Doesn’t true freedom in Christ actually release us from obedience?
“If you abide in My word ... you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. ... Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:31,32,34).
“God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:17,18).
“So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts” (Psalm 119:44,45).
True freedom means freedom “from sin” (Romans 6:18), or disobedience, which is breaking God’s law (1 John 3:4). Therefore, true freedom comes only from obedience. The citizens who obey the law have freedom. The disobedient are caught and lose their freedom. Freedom without obedience is a false freedom—it leads to confusion and anarchy. True Christian freedom means freedom from disobedience. Disobedience always hurts a person and leads one into the cruel slavery of the devil.
“He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. ... In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God” (1 John 3:8, 10).
“Satan ... deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).
The devil is responsible for disobedience. He knows that all disobedience is sin and that sin brings unhappiness, tragedy, alienation from God, and eventual destruction.
Rom 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Praise God for the gift of Grace.
Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I love Romans. Quite the letter. In respect to obedience unto righteousness however.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness,
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore?
Because they sought it not by (the) Faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
For
Christ (the word in the heart and mouth; the Faith in which we speak) is the end of the law (
that which is written on parchment and Tables of Stone) for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring
Christ (the word in the heart and mouth; the Faith in which we speak) down from above: ) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ (the word in the heart and mouth; the Faith in which we speak) again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word (Christ) is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is,
the word of faith, which we preach.
For GOD has said of old, For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel (those who will stand with GOD) after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my
laws (Christ; the Word) into their mind, and write them in their hearts
(and in their Mouths): and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: As was available from the beginning of our LORD calling us to HIS Salvation as noted in Deut 30:6, 10-14.
The LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. For this commandment which I command (
To hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart) thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word (
Christ through which his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, HIS Laws; HIS Word) is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, (
and in thy mind) that thou mayest do it.
In so much as we are
manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us,
written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but
our sufficiency is of God; (For it is He that works in us both to will and do HIS good pleasure)
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter (not of parchment and of Tables of Stone), but of the spirit; (in the fleshly tables of the heart) for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones (and parchment; the Book of the Law), was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration (
the Spirit of the Living GOD in the Hearts; true Faith; Christ in us the hope of Glory) of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
(Rom 7:6; 8:3,4; 9:30-33; 10:4-8; Heb 8:10; Deu 30:6,10-14; 2Co 3:3-5)