by Mark Barneycastle

I don’t know about you, but it is a huge deal for me. It is so important for me to know that I am free. I tend to panic when I start to feel like I’m losing my grip on freedom.

What is freedom to you? Is it the absence of constraints? The ability to get what you want? I admit that I have lived most of my life at least living, if not speaking, as if that was what freedom meant.

But GOD has a different definition of freedom. The freedom that GOD gives is unshakeable, if you will receive it. It does not depend on circumstance. It does not depend on you. It depends on JESUS. True freedom is freedom of the soul, and no one can take that from you, because if the Son has set you free, then you are free indeed (John 8:36).

I read the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin recently, and the main character in the story is Uncle Tom, a believing slave. Tom is eventually sold to an incredibly cruel master, who micromanages every part of Tom’s life and does his best to make Tom’s life absolutely miserable. Here is one of my favorite quotes in the whole book:

“Here, you rascal, you make believe to be so pious, didn’t you never hear, out of yer Bible, ‘Servants, obey your masters?’ An’t I your master? Didn’t I pay down twelve hundred dollars, cash, for all there is in yer old cussed black shell? An’t yer mine now, body and soul?” Legree said, giving Tom a violent kick with his heavy boot. But these words awakened a triumphal joy in Tom’s tortured soul:

He suddenly stretched himself up, and, looking earnestly to heaven, while the tears and blood that flowed down his face mingled, he exclaimed,  ”No, no, no! My soul an’t yours, mas’r! You haven’t bought it, ye can’t buy it! It’s been bought and paid for by One that’s able to keep it. No matter, no matter, you can’t harm me!”

The freedom that Christ offers goes deeper than circumstances. We will never be truly free in our outward circumstances. Never. We will always have someone in authority over us, lack the ability to get things we want, be obligated to serve family and friends, etc. But in the midst of those “constraints,” we really do have complete freedom if the Spirit of the Lord dwells in us.

This is not the part where we say in an Eeyore voice “yeah, yeah, I know we have freedom in Christ.” We really are free. Our freedom genuinely does not depend on circumstances. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there IS freedom. Not where the Spirit of the Lord and reliable transportation is. Not where the Spirit of the Lord and no manipulative relationships are. Wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Remember Paul and Silas? After being severely flogged, they were put in the inner cell, in maximum security. Their feet were put in stocks, and the jailer was commanded to guard the carefully. That is outwardly about as unfree as you can get.

But Paul and Silas had free souls, and they knew it. In their chains, they sang hymns and worshipped God. And in that moment GOD chose to make the Spiritual reality a physical reality as well, and set them free. But the Spiritual reality never changed. Paul and Silas were free all along. So are you if you are in Christ. Here is the reason Christ set us free: for freedom. Since that is true, let’s live like it!