CHRISTIAN
FREEDOM
1 Cor. 6:12-20
-This
morning I want to talk to you about Christian Freedom...this is a very
important theme in the Church today...the reason it is important is because it
has been so clearly abused...
-I
think that John Calvin is right when he mentions that when Christian liberty is
mentioned, there is usually two responses, both of which fail to understand the
freedom given to us in Christ:
“Some, on the great pretext of
Christian this freedom, shake off all obedience toward God and break into unbridled license...Others
distain it, thinking that it takes away
all moderation, order, and the like...”
-And
Calvin asks the question, "What should we do here, hedged about by such
perplexities? Shall we say good-by to Christian freedom, thus cutting off
occasion for such dangers?"
-Calvin
- "But, as we have said, unless this freedom be comprehended, neither
Christ nor gospel
truth, nor inner peace of soul, can be rightly known."
-Christian
liberty is a glorious thing...if it is rightly known and applied...but it is a
very dangerous thing when it is wrongly understood and applied....
-And
it is no surprise the church here at Corinth wrongly understood and applied the
doctrine of Christian freedom, which had some devastatingly sinful consequences
in their church and in their gospel witness to the world...
-They
took their Christian freedom and used it as an excuse for sexual immorality...
-By
now you can understand how much this church gave the apostle Paul a lot of
head-aches and a lot of heart-aches...
-Here at the end of chapter 6, the church at Corinth compromised their faith and
their witness with adopting the cultures idea of freedom and liberty,
especially in the area of sex which resulted in wide spread sexual
immorality...
-And,
as Calvin pointed out, it would have robbed them of the true knowledge if
Christ, the gospel and inner peace of the soul...
-So,
it stands to reason then that if you want to know Christ more, know the glories
of the gospel, and the joy of inner peace, you need to listen carefully to how
Paul corrects their thinking about Christian freedom...
-This
morning I believes that there are 3 aspects of Christian freedom that Paul
highlights for us...
I. PARAMETERS OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM
-
Paul sets out some parameters with
regards to Christian freedom...he begins here in verse 12 by outlining a slogan
that they were living by...
-The
slogan was "All things are lawful for me"...is what they when around saying and using to justify their sin...
-Where
did this come from? It is most likely
came from the belief that believers have been granted freedom from the law....
-That
in Christ, they were no longer bound by the Mosaic law because they are part of
the New Covenant in Christ...
-Paul
points out that the law is good...but because of our sin, the law enslaved us
to sin and condemned us in our sin because we could not live according to the
law...
-That
is why Paul says in Gal. 5:1 -
"For freedom Christ has set us free..." or in 5:13 - "For you were called to freedom, brothers and
sisters..."
-There
is a great freedom that we have in Christ...a freedom from the enslavement of
sin...from the condemnation of the law...
-Paul
says in Romans 6 that we are to "...consider yourselves dead to sin and
alive to God in Christ Jesus."
-Before
were were saved, we were dead to God alive to sin...but now we are dead to sin,
but alive to God...
-There
is a great freedom that we have...and Paul would have taught them this freedom
as there were probably a mix of Jews and Gentiles in the congregation...
-Those
with a Jewish background, who would have been generally moral people, needed to be taught the freedom they have in
Christ...
-The
Gentile Christians, who would have been generally immoral people needed to be
taught Christian moral and ethics...
-So
when each of these groups heard the word freedom, different ideas would come
into their minds...
-Remember
what Calvin said....that there is usually two responses to Christian freedom? Gentiles
- license to sin? Jews - judgementalism?
-So
when people in the congregation heard Paul teaching, they thought different
things...and interpreted Paul differently and then acted accordingly....
-That
is probably the background to their slogan...they were using and misconstruing what
they were taught and used to condone sexual sin...they were hearing Paul all
wrong...
-But
what Paul is trying to do here is correct their erroneous thinking about
Christian freedom...the slogan itself might not be so wrong...but they
misunderstood it...
-
So what is Paul saying here? David
Jackman points out three things:
A.
Christian freedom does not give us
license to do whatever we want (12)
-They
thought that their freedom gave them license to engage in what was once in
their mind unlawful sexual practice...
Jackman -
"In claiming that their spirituality set them free to do anything, they
were in fact redefining
morality...but it makes nonsense of that freedom if it is used to claim that sin does not exist
any more and that everything has become permissible...freedom
that comes through the gospel is a freedom that exists only under Christ's lordship."
-This
is true today as well...this is not something that was a problem only in the
first century...and it reveals a complete misunderstanding of the gospel...
John MacArthur laments
the fact that "the gospel in vogue today holds forth a false hope to sinners.
It promises them they can have eternal life yet continue to live in rebellion against
God. Indeed, it encourages people to
claim Jesus as Savior yet
defer until later the commitment to obey him as Lord...thus the good news of Christ has given way to the
bad news of an insidious easy-believism that makes no moral demands
on the lives of sinners...the gospel that Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow him
in submissive obedience, not just a plea to
make a decision or pray a prayer."
-In
essence he is asking them two questions that will control and define their
freedom:
1) It is helpful? Helpful for what? Does this help you to develop a Christian life that is more like Jesus Christ? Does this help you to give glory to God?
-Another
commentator points out that...
"Instead of living as forgiven,
holy, and righteous believers, they indulged in sexual and social sins. Instead of submitting to the rule of Jesus
Christ, they condoned sin in
the name of freedom granted them in Christ.
Instead of serving the
Lord and their neighbor in genuine Christian love, the served themselves."
-If
you use Christian freedom to serve yourself, you have misunderstood that
freedom...
Martin Luther -
"A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to
all."
B.
Christian Liberty Knows that Human Actions have Eternal Significance (13-14)
-These
verses give us insight to the fact that the Corinthians were being infected by
Greek philosophy...
-Greek
philosophy held to a dualistic view of life...that there was a dualism between
the spirit and the material world...what this means is that they saw the spirit
and the body of a person as two distinct entities...
-How
this translated into life was that it led to extreme asceticism...where the
body was despised and so rigorously treated that it became regarded as the
enemy of true spirituality...
-As
one writer points out, "Everything to do with the body was insignificant
for the life of the spirit or the fate of the soul."
-But
on the other hand, this dualistic thinking also went to the other extreme...it
encourage libertine lifestyle...that is does not matter what one does with the
body...what one does in the body did not have any eternal consequence...
-So
Paul picks up another slogan what would have been prevalent..."Food is meant
for the stomach and stomach for food"
-What
the Corinthians were trying to argue was that just like food is meant for the
stomach and the stomach is meant for food, so because the body has sexual
organs and desires, that it is only natural and fitting to satisfy ones sexual
appetite with casual sex...
-Do
you see how dominate sexual desire was in this culture? It doesn't matter what you do with your
body...don't hinder it's natural desire...sounds
familiar, doesn't it?
Jackman -
"If God regards our physical bodies with such importance, then they must
be dedicated to him and life lived in them must reflect his character and priorities."
-We
do not belong to our desires...but we belong to the Lord...we were created in
the image of God...he is our creator...we belong to him to glorify him...we
were not created for sexual immorality...
-Sex
was created good by God only if it is used as God had designed it...as a
result, if we go beyond what God has written,
-This
is a controversial message in our culture today...our culture has given people
the right to do what they want sexually...but the Christian is not dominated by
those rights...we are to be held captive
C.
Christian Liberty is not a Divided Life (15-17)
-Notice
the contradiction that is presented here...centra to Paul argument is the
quotation from Genesis 2:24...
-What
Paul is saying is that sexual union was meant exclusively for marriage...
Jackman -
sexual union "represents the union of two persons who are transformed into
a new unit in society. Sex is not like a
limb of the body. It represents an
activity in which the whole person is involved, and in many ways determines
character, outlook and lifestyle. That
is why where is no such thing as free love.
Love demands loyalty. If it is
free, then it is not love, but if it is love then the couple should publicly
commit themselves to one another...To use what God has designed as a
life-changing union in order to gratify lust, or to gain temporary pleasure is
to invite deep personal disintegration.
It is certainly clear that multiple liaisons lead to an inability to
make a deep and lasting relationship.
Christians, who are in such a relationship with the living God, cannot
possibly live in that way. You cannot be truly united to Christ and leave your
sex life outside his authority."
II. PURSUIT OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM
A.
To Purse Christian Liberty is to Flee Sexual Immorality
-This
is not some self-help advice...this is a divine command through the
apostle...this is a strong word...it is not simple to avoid or steer away
from...it means to run...to flee...
-Why
does Paul use such strong language?
Because he knows w sexual sin so deeply affects us...and because our sex
drives can be so powerful...
Jackman-"In
practice that means putting a distance between ourselves and
temptation"
B. To Pursue Christian Freedom is to be
Spirit-filled and Spirit-led
-Galatians 5:16-24
C. To Purse Christian Freedom is Glorify God
with our Bodies
III. PRICE OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM
-Notice
verse 20...the word was used often in the market-place...it describes the
buying of Christians....the main point of emphasis is not the freedom of the
redeemed, but their new status as slaves of God, bought with a price to do his
will...
John Stott -
"Our body has not only been created by God and will one day be resurrected
by him, but it has been bought by Christ's blood and is indwelled by his
Spirit. Thus
is belongs to God three times over, by creation, redemption ad indwelling. How then, since it does not belong to us, can
we misuse it? Instead,
we are to honor God with it, by obedience and self-control. Bought by Christ, we have no business to
become the slaves of anybody or anything else.
Once we were slaves of sin; now we are the slaves of Christ, and his
service is the true freedom."
Jackman -
"Paul teaches us that sexual
immorality is a sin against our redemption.
It
is all to easy for forget the slavery in which we lived in when we were sons of
Adam and daughters of Eve. Nor
should we forget the immense cost which God was prepared t pay in order to
bring us to freedom.
The
lifeblood of his own Son was the only means by which we have been redeemed, and
when we consider the costliness of that price it is not difficult for us to see
its application in the last sentence of the chapter."
