Daily Devotional

Perhaps the greatest treasure in our day to day lives in Christ is His having made us free.  Ironically, to most outsiders, this is the one thing we lack as believers!  But in truth we were slaves to sin.  We were slaves to Law.  Now we are free from both.  We are free.  We are free indeed (John 8:36).

The intensive work of the devil against us, if he cannot pull us from Christ, is to pull us into some bondage again.  People will urge us to take steps again into sin, assuring us this is OK.  My aunt was told by a minister of her church that she should go ahead and have a fling; that God would forgive her!  Others will guilt us into obligation under the Law, telling us how necessary it is.  You better fast, or give more money.  But the Holy Spirit urges us to walk in freedom in Him.  He says, “Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

In Romans 14 Paul, after discussing various ways we could be dragged under the Law, at the end writes the following two lines (verse 22), which have been to me a great balm many years.

• The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. 
• Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
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As you carry on in Christ in your life, it finally all just falls on you!  You have your own convictions before God about things – live in those!  You cannot live by someone else’s convictions.  Have you approved something in your life?  Don’t condemn yourself.  Be happy in the activities of your convictions, both in what you do, and what you will not do.  You cannot live somebody else’s life!

It was for freedom you have been set free!  Keep living in it!  You are not under the Law.  You are not a slave of sin.  You are a child of God, abiding in Christ (John 8:31-32), and led by the Holy Spirit in everything, everyday (Galatians 5:18).

If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed (John 8:36)! 

New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.