Full Redemption
When we say that Jesus saves, exactly what does He save us from? The most common answer is that Jesus saves us from the penalty of sin, so that we can go to heaven when we die. This is true, but it is incomplete.
Our salvation is pictured for us in the Old Testament. It is not enough to just tell people what you want to say, you need to show them. Jesus’ death on the cross is pictured in the Old Testament by the lamb that was slain to protect the Israelites from the judgment of death when they were in Egypt
But there was more. This freedom from death also led them to become free from Egypt
The question can be asked then: in what sense are people today in bondage that they need to be set free?
A dog on a leash may be content with its little walks with its master, but it doesn’t realize it is in bondage until it wants to run across the street with the other dogs. Many people may seem content with their lives and are not aware of being in bondage until they see places they want to go and realize they can’t go there.
The best picture of this in the Bible may be in Galatians 5:13-25. In the passage Paul has two lists of human characteristics: one he calls the works of the flesh, the other the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit shows us what our lives would look like if God had His perfect way in them. But it is more. It shows us what our lives would look like if we were to become what we were made to be.
A boat is not experiencing true boatness, until it is in the water. A car is not being what it is meant to be sitting out in some field. It needs to be on the road. A human being will function optimally when he/she has love, joy, peace, patience, etc. flowing in their life.
By looking at the fruit of the Spirit, we can see the different ways our lives are in bondage, and then we can see how God wants to bring us out of that.
The first fruit of the Spirit is love, the ability and willingness to care deeply for others. It is not to be limited to just your own family and a few friends. Paul just said (Galatians 5:14) that the whole law is fulfilled in the one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The power of sin is being so consumed with your own life that there is little or no room for others (outside of your immediate family). You will always be thinking of your own needs.
What you love is what you value, what is important to you. If other people are important to you, you want to do something for them, something of value.
Joy is the sense of enjoying one’s life. There will always be events in life that we will not like or understand. The power of sin can cause us to question God’s love, His motives, His purposes. It can cause us to be come disappointed in God, in life, to become bitter, angry, frustrated, and sad.
Life can scare us, and we can doubt God’s willingness to help us, or at least give us the help we want.
The power of sin keeps us in a state of anxiety and fear. We would like to believe that God will come to our rescue and deliver us, but we are just as apt to think that there are good reasons why He won’t.
It can be hard sometimes to believe that God actually wants us to be happy. We need to keep looking at passages like this to remind us that it is so.
Peace is related to joy. Joy would be the sense that you are actually enjoying your life. You look forward to your day. Peace would take over when unexpected, unwanted events occur. They don’t upset you. You know your life is still on track, and these things cannot hurt you.
The power of sin will bring in fear and anger and disappointment. You feel like either God can’t be trusted or life is just too hard. God expects more from you than you can give. You’ll never get anywhere in life, at least where you were hoping to go. You need to lower your expectations and learn to be thankful for what you have. Things could be worse, but you would think it would be better since you are a Christian.
Patience is related to peace. Peace seems to refer to your general sense of life. Patience is how you deal with particulars. Life often doesn’t go as we thought it would or should, but patience takes these in stride, because you are confident of God’s loving care, protection, and guidance in your life.
The power of sin will breed disappointment, anger, frustration. There are things that you want and feel you need, and when they are not forthcoming, you’re hurt. It’s easy to sulk, withdraw, and feel sorry for yourself
A kind person is not just a nice person. A kind person extends out of himself/herself to show good to another person.
The power of sin can cause one not to see beyond one’s own problems. They may not only be too focused on their own problems, but they may often not even care about anyone else. They may see people as intrusions, interruptions, unimportant, and worse, indifferent to one’s problems.
A good person is not afraid to be honest, doesn’t worry about the politics of getting ahead. A good person will do what is right because it is right, without thinking of the cost or the inconvenience.
The power of sin wants to look at how all this will affect you in the future. What will people think or say? How will this look? How can you use this situation for its best advantage? Is it worth the price?
This next fruit is translated ‘faithfulness,’ though it is the same word translated ‘faith’ the other 21 times it appears in Galatians. If Paul had meant faithfulness, there is another unambiguous word he could have used.
So what would it mean in this context?
In this context Paul is contrasting works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. The flesh is driven by feelings, seeking out pleasurable experiences regardless of long term effects. This great need to seek comfort is determined to a great extent by our views of life: How are we doing? How are things going?
These are not questions that can be answered by our physical eyes. It takes eyes of faith to see beyond the obvious circumstances to see God at work in our lives, to see His purposes. Without that, we won’t have peace, patience, and a lot of the other fruit. Without faith one will only see the worst in life. They will expect the worst and face the future with fear.
A meek person is not a weak person, but a secure one. They don’t see life as a contest, especially against others. It’s not like we are all trying to divide up a limited number of pies. They find their peace in God, not in their bank account. They find their joy in loving and serving others rather than in the toys that they buy. They are not afraid to stop thinking about themselves so that they can think of others. They are not trying to impress other people. They know their humanness and accept it. They are comfortable with who they are.
The power of sin causes one to see life as a contest where only the strong win. This translates itself into aggressivness, self-centeredness, and disregard for others, as one feels the need to fight for one’s survival and success in the world.
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Most excesses or examples of loss of control stem from a person’s attempt to find some measure of joy or relief from their pain, whether inner or outer. The power of sin works to either cause or exacerbate human pain, so that this is the focus of your life. The behavior that we use to cope or assuage this pain can often then repeated just for its own sake, having a spirally effect.
The person who has self-control doesn’t need to find his joy or his comfort by indulging himself in things, whether food, drinking, sexual activities, drugs, partying. He already has joy and peace.
So by looking at where we need to be, we can see the things that seek to hinder us. We can call it the power of sin. And freedom from this is as much a part of our salvation as our deliverance from the penalty of sin.
The first step in getting out of this bondage is to know that God wants us to have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, all of them. Paul says that if we walk by the Spirit, we won’t fulfill the desire of the flesh (5:16) In other words, the way out of bondage is to focus on the Spirit, not on the things you want to get rid of.
It’s like sitting in your car. You notice all the things around you. But when you drive, all you see is what is ahead of you. As we fill our lives with the things of God and put our minds on that, all these other things fade from our view.
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