You’re Free to Blow Some Stuff Up

I love the Fourth of July. Any day that encourages the trifecta of grilled meat-product consumption, explosives, and freedom gets my vote for a definite day of celebration.

But in all seriousness, as Americans we revere those who have defended our country’s freedom and we give thanks.

So celebrate. Eat some grilled meat. Blow some stuff up. Just know that while you enjoy political and social freedom, you are not ultimately free. In fact, you are a slave to yourself, and left to yourself you will choose sin.

Sin’s Bound to Happen

Don’t believe me? Then try to go a single day without sinning and let me know how it goes.

We’ve got a serious problem on our hands. If we’re unable to stop our sinning because our wills are enslaved to sin, how will we ever be able to stand before a holy and righteous God? Maybe God will outweigh our good and bad motives and give us a pass?

Nope, Romans 3 says there is none righteous, not even one. So how is coming to terms with our bound will good news?

If you are a Christian today, you have been set free from the bondage of sin and death. 

Every Christian Is a Walking Miracle

Here’s how it happens: once we realize that we’re spiritually dead and have nothing in ourselves to offer God, then we begin to see that everyone who has been called of God and loves him is a walking miracle!

There has been much ink spilled on the subject of the bound will within church history and I’m not likely to change anyone’s mind of the subject with a short blog post. But know this: if you are a Christian today, you have been set free from the bondage of sin and death. Whoever the Son sets free is free indeed, and that is something worth celebrating!

Read Ephesians 2:1–10 today and thank God for setting you free in Jesus.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

For more on this topic, check out Dr. Rod Rosenbladt’s special presentation “The Good News That Our Wills Are Bound.”