We have freedom as believers in Jesus Christ, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! Let’s jump in today and soak in all this freedom!
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Transcription:
If you’ve ever seen the movie Braveheart, you’ll recognize these words. I won’t say them as powerfully as Mel Gibson, but they are powerful.
“You can take our lives, but you can never take away our freedom.”
Remember all that war paint on his face, and you know what? It’s the same with us as believers in Jesus Christ. Our lives can be taken, but the freedom that God has given us through his son Jesus Christ cannot be taken. I’m so glad you’re here. My name is Erica. This is the Bible for Busy People. We are on episode three of our new series, Free Indeed. You and I are not just free. We’re free indeed. The apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter three, verse 17,
For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
You and I have been studying the past couple of weeks that the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead is alive in us. That Spirit is in us, which means we are free wherever we go. We can be free inside a jail cell. That’s how it works. But that gem of a verse is hidden in the mind of 2 Corinthians three, and we’re going to explore it. But first, in preparation for our journey through that mind, we’re going to make a stop in Exodus chapter 34, join me and Moses on the mountain, verse eight now, in Exodus 34.
Moses was up on the mountain with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. In all that time, he neither ate nor drank. At that time, he wrote the terms of the covenant, the 10 commandments on the stone tablets. When Moses came down the mountain carrying the stone tablets, inscribed with the terms of the covenant, he wasn’t aware that his face glowed because he had spoken to the Lord face to face. And when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses’s face, they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them and asked Aaron and the community leaders to come over and talk with him. Then all the people came and Moses gave them the instructions the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he removed the veil until he came out again. Then he would give the people whatever instructions the Lord had given him, and the people would see his face a glow. Afterward, he would put the veil on again until he returned to speak with the Lord.
The people were afraid. God’s brightness, his holiness scared them because we as human beings know that we are so imperfect. We feel so unholy at times, but this is why Christ came. So join me now in 2 Corinthians chapter three, beginning in verse two. We are going to be reading the Message version today of the Bible.
Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it. 4-6 We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this—that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation. We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit.
The Apostle Paul, by the way here, is referring to the law, the commandments that God gave to Moses.
It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives! 7-8 The Government of Death, its constitution chiseled on stone tablets, had a dazzling inaugural. Moses’ face as he delivered the tablets was so bright that day (even though it would fade soon enough) that the people of Israel could no more look right at him than stare into the sun. How much more dazzling, then, the Government of Living Spirit? 9-11 If the Government of Condemnation was impressive, how about this Government of Affirmation? Bright as that old government was, it would look downright dull alongside this new one. If that makeshift arrangement impressed us, how much more this brightly shining government installed for eternity? 12-15 With that kind of hope to excite us, nothing holds us back. Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide. Everything is out in the open with us. He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn’t notice that the glory was fading away—and they didn’t notice. They didn’t notice it then and they don’t notice it now, don’t notice that there’s nothing left behind that veil. Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can’t see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there’s nothing there.16-18 Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
The veil is gone. There is now nothing between us and God, no barrier. Jesus came to break down that barrier when he died on the cross for your sins and mine. I want to point you to Matthew chapter 27, verses 50 and 51. After Jesus had died on the cross, do you remember what happened? Matthew’s going to tell us now?
Then Jesus shouted out again,
From the cross.
and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
That was significant along with the earthquake that happened after that, because it was God saying, the way has been open. You are free. There is nothing between us. Come to me. His arms were open wide on the cross, and they remain open wide to receive you. You are free and you are loved.
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