Life is full of wonderful “freebies”: grocery store tags giving you automatic discounts on selected items; offers for a free massage (pedicure, consult, etc.). For these, you just leave your name, address, phone and email…and pay the price when you receive their follow up fliers and junk e-mails. Then there are “free” trial websites, for which you get charged after the trial period. Of course, they depend on you forgetting to cancel the subscription. Each has a cost: unwanted mail, money, etc. Obviously, these are not free.
WHAT DOES “FREE” MEAN?
The official definition of free is ” no longer confined or imprisoned.” Not exactly our culture’s concept of “freebies”. What is “biblical freedom”, like the free gifts of forgiveness of sin and eternal life? Do we think that like other freebies, there must be a cost, a catch? Or that we need to do something in order to earn it? No, we don’t need to do anything to pay the price of freedom from sin. Jesus paid that price.
NOT A ROLE, NOT A RULEBOOK, BUT A CHANGE IN DNA
How does one live no longer confined or imprisoned by sin? When an actor/actress in a play or movie, takes on a role, a script guides them in assuming that role. The word “assuming” is critical-they’re not working to be the character, as much as putting on their mantle, being swallowed into them. They may still look like themselves, but they’re changed.
As a new character in Christ, a believer’s new life/role in Christ, becomes natural, it becomes a part of their DNA. This is even deeper than “putting on a mantle” It is not a role fulfilled by simply checking a “rulebook.” We’ve assumed the persona of Christ; the sheer joy of living the role of Christ. This is not a cost, but a gain. We have gained armor against the worst assaults (Ephesians 6:10-18).
LOOKING GOOD ON THE OUTSIDE, BUT DARK ON THE INSIDE
Throughout the Old Testament, God’s Chosen Children, needed to know how to live life. Unfortunately, they usually didn’t listen to God. Instead of assuming His commandments, appearance replaced ‘how to live.’ God’s people became generationally sinful as they awaited the Messiah. They may have looked good on the outside, but internally they lived in darkness.
GOD’S BEST FOR US
With Christ’s (The Messiah’s) sacrifice on the cross, eternal sacrifice for our sins has been made. This has opened the window to that free gift of eternal life. “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.” (John 3:16) Note it says already gave freely and “whoever believes”. We just need to let that role become part of our DNA, with the Bible as our script. Since the price for this new life has already been paid (free), the glories of this new life are unimaginable because they are God’s best.
THE TRUE FREEBIE
Do you want to be really free? Do you want God’s DNA? Jesus said, “ If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? (Matthew 16:25-26) The gift we receive for freedom in Christ is life lived with God’s DNA. This is the true “freebie”.