Freedom

WHY CHRISTMAS? Series: Freedom.

Gift giving is the most significant event that happens during Christmas season. In Bethlehem, in the first Christmas, gift giving was also done.

In the birth of Christ, Magi came to visit him and offer their gifts of gold, frankincense (a gift given to acknowledge deity) and myrrh (symbolizing that the present King will give up His life to save His people).

History recalls that the Jews suffered so much affliction that they anticipated the coming of the mighty King, a royalty, who would redeem them from their suffering. Jesus Christ, unlike how the Jews expected, was born quietly in Bethlehem with only hay for His bed, and among commoners such as the shepherds and magi.

“But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him” 1 John 3:5-6.

“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins'" Matthew 1:20-21.

Jesus was the most significant gift that was given in Bethlehem. He was God’s gift to us so that when we accept Him as Lord and Savior, we have the gift of Freedom. In Him, we have freedom from sin (John 8:36), freedom from bondages of destructive habits (Romans 12:2) and the freedom from the consequences of sin: guilt, fear, shame, bitterness and offenses (Romans 6:23). We now have the freedom to live a full life.

FREEDOM WE HAVE IN CHRIST:

1. Freedom to believe. With Christ, we have the freedom to believe for His will in our lives.
   

   “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will” Romans 12:2.

2. Freedom to give. We give because He gave first (1 John 4:19).
   

   “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" Luke 6:38.

3. Freedom to live. With Jesus, we have the freedom to live an abundant life. With Christ, in whatever circumstances we are in, we have peace.
   

   “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” Romans 5:17.

JESUS CAME TO SET US FREE. Our relationship with God is not about the do's and don’ts but about the freedom with Jesus Christ on the basis of the blood He shed on the cross. We are free to live lives pleasing to Him.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” Romans 8:1-2.**