus was a woman and this was designed by God on purpose. 

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.  She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.  And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. Mark 16:9-11 (NKJV)

Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Mark 16:14 (NKJV)