FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST THANK ____________________ I AM FREE AT LAST!
What are you thanking for your freedom?
Eph. 1:1-7
Romans (yes the entire book)
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,because he has anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisonersand recovery of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” – Luke 4:18-19
My apologies to Dr. Martin Luther King but I put it here in honor of his day tomorrow. As I sit here and think about great leaders and great freedom fighters like Dr. King, Gandhi and others, I cant help but think how amazingly brave they were. Then as I look at the passage above, Luke 4:18-19 and what Jesus said, well it gives brave a whole new meaning. Here he was in His home church or synagogue standing up to say, “hey all I am here to fulfill the prophet Isaiah and set everyone free, yeah that’s right that little Jesus kid you watched grow up is here to save you.”
Wow that took a whole lot of guts! Especially knowing that His own would reject Him. But that had to happen to create what we call Christianity. It was foretold years before and in fact that’s how we know that Jesus was indeed the real Messiah because He did exactly what was foretold He would do.
Ever wonder why His own rejected Him? Ever wonder what was so terrible about His message that He had to die? Ever wonder what the “Good News” was?
To hear many tell it today I can see how many people would wonder. So many people want to hold onto the law and be like Christ. But at the end of the day you are a new creation if you accept Christ and there are some very serious drawbacks to going back to the law “for some form of righteousness.”
Be Free to day and know that your Freedom came from the precious blood of the lamb!
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUESNCES AND WARNINGS OF GOING BACK UNDER THE LAW?
Galatians 3:2,3,10- “…did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by having faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?…For as many as are under the works of the law are under a curse.”
Galatians 5:1-4- “… keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery…if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you….every man who receives circumcision,… is under obligation to keep the whole law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”
Philippians 3:8,9- “… I count all things to be loss…in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.”
Colossians 2:16-18,20-23- “let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to …a Sabbath day- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ…why act as if you were living in the world, do not submit yourself to decrees, such as , “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using) – in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST THANK ____________________ I AM FREE AT LAST!
I hope when you fill in the blank it will read GOD ALMIGHTY AND JESUS CHRIST HIS SON!!
BeGraceFull.com
Hi Mr. Bob (no relation to “Buffalo Bob” are you? : )
The seriousness of preaching the gospel + something else, in this case the JUDAIZERS who would bring others as themselves “under the law,” can be seen even in the Greek word for ”marvel”used in Galatians 1:6. Paul is saying he is no less than “traumatized” by this development. The Galatians had gone after “another” (heteros) gospel, another of a “different” kind which was a false gospel, not “another” (allos) of the same kind that Paul preached. (We only have one word for “another.” The Greeks, I think, got it right with two.)
For emphasis, I have omitted some words from v.[6] without, I trust, doing damage to the text. Notice how the verse now reads:
[6] I marvel that ye are so soon removed from…grace…unto another gospel:
[7] Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
[8] But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
“Accursed.” Pretty strong language, I’d say.
I used this scripture years ago in a discussion with two Mormons who knocked on the door of my mother’s house in Florida. They weren’t prepared for this verse. That is, they had no “canned” response to it. They walked off in a huff after I told them they were peddling a false gospel (“heteros”) saying to me, “You respect us and we’ll respect you!” I wasn’t in a good mood that day and didn’t care if they were offended or not. (But my spirit wasn’t right.) Besides, many were offended in Jesus’ day, many are offended today. I’m not the “ecumenical” type anyway.
In Christ
rich
Rich,
Thank you for sharing!
I didn’t know about this but wow – it makes sense. There was and is a false gospel out there as you know that says Jesus
and the Gift He brought just wasn’t enough! I have seen it literally kill people and that is why I write, speak and plead
with people to see True Grace that makes for a Radically Thank-Full Heart!
Thank you again for sharing!
Bob