by Carey Scott<\/p>\n
“So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free<\/em>” (Malachi 3:15).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The sad situation in Malachi presents an attitude that many people today hang on to.\u00a0 The people were tired of being restrained in their behavior by the dictates and laws of God.\u00a0 Once they removed themselves from the restraints of God’s law, they felt the freedom to do as they please.\u00a0 It is not much different today.\u00a0 People do not like restraints and will seek any means to be free from such restraints.<\/p>\n
That is why many people reject Jesus Christ and His commandments.\u00a0 In order to receive the blessings of Christ and God, one must submit to God’s commandments.\u00a0 It is a matter of restraining oneself in service to God.\u00a0 As Jesus prayed: “not My will, but Thy will.”<\/p>\n
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness<\/em>” (Romans 6:20).\u00a0 As we say, when one continues in sin, they are not bound to the rules of God concerning righteousness.\u00a0 Many people make up their own rules concerning what they consider right from wrong.\u00a0 Yet our judge is not ourselves or men. Our final Judge will be God, and God is not going to use the rule books we make for ourselves.\u00a0 God will use the Bible to judge us.\u00a0 The words of Jesus will judge us as we read in John 12:48.<\/p>\n
So, what does Jesus mean when He says, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free<\/em>” (John 8:32)?\u00a0 The freedom Jesus is talking about is freedom from the bonds of sin.\u00a0 One of the things that sin does is restrain us from reaching out to God.\u00a0 Sin keeps us in bondage so that we will not want to leave it.\u00a0 Sin gets a hold of us, and does not want to let go.\u00a0 And as much as we may want to get away from sin, we cannot do so on our own.\u00a0 The worst thing is that sin will drag us down to Hell.\u00a0 While we do have to make the effort to leave sin, we must realize that without Jesus it is impossible.\u00a0 We must believe that Jesus paid the penalty of our sin, which the bible tells us “the wages of sin is death<\/em>” (Romans 6:23).\u00a0 It is through obedience to God’s commands that we can access the one thing that can cleanse us from our sins.\u00a0 The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (I John 1:7).\u00a0 We access that blood in baptism.\u00a0 Acts 22:16 tells us that baptism washes away our sins.\u00a0 So since only the blood of Jesus can wash away sins, our baptism is what contacts that blood for us.\u00a0 There is no salvation available to mankind before baptism.<\/p>\n
Freedom works both ways.\u00a0 For those who want to be free from sin, turn to God and Christ, obey Their commands, and live faithfully all their lives.\u00a0 For those who want to be free from the restraints of righteousness, just start sinning and continue sinning.\u00a0 While some people think they can do some righteousness and get away with sin, or think that some righteousness will make up for the sin, they are wrong.\u00a0 Any un-repented of sin will keep one out of Heaven.<\/p>\n
To have true freedom in Christ, one must totally subject themselves to God and be diligent to keep as many laws of God as possible, relying upon His grace to make up for what we lack in ourselves.<\/p>\n
Do you want to be free from sin?\u00a0 Come visit with us and let us show you God’s remedy for this problem.\u00a0 We will teach you what the Bible teaches, and will not rely upon the made-up laws of men.<\/p>\n
God is not willing for any to lose their soul, so He made it possible for us to avoid hell.\u00a0 However, in order to avoid hell, we must believe in Christ as the son of God. \u00a0We must repent, which means to change the course of our lives and turn towards following God. We must be willing to confess our allegiance to Christ and be willing to stand up for Him always, and we must be baptized for the remission of our sins.\u00a0 That will begin our Christian journey through life in which we will need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Carey Scott “So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free” (Malachi 3:15). The sad situation in Malachi presents an attitude that many people today hang on to.\u00a0 The people were tired of being restrained in their behavior by the dictates…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[790,179,441],"class_list":["post-50261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-freedom","tag-sin","tag-truth"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56318,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/freedom-through-gods-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":50261,"position":0},"title":"Freedom Through God’s Law","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Charles N. Spence, Jr. God had always wanted His people to be free. However, most people today have a radically different idea of freedom than God's. Many in the world today look at freedom as the uninhibited right to do what they want to do. We can see this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32630,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/freedom-in-christ-a-biblical-look-at-tithing\/","url_meta":{"origin":50261,"position":1},"title":"Freedom in Christ: A Biblical Look at Tithing","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ajayi Samuel Ojeva \"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of bondage\" (Galatians 5:1). Men cherish freedom in every way. However, man is often led from freedom to bondage unaware. Men have been under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49546,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-freedom-of-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":50261,"position":2},"title":"The Freedom of Truth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: John 8:30-59 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many began to believe on Jesus - John 8:30-31 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus said that if they would live in the words of Jesus, then they would truly be his disciples - John 8:32 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Obedience to his teaching would cause them to know the truth.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4927,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-spanking-sexually-stimulating-to-most-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":50261,"position":3},"title":"Isn’t spanking sexually stimulating to most people?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I hate to tell you this, but spanking is sexual to most people and spanking bring on sexually feelings of a perverted matter later in life. If you don't believe me, I am living proof. Answer: You've drawn a false conclusion based on incidental evidence. The reason people conduct\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85515,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-a-standard-for-our-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":50261,"position":4},"title":"Is There a Standard for Our Worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dave Hart How shall we decide what should and should not be a part of our worship? A quick look at the religious world reveals many distinct worship practices and customs. Some hold that the activity of worship is not as important as the attitude of worship. Others maintain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88417,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-meaning-of-freedom\/","url_meta":{"origin":50261,"position":5},"title":"The Meaning of Freedom","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Freedom has long been a cherished ideal, and people typically are willing to pay a high price for its benefits. We celebrate freedom in many ways-through memorials, cookouts, music, fireworks, and other traditions. People have lived and died for freedom, and this should certainly be appreciated; we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}