by Tim Isbell, February 2017, revised in 2025 to add more scriptural support for doing the redemptive thing in every situation.
"Freedom in Christ” sounds strange to many who think the Christian life is primarily about keeping detailed rules.
Most Christians understand they are free from the eternal consequences of their past sins. But few realize that there is more freedom than that! I first began thinking about this post while reading The Go-Between God by John V. Taylor. Today, my understanding of freedom in Christ goes like this:
As we grow as sons and daughters in God's family, the Spirit of Jesus (our "elder brother") begins teaching us to respond redemptively to every unforeseeable, concrete moment, regardless of what we see in the details of the Law. The gospels describe Jesus living this way, unbound by the rules of religious experts. The New Testament describes several instances in which Jesus demonstrated this freedom, which helps us navigate choices between undesirable options. Eventually, as we follow Jesus, we live more out of our relationship with Jesus than according to the Law. In such times, we keep the essence of the Law without focusing on it with tunnel vision.
So why did God give us the Law in the first place? Because the Law protects us until the Spirit has time to bring us to a deeper relationship with Jesus.
Taylor's book is very helpful at a conceptual level, but doesn't explicitly link to scripture. So I made a mental note to make that link. One Sunday morning, our Pastor Chris Hoch read this scripture: "The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith" (Galatians 3:24, NIV). I immediately scribbled a reminder on a scrap of paper to take a closer look. Subsequently, I read Galatians in The Message and was shocked at how thoroughly Saint Paul describes our freedom in Christ. See especially Galatians 3:23-27; 4:4-7; 5:4-6, 16-18. Saint Paul writes about these things in other places as well, such as Romans 3:19-22, Romans 7:4-13, 14-25 (Note the change to the present tense, indicating that this is Paul describing himself after his conversion), and throughout Romans 8:1-17 and 2 Corinthians 3:4-6.
And here are several more scriptures that teach us the wisdom of doing the redemptive thing in every situation: Matthew 5:38-48, Luke 6:27-36, Romans 5:8, Romans 12:17-21, 1 Peter 3:8-9.
A couple of weeks later, Pastor Chris read an example of Jesus living out this freedom from Matthew 12:1-14. I sensed that God was providing me with a perfect example of Jesus living exactly the way Saint Paul described in Galatians and in precisely the way Taylor unpacked in chapter 8 of his book.
But one thing was missing before I could create a web page to communicate this concept. I needed a contemporary example. So, here it is:
Decades ago, I was a layperson in a local church where I met with the young pastor weekly to discuss various ministry issues. One morning, he asked for advice on how to respond to a young couple whose wedding he would officiate nine months later. The previous weekend, they told the pastor they were trying to live as Christians, but most weekends, they found themselves renting a motel room. So they asked the pastor to marry them before the next weekend and keep it a secret from their families until their church wedding.
After some bumbling and not enough prayer, I responded that I didn't think it was wise to agree to their request. The pastor agreed and soon responded to them. We almost lost them to the church, but fortunately, they stayed. Still, I remained troubled by my own advice.
A couple of years later, Dr. Clari Kinzler and his wife happened to visit Robin and me in our home. Clari was our District Superintendent (our tradition's version of a bishop). At one point, I described the advice I had given our pastor and asked Clari for any wisdom he could share. He responded that it depends on the circumstances. For instance, sometimes the couple is not mature enough to delay short-term pleasure for the long-term good in any area of their life. In such cases, it might be appropriate to marry them immediately, keep it quiet, and do the church wedding later. Then he said something to the effect, "Whenever you are confronted with a decision like this, after some prayer, you are free to do the most redemptive thing you can think of. The church will be okay with this." I was shocked by his grace and have treasured it ever since. Essentially, he was saying that there's a higher Law - to do the redemptive thing at every crossroads. There we find refreshing freedom.
Several years later, I was a pastor, and Clari was still our District Superintendent. This time, I was working with a couple who were on the path to marriage and already living together. Along the way, they became Christians and decided to join the church. In my membership class, they discovered that we expect members to live celibate outside of marriage. Immediately after the class, they came to me and said, "We need to talk." So we set a time that week.
I phoned Clari for a refresher on his advice, and he asked for my assessment of this couple's level of maturity. I responded that their lives demonstrate high maturity in business and other areas, but not so much in their Christian living. Clari replied something like, "Maybe this is a case where you need to help them understand how Christians live." Immediately, I knew he was right. So, I made some notes to guide the conversation and met with the couple. They took it remarkably well, adjusted their lifestyle, and I officiated at their wedding eight months later. I refined the notes that I used with this couple and still use them in pre-marriage counseling. Eventually, I posted them here: Premarriage Sexuality.
God uses rules to lead us and protect us as we move into an intimate relationship with Jesus that frees us from slavery to those very rules. This freedom even guides us when we must decide between two evil options.
Here's one final observation: These freedoms in Christ are simply not available anywhere except within a deep, personal relationship with the Jesus of the Bible.
Blessings,
Tim
Notes:
Premarriage Sexuality is one of several tools that I've packaged within Advice for Couples.
John Calhoun, our next District Superintendent, recently recommended John V. Taylor's book, The Go-Between God. After reading it, John and I processed its material in a series of long phone calls. That, along with substantial conversations with my long-term spiritual friend George Larson. led to my Notes on The Go-Between God.
For more on these concepts, check out Beyond Conversion - 1.