FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
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Saturday, March 10, 2007,10:49 a.m.
CHOOSE FREEDOM
Goodness! Hard to believe that I haven't been in this space for almost two weeks! Disgraceful....
I read something this morning that I've heard many times through my life, but seeing it in print made me think about it again today. It is this:
IT IS BETTER TO ASK FORGIVENESS THAN PERMISSION.
May I be bold? I frankly think that this statement is, well, trash.
It is not better to ask forgiveness rather than ask permission. That statement itself implies willful deceipt. Perhaps this statement is spoken by someone with a desire to do something where they know that permission will be denied. Added to that, perhaps this person is quite secure in the knowledge that when all is said and done, forgiveness will be extended.
Paul himself addresses this concept in Romans 6. "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" (Romans 6:15) In other words, shall we go ahead and do what we want just because we know we will be forgiven? What nonsense! What an abuse of the grace that God, in His infinite love for us, has extended!
More even than just the utter insult to God's grace this concept supplies, Paul goes on to make it clear that these kind of decisions will only lead us back into a life of slavery - the life from which our salvation has set us free. "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16)
We have a choice. Either choice involves slavery, but to which would you rather be a slave? Sin, and all the eternal conequences that it affords? Or obedience to the Most High God, and all the blessings that it promises? I hope we all choose the latter, and have the opportunity to feel that Paul is speaking directly to us when he says, "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." (Romans 6:17-18)
Ironically, choosing obedience - what many in the world think is chaining ourselves to religion and actually losing any sense of personal freedom, is actually the only true way to experience true freedom.
"I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 3:19-23)
I choose freedom. I choose holiness. I choose eternal life. Sometimes I must choose them daily or hourly, time and time again. But true freedom is what I want.
What do you want?
I read something this morning that I've heard many times through my life, but seeing it in print made me think about it again today. It is this:
IT IS BETTER TO ASK FORGIVENESS THAN PERMISSION.
May I be bold? I frankly think that this statement is, well, trash.
It is not better to ask forgiveness rather than ask permission. That statement itself implies willful deceipt. Perhaps this statement is spoken by someone with a desire to do something where they know that permission will be denied. Added to that, perhaps this person is quite secure in the knowledge that when all is said and done, forgiveness will be extended.
Paul himself addresses this concept in Romans 6. "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" (Romans 6:15) In other words, shall we go ahead and do what we want just because we know we will be forgiven? What nonsense! What an abuse of the grace that God, in His infinite love for us, has extended!
More even than just the utter insult to God's grace this concept supplies, Paul goes on to make it clear that these kind of decisions will only lead us back into a life of slavery - the life from which our salvation has set us free. "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16)
We have a choice. Either choice involves slavery, but to which would you rather be a slave? Sin, and all the eternal conequences that it affords? Or obedience to the Most High God, and all the blessings that it promises? I hope we all choose the latter, and have the opportunity to feel that Paul is speaking directly to us when he says, "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." (Romans 6:17-18)
Ironically, choosing obedience - what many in the world think is chaining ourselves to religion and actually losing any sense of personal freedom, is actually the only true way to experience true freedom.
"I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 3:19-23)
I choose freedom. I choose holiness. I choose eternal life. Sometimes I must choose them daily or hourly, time and time again. But true freedom is what I want.
What do you want?
