By Peggy Still –

What distorted ideas keep me from being free? Am I less than the free person Christ wants me to be? Dean W.R. Inge was right when he said, “Christianity promises to make men free; it never promises to make them independent.” Only through an open, honest, intimate relationship with Christ are we truly free.

How do I know that I am free? John 8:36 says, Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. The Hebrew meaning of knowing runs much deeper than theory. To know something requires the total involvement of the entire person. This is the deeper sense in which we consider how knowing the truth involves a thought process using memory, imagination, and the will. Such knowing calls into action our entire nervous system, emotions, and our physicality.

The indwelling of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection becomes the unifying factor of our total existence. The truth that sets us free is Christ Himself. We cannot discover true freedom at any independent distance from Him.

Before defecting to the United States, Whittaker Chambers (once a Soviet spy) wrote about freedom; “Freedom is a need of the soul and nothing else. It is in striving toward God that the soul strives continually after a condition of freedom. God alone is the inciter and guarantor of freedom. He is the only guarantor.

External freedom is only an aspect of interior freedom. Political freedom, as the Western world has known it, is only a political reading of the Bible. Religion and freedom are indivisible. Without freedom the soul dies. Without the soul there is no justification for freedom.”

Our freedom is assured only through God. He has granted the freedom of our soul through the sacrifice of His Son.

 

 

 

Peggy Still: Peggy currently serves as the Director of Administrative and Client Services for The Fuller Foundation in Pasadena, California. Peggy is a featured speaker in a variety of areas for women including finance, social issues and leadership. She also serves as a consultant to churches and other non-profit organizations in the areas of administration and fund-raising. Married to Mark for 33 years they have one daughter and raised two foster children. Peggy and Mark make their home in southern California.

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