24th Apr 26 | 05:42
Daily Study
No more bondage
Acts 15 - Series 2/Episode 18 - Fri, 24th Apr 2026 - No more bondage - Acts 15:22-35 - THE ANNOUNCEMENT - Romans 08:01-02
Acts 15:28-29 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: (29) that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.
The Jerusalem Council was emphasising to the churches and Gentile believers the importance of the freedom that we have in Christ.
When we come to Christ, we experience a strange freedom. When I was away from Christ, I thought, desired and did whatever I wanted to do, because I thought that this was freedom. Yet, what I thought was freedom brought me to bondage. Sin, in various forms, became my ruler. The devil was controlling and pushing me further and further into slavery to sin.
When man sinned against God, mankind died. Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
We were once alive in God, but now, by rejecting and rebelling against God, we have died. Sin brought death on us. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Death was total and comprehensive. We died in our relationship with God. We died within ourselves, and so we were not rightly related to ourselves. We died in our relationships with others, which is the basis of society and community. We also died in our relationship with creation and the environment. We were, as a community, created to be the rulers of God's creation in the image of God. This was freedom, but we lost it and came to the state of death. Now, we are in the total bondage of death. The whole of society, community, nations and creation is languishing in a state of chaos, darkness and death.
There are sparks and beacons of light in different places. This is because some have come out of darkness into the light of God, who are living and excelling in the light of God. Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, When we came to Christ, we came into freedom.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
We were once in a state of condemnation, for we were not able to do good, though we desired to do that which was good. Romans 7:22-23 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. (23) But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. We came under the law of sin and death.
Condemnation has come on us, however much we may try to do good. This is our predicament, but it is out of this condemnation that Jesus Christ set us free.
Yes, Jesus Christ took away the condemnation from us when we place our faith in Jesus. Romans 3:24-26 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (25) whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, (26) to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
We are declared just, and God remains just in justifying us before Him because of our faith in Jesus. This is an awesome freedom that God gives us by His grace.
As we have received this freedom in Christ, we must walk in this freedom in Christ and not go back to the slavery of sin. Romans 6:6-7 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (7) For he who has died has been freed from sin. / I Peter 2:16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.
We choose to be the Doulos of Jesus Christ. In our being bond servants of Jesus, we are free. This is an amazing paradox. Romans 6:22 But *now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God*, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. It is now the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that is operating in us. This law of the Spirit has set us free from the old law of bondage to sin.
This is the freedom that Gentile believers were being encouraged to enjoy, not return to bondage.