The truth of God’s Word is the foundation of life. While Jesus Christ was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, he declared in Matthew 4:4(NLT), “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” As children of God and believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we owe everything that we are to God’s truth. The bounty of His blessings and grace that we enjoy is so amazing that many of us forget that God has rescued us from hell. We forget that it is because of what God accomplished through the sacrifice and resurrection of His Only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that we will never, in all of eternity, see hell. We will never know it’s torment of eternal damnation. The knowledge of God’s Word has freed us from the bondage of sin. This is one of the many reasons we should celebrate God’s goodness every day of our lives.

Because God has given us His Word, we have access to salvation and the more than abundant life that our Lord, Jesus Christ, made available to us. He proclaimed in John 8:32(NLT), “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” It’s God’s truth that has set us free, and it is very important we understand that He alone has delivered us from poverty, sickness, depression, and the bondage of sin and death. 

In the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis, our Great God teaches us about His creation of earth and human beings. We also learned that satan, who tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, scored a major coup because everything that God had given to Adam and Eve was transferred to him. Our Heavenly Father had given Adam and Eve dominion and authority in the earth. He blessed them beyond measure and there was nothing that they lacked, but they fell for satan’s lies. By acting on those lies, they took the word of satan over the Word of God, and this is how they lost everything.

Through the first couple, God shows us how to remain in His arms of safety and blessings, and He also demonstrates how these abundant blessings can be lost when we refuse to honor His truth. Sin is an act of betrayal and rebellion against God. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith we cannot please our Heavenly Father, and Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and trusting God’s Word. We can see clearly that our faith in Him is extremely important to God. We must believe in His power, love, righteousness, and absolute sovereignty with all our hearts, and the way we prove our belief in Him is by our faith and the actions we take to back it.

Without God’s forgiveness, our sinful actions will move us out of the realm of God’s blessing and into the realm of sin and darkness. The realm of sin and darkness belongs to satan. So, if a person betrays the goodness of God’s blessings by sinning against Him, that person has spiritually moved themselves into the realm of sin and darkness, and again, that’s a territory that belongs to satan; he’s the one that started sin, and he owns it.

The cost of sin is exceedingly high. Romans 6:23(NLT) tells us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Every time, without exception, that a person sins, satan must be paid with a price that takes away from our blessedness. God, in His infinite mercy and grace, will forgive us for our sin when we humble ourselves before Him and ask for forgiveness. This is incredibly Good News indeed! Romans 5:15(NLT) tells us, “But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.”

God gives salvation to all who repent and ask to be saved by Him through Jesus Christ. Through salvation, God gives us victory over sin, and we should not go back into the thing we have been delivered from. Sin will always land a consequence, and this should deter us from sinful actions. Our Heavenly Father tells us to trust in His Word and not do the things that are against Him, but often we do them anyway. We must recognize that we have been empowered through Jesus Christ to have victory over sin, and we must walk in that empowerment, because it is true freedom! 1John 5:4(NLT) tells us, “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.”

Jesus Christ has freed us from the bondage of sin and death. Make no mistake, it is a horrid and detestable bondage, and many are still stuck in it. Their lives are being ravaged by the evil one, and they do not realize what is happening. 2Corinthians 4:4(NLT) tells us, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” When our minds are blinded, we do not live in all the freedom Christ has made available to us. This is not because God is limiting or keeping us from receiving what we desire. He has empowered us to live abundantly through Jesus Christ, and Psalm 84:11 tells us that He doesn’t withhold any good thing from those who love and honor Him. Wrong beliefs about our empowerment and about the goodness and love of God keep us imprisoned.

In Galatians 2:4(NLT), the Apostle Paul tells us about a situation when false, so-called Christians were sent by satan to try to nullify the liberty of Christ by enslaving the minds of believers with wrong beliefs. Paul said that they “sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations.” God does not want us oppressed or sad. He doesn’t want our lives to be full of confusion and chaos. He wants us to live in the love, faith, and peace of Jesus Christ.We know that these are dark times, and as believers, we must be so careful to remain anchored in the liberty that Christ has made available. We must not allow any person, habit, addiction, or false belief to box us in and take away the victory that our Lord and Savior sacrificed his life to give us.

Cling to the freedom you have received. Galatians 5:1 (The Message) tells us, “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” Living in the liberty of Christ frees us to live without disappointment or regret. Galatians 5:13 (NLT) tells us how to do this. It says, “For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.” Changing our minds and hearts according to the life of Christ gives us a liberty that no one can take away, and when our faith is planted firmly in this, the blessing of life will beautifully and continually unfold.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Live in the Liberty in Christ”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.