“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve on another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
Galatians 5:13–17 (ESV)

This is one of my favorite things about the Christian faith. Freedom. This isn’t about patriotism or bald eagles or fireworks. For once, the television preachers are right (kind of): God wants you to be the best version of yourself.

Don’t be mistaken; Osteen and I are not saying the same things when I say that. I’m not plugging prosperity preaching — though God does want well for you eternally — and I’m not trying to teach self-empowerment or works. What I’m trying to say is that human nature is not how it was intended to be. Mankind is bent. And we have a great Ironworker to unbend us without breaking us. The Restorer of Naturalness. The Physician. Jesus Christ.

Bent

At mankind’s very beginning, we were intentionally designed for a purpose, best articulated in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Our nature was unmarred by sin and we dwelled in unbroken communion with God. Our deepest pleasures were also our greatest God-glorifying acts. Obedience, dependence, and fruitful labor were the overflow of a life of worship.
But now all of those things feel like burdens. Now obedience is outdated and annoying, dependence on God makes us feel weak and cuts us down to size, and our labor feels fruitless (if we even choose to labor at all). What gives?

Whether or not you feel like it’s fair, we can’t do anything about this. We inherited this nature, called sin. We’ve gotten so far off track. Just compare these two different verses in Genesis:

When God created Adam, He made him in the image of God. After the Fall, discussed in Genesis 3, this image was distorted. It wasn’t completely broken; we still maintain our being and are still distinctly created in the image of God, but things changed. Some characteristics are now distinctly human. We’re sinners now, even before we commit any sins. In fact, we are not necessarily sinners because we sin. We sin because we’re sinners.

The way I’ve heard it described is like a watermark overlaid on a picture. The original photo isn’t altered in its entirety, and you can certainly tell what the original picture was. Nobody likes a watermark. They’re just glaring “parts” of photos that can’t be altered, or even touched up, unless you purchase the rights to the photo.

The same goes for sin. It hides some of the most important, central parts of who we are. It blurs the picture. And there’s only one thing that can remove sin’s watermark — a purchase.

The Ironworker

Lucky for us, we’ve got Someone who can unbend us. He’s in the business of restoring souls. His name is Jesus.
Back before we were ever bent, God decided He wanted to purchase the rights to His childrens’ school photos. He didn’t need to look over the proofs first, though He knew what they looked like. He didn’t have to see if the photo would look good on a mantle, though He knew that one day we would be conformed to the image of Christ. Instead, He freely chose to purchase us. And the Word came down in flesh to finalize the transaction.

This truth has been celebrated throughout the church’s worship over time:

• “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood.”
• “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains!”
• “Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; he, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood.”
• “What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
• “Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. For every sin on Him was laid — here in the death of Christ, I live.”
• “Come behold the wondrous mystery, slain by death the God of life. But no grave could ever restrain Him, praise the Lord, He is alive!”

The blood of Christ seals our hearts, sparing us from the righteous wrath of God. What a Savior! Now we can be unbent; there is an Ironworker who is qualified to mold us!

Living Freely

Here’s where a lot of people begin to have a misconception about following Jesus. They usually fall into one of the following two camps:

• A lot of people think that Christianity is a bunch of rules outlined by the Bible and that God doesn’t want us to be happy. They couldn’t miss the mark more. Instead, Christ came to die so that we might have life abundantly. Now, the Spirit guides us in truth as we seek His desires. When we live according to the Spirit instead of the flesh, we no longer have to submit to a yoke a slavery to sin — we’re free to live unbounded, unchained! Where else can some other person’s work allow you to confidently live freely?
  Your job will never make you enough money.
  Your sex will never be satisfying enough.
  Your alcohol will feel weaker and your drugs will become less interesting to you.
  You will never get enough Instagram likes.
  You’ll never be able to get a big enough fanbase.
  Your business venture will eventually fail.
  Your car will get old.
  Your eyesight will fail and you’ll have to quit your line of work.
  If it isn’t your eyes it could be your ears, hands, or legs.
  Your body will never be cookie-cutter enough.
  These things (Paul calls them “transient” in 2 Corinthians) will never satisfy.
  But Christ will. And once He does, all of the things I just listed come alive, bringing you more joy under the umbrella of God’s providence than they could have ever offered on their own.
• Many people get a taste of Christian freedom forget about Paul’s warning: we must avoid using our freedom to gratify the flesh. I know many, many young guys who abuse the Christian freedom to drink alcohol responsibly. They seem to think that they can throw everything God says about wisdom, discernment, and watchfully making sure you are not offending your brothers and sisters in Christ out the window. I know many people who think that Christian freedom gives you license to let unwholesome and corruptible talk come out of their mouths. It’s unfortunate. Christ wants us to live freely, but that doesn’t give us freedom to commit sin. As Jesus said in his teaching, he came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). Let us not forget that indulgence in anything without indulging in grace is gluttony and it’s idolatrous. This is especially safeguarded by accountability — having close, sanctification-seeking friends around to keep your balance in check. God delights in balance (Prov. 11:1). Don’t abuse your freedom.

God sent His Son so that we may have the chance to live as ourselves, not as a broken being. God sent His Son to unbend us. God wants things to be natural again, as they were in Eden and as they will be one day when Christ returns to bring His people home.

God doesn’t want to destroy you. God doesn’t want to check your name off a list and forget about you. God doesn’t want you to feel broken. God wants to restore you. God wants you to be yourself.

But there’s only one way to be restored: through His Son, the source of our hope in God’s promises.