I did a search on the Internet asking what freedom in Christ really means. Now, I know you can’t trust the Internet, but it does give us an idea of what others are being told.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
One site said it means freedom from regulations and following rules. Another said it is freedom from being a slave to sin. Another said it was freedom to make our own choices (I thought we could do that anyway), and still, another said it is freedom to see things clearly.
The prevalent idea seems to be freedom from being under the curse of the law, which means freedom from sin since we are taught that Yeshua took our sins upon him when he was crucified.
All of these ideas have a grain of truth to them, but I think it is simpler than what they say. Yes, Yeshua made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins because he is the substitution for the animal we are commanded to bring to the temple in Jerusalem. God’s Torah states we cannot sacrifice to him anywhere other than where he places his name (Deuteronomy 12:13); when the temple was destroyed in 73 AD, Jews had no way to be forgiven of their sins.
Except through Messiah Yeshua.
Yeshua and his Disciples never taught that the freedom in Yeshua was the freedom to disobey. That is what the Enemy of God wants us to think; it is no different than the line he used on Eve (Genesis 3:4) when he told her, “you will surely not die“, and we all know how that turned out. Anyone who teaches freedom in Christ means freedom from the law is working for the wrong guy.
I believe that the true freedom in Christ is simply and solely what the Bible tells us it is: freedom from the second death.
Isaiah 25:7-8 says:
On this mountain he will destroy the veil which covers the face of all peoples, the veil enshrouding all the nations. He will swallow up death forever. Adonai Elohim will wipe away the tears from every face, and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people suffer.
which is referenced by Shaul in 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 when he says:
When what decays puts on imperishability and what is mortal puts on immortality, then this passage in the Tanakh will be fulfilled: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and sin draws its power from the Torah; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah!
The freedom we have when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah is not so much freedom from our sins, but freedom from the spiritual consequences of our sins, which is the second death. All will die, and all will come before God for judgment. Those who do not have Yeshua as their Intercessor will have nothing more than their own righteousness to save them from eternal separation from God’s presence.
And we all know how righteous we are compared to what God wants from us: as Isaiah said, all our righteous deeds are but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6.)
Yeshua did not free us from obedience to God; in fact, he reinforced everything that we are instructed to do in the Torah. What he did that was different was that he taught us the Remes, the deeper, spiritual understanding of the law. The Pharisees only taught the P’shat, the literal meaning of the words, but Yeshua gave us a deeper, more spiritual and more intimate understanding of God’s instructions.
We still need to do as Yeshua did, which is to follow (to the best of our ability) the instructions God gave to all people that are in the Torah. We can’t be perfectly obedient, and that is why God sent the Messiah to us: through the Messiah, we can find freedom from the second death. We all sin and therefore we all deserve death, and ever since that day when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, without Yeshua, there is no forgiveness of sin.
The true meaning of freedom in Christ is that when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, we will be free from the spiritual consequences of our sins.
One last point and warning: being free from the spiritual consequence of our sins doesn’t mean we won’t suffer those consequences while we are still alive.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe if you haven’t done so, already. I welcome your comments and look forward to our next time together. Until then, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
The religions of man have made it impossible to obey the commands of our Father. The sages of Judaism removed the proper name of our Father, causing us to break the first and third commandments. Graven images to adorn themselves and their property breaks the second commandment. A false Sabbath on a pagan Roman calendar that didn’t exist before the year 46 BC, breaks the 4th commandment and the Sabbath command of Exodus 31:13. A pagan lunar calendar adopted during the exile to Babylon, confounds the Qodesh appointed times with the unclean days of man’s pagan calendars, as prophesied in Jubilees 6:36-38. Isaiah 1:13-14 our Father shows his disgust over what the religions of man, that brood of Adders, have done to his people.
Wayne,
You won’t get an argument from me about how mankind has screwed up the word of God with religion, but I can’t agree with you on a few points.
First off, Judaism never removed the Tetragrammaton from the Tanakh. The name of God, as he gave it, is still there in the Torah where it has always been. That is, the Hebrew- I agree that within Judaism we use “Lord” and “Adonai” (in prayer books it is abbreviated as “יי”) instead of trying to pronounce the י-ה-ו-ה name. That is not removing it but simply replacing another word to represent the same entity, which is done not to fool or mislead anyone but out of respect for God, and especially to ensure we do not violate, even by accident, the third commandment.
By respecting God’s name we certainly aren’t forgetting that he is our God (1st commandment.)
I also cannot agree that we are violating any laws by honoring the Shabbat based on a calendar that was first utilized only a couple of millennia ago. The only way to be perfectly in sync with the calendar that would be correct from the first moment God commanded us to observe the 7th day would have had to been recorded every day since that time he told Moses, some (what?) 3500 years ago? God said to honor the Sabbath, and when we do, whether it is exactly the 7th day from when he first said it or a seventh day based on current calendar calculation, we are still honoring the seventh day.
I can’t see God getting so upset with obeying the spirit of his law. In fact, Yeshua taught us that following the spirit of the law is more important than simply performing the letter of the law.
To end up on a common note, I totally agree with you that religion certainly has messed up so much of what God has said. That’s why I wrote my first book, “Back to Basics: God’s Word vs. Religion” so that those who have been blinded by religion can get a little taste of just how far afield mankind has gone from what God has told us he wants us to do.
Shalom, Wayne, and thank you for taking the time to add your comments.
Considering the two commandments concerning his name and the more than seven thousand times he uses his name, I believe it’s very important that we get his name correct. Yet the sages of Judaism made it a capital crime to speak it. This is not out of respect, it’s all out censorship when HE asks us to call upon HIS name.
Revelation 7 and 14 prove you wrong about the true Sabbath and the calendar used to identify it. Revelation 7 and 14 are those who obey the Sabbath command of Exodus 31:13, which is a SIGN between HIM and us. The 144,000 of Revelation 7 and 14 are sealed and protected with HIS SIGN in the last days. Why are so few give such a special status? Daniel 7 lists the old Roman empire as the 4th beast power. Can you say “mark of the beast”?
The religions of man have banned the only two sources of information that allow us to obey the Sabbath commands. Chapters 72-82 of the book of Enoch give us detailed instructions to formulate the calendar of our Father. The book of Jubilees confirms the calendar of Enoch and authorizes Enoch to reveal the calendar, Jubilees 4:16-18. Jubilees 6:36-38 condemns the lunar calendar of Babylon adopted by Judaism during the exile.
Since 2013 I have taught the calendar of Enoch via a Facebook group at the link below. If you are interested, click the files tab of the group to access a list of pdf’s that will explain every aspect of the calendar. I am usually avail able to answer any questions. https://www.facebook.com/groups/179513092255225/?ref=bookmarks
Wayne,
Thank you, again, for your input. I am impressed with your knowledge of these things.
I agree that religious leadership over the centuries (actually, I should say millennia) have created a lot of doubt as to what is correct per God’s commands, and what is man-made and not exactly what God ordained. That being the case, even the Tanakh would then be in doubt, wouldn’t it?
In fact, even the Torah in the original Hebrew, since that, too, was written down by a man, even though it is supposed to be the word of God copied down as he spoke it.
I will stick with the regular calendar I am used to, as I don’t believe that using a calendar different from the one you use is a sin, but I encourage anyone else who is interested in this to look into your website.