Volume 14 Issue 11
When I was born again as a young boy, I was told that I had been set free. At the time, I had no clue what that meant. I suspect that I had never thought about needing to be free. Free from what?
Now, of course, I know that salvation through the Gospel did give me freedom from sin and from the power of Satan’s deceptions. I have also come to understand, however, that this freedom also leads to “bonds of love.” Let me describe it this way: I am free to be in Christ but I am not free to be just anything. I am not free to be detached from reality, truth, God’s laws of nature, or the consequences of sin, to cite some examples. That idea of freedom is fantasy.
As I write this article I am watching enormous combines harvest hundreds of acres of soybeans. Huge semi-trucks are parked along the road waiting for the grain to be loaded. Yesterday morning at the coffee shop, farmers were gathered around a large round table remarking that this was a good year for beans. One of the men said with typical mid-western matter-of-factness, “Hey, plant it right, take care of it, and get lots of help from God and it works every time.”
Perhaps the good farmer was merely making a coffee shop remark, but without knowing it, he was confirming the law of the harvest.
Genesis 8:22 – “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
None of us are free from the laws of nature or morals. And neither should we want to be. We are free, but not the kind of free that allows us to do whatever we want. Freedom is not a detachment from principle. It is not a break from truth. In terms of the Gospel, truth and doctrine are foundational. What God has chosen, He has chosen. It is settled. There are commandments that pertain to the Gospel, boundaries that pertain to Nature and boundaries that pertain to life.
Acts 17:26 – “And hath made of one blood of all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;”
For instance, I am in love with my wife and attached to that are the “bonds” of that love. Because I love her, I purpose to do nothing that will corrupt that love. Herein lies a wonder of wonder.
I walk with God in accordance to his Word. I work the fields of evangelism by his laws, If I stray from these things, I will fail. I am not free to do anything I want, to preach anything I want, to believe any thing I want; because if I do, I will fail. I will lose that which I pursue. Seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. My world is governed. God is in control. God is Truth. In terms of salvation, there is one Name: Jesus. There is one redemptive death: the death of Jesus.
The farmers plant the crops, obeying all the laws of Nature. To do otherwise is to fail. They may improve their methods and become better at their own efforts; they may improve their efficiency with bigger tractors and studied techniques. But they always must obey the rules of nature.
Just as the farmers plant their fields and reap their crops according to the Law of the Harvest, we must operate within the bonds of love. But that is the road to blessings. And for me that is the wonder: that the more I submit to God, the more the blessings come. I am glad I am made free from sin through His mercy so that I may pursue the great blessings in God.
Such wonder! It is the sense of wonder that captures us. It is the wonder of God, the wonder of His anointing, His spirit, power, grace, and hope that ignites us. It is the wonder of God and His love toward us that impacts us like the dawning of day.