I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July celebration with your loved ones. I know I did!
As I was pondering the celebration of our nation’s freedom I began to ponder the freedom I have in Christ. The Lord has been pressing on me lately to talk about how we can have freedom in Christ by utilizing the armor of God. However, before I talk about our freedom in Christ and the armor of God, I have to talk about what it is we are free from. This is the first part of the Armor of God Series.
As a Christian you already know the war we are in. The war for our souls. The war fought between Satan and God. And because Satan is at war with God, he is at war with us because we are the children of God (1 John 3:1). Fortunately, we already know Satan is a defeated foe through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Hallelujah!
Let me explain further…
Before Christ
Before we accepted Christ, we were bound to sin. To death because sin is death. Death was our inheritance at the fall. Anything and everything is death to us when it is contrary to what God says is good, pleasing, and acceptable to Him. So then, the effects of the fall were a life of sickness and disease, lies, sexual sin, among others (Gal. 5:19-21) because Adam chose to do what was contrary to what the Lord told him to do (Gen. 2:16-17, Gen. 3:6-7). We gratified the cravings of the sinful nature because that is what people are compelled to do without a life in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:1-3).
Life in Christ
However, when we become Christians and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are no longer subject to sin. Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ set us free.” Freedom from what? Freedom from bondage to sin. In Christ, we are now alive in Him (Eph. 2:4-5)…we are no longer dead nor slaves to sin. We now have the freedom and ability to chose not to sin because of Christ in us. It is by His power through the Holy Spirit that broke the shackles that kept us bound. Not only were the chains broken off of us but we were adopted as a child of God! This is good news because we now have freedom to live for Him in whatever capacity He has specifically called us to as opposed to living for the flesh.
God has given us free will and though we have this freedom in Christ some of us still have areas where we are still bound. Sometimes we chose not to live abundantly in an area of our lives or sometimes we don’t even know we are bound until the Lord reveals it and begins to work on our hearts.
Stick with me as I explain how we can use the Armor of God to our advantage to find freedom in Christ over the next few weeks. Know there is an enemy but also know that we have an advocate on our side who has defeated the enemy and will continue to fight for you!
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