“You are free.”
In Cote d’Ivoire this was our ministry host’s answer to almost every single question we asked him.
“What is our ministry this month?”
“You are free.”
“What would be most helpful to you?”
“You are free”
“How can we best bless your church?”
“You are free.”
Now, freedom is great and all, but this wasn’t the answer my team was looking for. We wanted a program or a schedule for our ministry that month, but instead we were ‘free’. “You are free” became one of our least favorite things to hear. My team was afraid that with this freedom we would disappoint our hosts and not live up to their expectations of us. We were afraid that without our host telling us exactly what he wanted from us we would fail to do enough ministry. Sometimes you don’t want freedom, you want structure!
Finishing up an evening of children’s ministry in Cote d’Ivoire with a game
Eventually we sat down with the pastor and figured out a ministry schedule. Rather than being told by the church what we should do, we choose to do things we wanted to do that we knew would bless the church. My team led a women’s program one morning, held children’s ministry events twice a week, visited the home-bound members of the congregation, and spent a morning praying over a church building that was under construction.
Looking back, that month has actually been my favorite month on the race. That freedom we didn’t know what to do with? It allowed us more opportunities than a month of scheduled ministry ever could have. That’s the way that freedom in Christ works.
Jesus came. He died on the cross for all of our sins. He rose again defeating sin and death. For everyone. For all time. Now, once we are born again through Jesus, we are free. We are free from sin. It’s all been forgiven! We are free from eternal death. At the end of life on earth we’re going to heaven! And we’re free from rules. Wait! What? Free from rules!? Yes. Jesus freed us from not only sin and death, but also from the pressure of trying to live up to a bunch of rules.
In the Old Testament, God gave Moses a long list of rules for the Israelites. 613 rules to be exact. There were rules about behavior, rules about eating, rules about clothing, and even rules about resting. In order to be perfect, a person couldn’t break a single one of these rules. Since breaking at least one of these 613 rules was inevitable, every year a perfect goat or lamb was sacrificed to atone for the people’s sins. So, the Israelites spent their lives trying to be perfect and paying for failing to do so. Yikes.
After centuries of this, Jesus came, born of a virgin, fully God and fully man. As God, He could, and did, live a perfect life. As a man, living that perfect life was a struggle. Jesus was tempted by everything we are tempted by. When Jesus died on the cross He was the perfect lamb sacrificed for the sins of the people, all people including you and me.
Now, because of Jesus, we no longer need to sacrifice a perfect animal every year to pay for our wrong doings, but Jesus freed us from more than that. He also freed us from the 613 rules given to Moses. What? Don’t we still need to try to be perfect? No. Perfection on our own is impossible. Those rules were given to the people to show them their own imperfection, their need for a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. Because of our faith in Jesus we are now made perfect in the sight of God. We are not, and cannot, be made perfect without Him.
“A man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”
Galatians 2:16 (NASB)
So, that’s it. No one can be made perfect by following a bunch of rules. Thus, Jesus freed us from the structure of the Law. We don’t need to worry if we are living up to the rules. We have Jesus.
So, how can we best live for Jesus to thank Him for this great blessing?
We are free.
We are free from worrying whether or not we are living up to God’s expectations of us.
We are free to do things that interest us, knowing that we can serve God no matter where we are.
We are free from the pressure of trying to be perfect.
We are free to enjoy life.
We were blessed our first week in Montenegro to be right on the Adriatic Sea!
Photo Credit: Emma Flamming
This month in Montenegro, once again my team has been told “You are free”, and this time I’m okay with that.
