free people

Most define freedom as 'the ability to do whatever, whenever, without hinderance.'
Nothing or no one is holding you back. The ones who define freedom this way are usually the ones who won't fully commit to Christ. They look at Scripture as a list of dos and don'ts that prevent them from living freely.

But I want to challenge you- what is it that you so freely partake in that you feel like you can't give up for Christ? Maybe for you it's alcohol. maybe it's sex, or drugs, or pornography. You know what that thing is. Now that you have that thing in your mind, I ask you right now, "can you give up that thing and never go back? never look at it again. never interact with it. never think about it. can you stop?"

If we're being honest here, your answer is probably no. The truth is, you're enslaved to it. if you can't simply let go of it, you are bound by it. that thing is holding you back from living in the fullness God intended you to live. We've fooled ourselves into thinking we're free when we're actually enslaved to our own selfish desires. Your freedom isn't really freedom at all.
When you're enslaved to sin, you're free from righteousness; but what benefit do those things have for you? They just bring temporary satisfaction and then you're left empty again. But when you walk in grace and choose life with Jesus, you're no longer bound by these worldly things but you are slaves to Christ- reaping holiness and goodness- resulting in not only abundant life, but eternal life. {Romans 6 & 7}

The relationship of sin and self is a lot like a dislocated finger. When you look at the finger, what does it look like? A finger. But something's off. It may still look like a finger and it might even still have some function of a finger, but not to it's full intent. A dislocated finger cannot function properly or fully in its deformed state. It's not useless, it's just not working its purpose. It needs adjusting. It's only when the finger is popped back in place to its proper form where it can function as it was created to function.

Sin is a dislocation of creation. We were created with purpose, for a purpose. But when we step out of God's plan for our lives, when we follow our desires instead of being in alignment with His will, we create a dislocation. Each person, each created thing is to be used a certain way. Windex is used for cleaning glass but if you think you can use it to clean your teeth, you'll soon realize it wasn't inteded for that. Like eating soup with a fork or playing baseball with a football. Things are created with a certain design, for a special purpose, in a specific context. When taken out thier context and used improperly, it loses its purpose. That bottle of windex doesn't become toothpaste, it's still cleaning spray, but its not being used how it was designed to be used.

Choosing to walk under the authority of Christ, giving up those things that hold us back from Him, isn't giving up freedom, it's walking in it. In our enslavery to sin, we are no longer living in the fullness and in the freedom God inteded us to live. It's when we die to what once bound us that releases us from death and enters us into new life- a life free to be exactly how our Creator intended us to be: F R E E  PEOPLE.

Footnotes:
Dr. Todd Bates, California Baptist University, Apologetics.