Thanks for sharing your story with us. I am sorry that you have had to go through what you have gone through with the church but it sounds like you have found an expression of faith or religion that suits you. I would love to hear more about that part of your story if you would be willing to share.

Tim

What makes me struggle with these verses is that those in the world who sense their bondage are not looking for freedom in the institution of the church. Oh, they are seeking to be free! But they are not looking at us as the source of that freedom nor do they consider us as free. For sure the world offers many attractive counterfeits to true freedom but if Christ sets us free indeed then our freedom ought to be evident to others and it ought to draw freedom-seekers towards us.

John 8:34 states, “I assure you that everyone who sins is a slave of sin” so that which binds us and separates us from freedom is sin. So my fear is that many Christians have given up their freedom in favor of quick pleasures and “minor sins.” “Minor sins” grow up until they produce death — “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). A warning to Christians that should keep us from this folly is found in Hebrews 3:12-13. “Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.” Note the key connection here between unbelief and sin.

There is something about the connection between unbelief and sin that is deadly to true Christianity. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31) – Christ clearly places a high priority on belief. In fact, it’s the cornerstone of our faith and crucial to all the gifts of a relationship with Christ, including freedom. In fact, we find yet another verse on belief in the same chapter as we find Christ describing freedom. John 8:24 states, “for unless you believe that I am who I say I am, you will die in our sins.” That leads me to believe that if the church has lost her freedom, she must have lost her belief.

I’m not sure if I’m making my point clearly but an earthly example is this: Our forefathers used to believe in the phrase “until death do us part” and this was evidenced by marriages that survived until the death of a spouse — this belief helped couples to weather incredible storms and survive insurmountable obstacles. Today, we don’t believe in those words and that is evidenced by our current divorce rate. Oh, Christians believe in the phrase “until death do us part at some level. But their belief is not significant enough to produce external results (as evidenced by a divorce rate that is not significantly different from that of non-Christians). If you follow this line of thinking and you surmise that that church is as bound as the world, then you must conclude that the church has lost her belief in Jesus Christ and who He is. Perhaps we have not heeded the warning found in Hebrews as listed above.

Sin causes bondage, bondage leads to death, bondage is eternally broken through Christ and freedom from sin, death and bondage can only be found by believing in Jesus and who He is. We the Church ought to be a haven of freedom that release the multitudes from the bondage of this world. Since this has not been your experience, let me ask you for forgiveness. Forgive us for neglecting to remind and rebuke one another on a daily basis as is clearly outlined for us in scripture. Forgive us for letting sin take root and sap our life-blood (the blood and grace of Christ) from our lives. Forgive us for losing touch with the understanding of who Christ is, why He came and what He offers both to us and through us. Forgive us for losing touch with the truth that can set us all free.

I hope I have heard you correctly and been clear enough to offer my regret on both a personal and corporate level. I pray that God’s grace will be upon you through the blood of Jesus through which we all find the remission of sins. Take care and may God truly bless you. Amen.