Why you’re still a slave …

In thinking about my own responses to seeing that a new research report about the church is out, I’ve realized I’ve developed a habit that isn’t positive … a habit of cringing.

That really isn’t a good habit, but I’ve become so accustomed to research about the church that delivers one negative report after another, I kind of cringe hearing a new report is out.

It happened again this week.

This time it was a story reported by Christianity Today on new research conducted by Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research, a third study of the state of American theology, examining 34 beliefs. The headline itself gave a hint that the news regarding the church and theology wouldn’t be good. The banner above the story was, “Christian, What Do You Believe? Probably a Heresy About Jesus, Says Survey.” You can read the appalling news for yourself here.

If you do read the story, you’ll find so many in the church don’t believe basic tenets of the Christian faith, and do believe falsehoods, even outright heresies.

It’s enough to make you cringe.

But is it really surprising, especially considering the average Christian doesn’t crack open their own Bibles outside of a Sunday morning church service?

All of this is an important setting of context to address another issue in the church – many professing to be Christian who say they don’t feel like they’re experiencing the “freedom” Jesus said His followers would have; that they feel as much a slave to sin, to fear, to anxieties as they ever have.

Maybe the reason such people are still slaves is because they don’t believe the truth.

In order to have freedom — real freedom as can be experienced only through a relationship with Jesus Christ — requires both the Jesus Way and the truth, which comes only through Christ:

“Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me,'” John 14:6.

“Jesus said to the people who believed in him, ‘You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” John 8:31-32.

If you insist on rejecting the truth of God’s Word for your own opinion and desires, and if you insist on believing falsehoods about Jesus even to the point of heresies, then you cannot expect the power of God in your lives, and the freedom that Jesus promised to those who are truly His disciples.

If you refuse the truth, you’ll remain a slave to sin; if you believe the truth that is Christ and remain faithful to His teachings, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Have you done that? Or are you still a slave?

Scotty