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

God Loves Lonely People

 True discipleship can be lonely.

Jesus was rejected by his neighbours in Nazareth and his natural brothers did not believe in him before his resurrection.

Joseph was prophetically gifted, but his brothers sold him to human traffickers. 

After his conversion, Paul was a faithful preacher. He was constantly persecuted.

There are faithful disciples even today who are misunderstood and rejected by their families or churches

There are Christians who have a burning heart to save lost souls. They pray for people on the street. They witness miraculous healings and conversions, but in some places and in some churches they are looked down upon because they are seen as wild fanatics.

If you act exactly like Jesus and the first apostles, many Christians will criticise and reject you.

Consistent discipleship is like a coin with two sides. On one side you will see misunderstanding, rejection and sometimes loneliness. But on the other side you will find new friendships and deep fellowship with God and others.

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel

will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. Mk 10:28–30 NIV

Paul was constantly persecuted, but he had close friendships with Luke, Timothy, Epaphras and other faithful Christians.

It is better to have a couple of real friends than just superficial fellowship in your family and church.

God is love. God is kind.

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
At the very beginning, God declares that friendship is positive and necessary. Gen 2:18 NIV

Many misunderstand this verse. Eve was to be a help to Adam, but the Hebrew word in no way implies subordination.

The Hebrew word EHSER appears in 21 verses. Twice Eve is referred to, but in 19 verses THE HELPER is God Himself.

Many single women have experienced a close friendship with God. God cared for them like a husband or father.

There are also many lonely people who are not alone because of discipleship and persecution.

In the Bible, Jesus not only healed despised women, lepers and demonised men, but freed them from their shame and isolation.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Heb 13:8 NIV

Jesus loves you. He understands your loneliness. He wants to help you. He has never changed.