The Freedom Recipe

Americans adore freedom—we fight for it, argue about it, defend it and won’t let anyone stand in the way of realizing it. If there were a freedom flavor ice cream, it would be an instant hit! The premise of this country is freedom, and thousands of men and women risked their lives keeping it that way.
But what is freedom? What does it mean to be free? Like other abstract concepts, freedom can mean many things to many people. Since we’re fans of the truth, let’s take a look at what Scripture says about it:
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free…if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.’
This familiar passage reveals God’s heart regarding freedom.
Let’s first take a look at what freedom is not. Then we’ll wrap our minds around what it is.
Freedom is not the absence of rules. Many people erroneously believe that freedom arrives when rules leave. Rules and expectations hinder our inner freedom from being fully expressed.
That line of thinking misses the mark entirely. We were created to abide by rules. Doesn’t sound fun, but it’s true. God created the universe and everything in it, including us. He brought order from chaos, time from timelessness, and a system from disorder. He gave everything a time, place, purpose and function. He established a rhythm for the universe and provided everyone with a role in it.
Everything works best when it thrives in the order God designed it for. Chaos begins when people begin operating outside of the natural order.
Freedom is not the absence of rules or regulations. God designed the entire universe to operate within the confines of rules and rhythms! We, as created beings, have no more right to pursue freedom outside our ordained confines than a car owner can tell its designer how he thinks it can best function.
Freedom is not the absence of absolutes. Relative truth-ists (or so I  call them) advocate no absolute truth exists—no right or wrong, only what people individually believe to be true. Under this logic, a man can attack and rape a young woman without consequence because it felt right to him. Enough said.
Freedom is not the absence of rules or absolutes. True freedom is realized when we come to an understanding of who we are in the Gospel.
Jesus reveals the recipe for freedom:

1. Continuing in His Word, which leads to
2. Being His true disciples, which causes us to
3. Know the truth, which
4. Sets us free

It all begins and ends with Jesus and His Gospel.
Continuing in His Word means to saturate ourselves in His truth. Think hot tub here—saturating yourself in the therapeutic water until your fingers turn pruny. The more we’re in the Word, the more His truth permeates our minds. The more our minds (intellectually and emotionally) are permeated, the more we find our identity in the truth via the Gospel. The greater or understanding of our identity in the Gospel, the freer we become.
Freedom comes when we understand what we’re being freed from—death and slavery to sin.  Rules and regulations aren’t enslaving; sin is. Christ died to free us from the one thing we could never free ourselves from. But He knew that telling it to us once wouldn’t make it a transforming reality in our lives.
Hence the aforementioned recipe. CONTINUE in His Word, BE His disciple, KNOW/find your IDENTITY in the truth, and you will be SET FREE.
Freedom is realizing practically who we are positionally in Jesus. In Jesus you’re as free as you could ever hope to be. Saturate yourself in His Word and ask Him to reveal daily who you are in Him. Be FREE.