The Bondage of Liberty
By Lee Moses
One can find several paradoxes in Christianity:
- Christians are in the world, but “not of the world” (John 17:15-16; emphasis LM).
- Christians are soldiers while they are peacemakers (II Tim. 2:3; Matt.5:9).
- Christians find affliction a cause of rejoicing (Luke 6:22-23; James1:2).
Another similarly striking paradox is that Christians are freed as they become enslaved:
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom yeo bey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness (Rom. 6:16-18).
Note some facts about this bondage of liberty.
When you become enslaved to righteousness, you are freed from sin. Sin is a deceptive dominator. It enslaves people while deceiving them into thinking they are not enslaved at all. These people say to themselves, “I am going to follow my own course through life.” Many of these people even try to do what is right. But doing right is impossible without a correct standard (Judg. 17:6; Prov. 14:12). And anyone who is living without following God’s standard will eventually become entangled in sin (Eccl. 7:20). And, as Paul wrote, someone in that state has no righteousness whatsoever—“When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness” (Rom. 6:20). However, when someone becomes a Christian, his very nature changes. He does not continue in sin, because he is dead to sin (vv. 1-2). John expressed this change in the strongest of terms: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (I John 3:9). And one who has undergone this change is “freed from sin” (Rom. 6:7).
When you become enslaved to Christ, you are freed from Satan. Jesus told one group of sinners, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44). The same could be said of all sinners—they belong to Satan. And Satan is not a loving father, he is a deceitful taskmaster who seeks to devour every human soul (I Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12:9). We can be thankful that, though we may find ourselves in this affiliation with Satan, God loved us and sent His Son to die for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6-8; I John 4:19). “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8). When you submit yourself to the service of Christ in baptism, you enter the service of One who will truly call you “friend” (John 15:14). You enter the service of One who is not ashamed to call you His brother or sister (Heb. 2:10).
When you become enslaved to heaven, you are freed from hell. A great Judgment Day is coming in which all shall be judged for their sins. A fearful fate awaits those found in their sins rather than in God’s book of life: “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). But because of God’s grace, souls who have been traveling the road to hell can become citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20-21). “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” (Revelation 14:13). Rather than lamenting the sad fate we have brought upon ourselves, we can rejoice that our names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). This cause for rejoicing comes when we are baptized into the church of our Lord (Acts 8:38-38; 16:33-34).
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel (Heb. 12:22-24).
God has prepared a wonderful heavenly place for those who enter the service of heaven (Heb. 11:13-16).
There are three masters from which every soul needs freedom—sin, Satan, and hell. One must become enslaved to righteousness, Christ, and heaven to be freed from sin, Satan, and hell. Of all the paradoxes to be found in Christianity, perhaps none is more striking than the fact that the most defiled of sinners can stand pure, innocent, and without reproach before the perfectly holy and just God of heaven.