The Free Gift – Jesus

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Leviticus 9:2 – 4

2 – And he said unto Aaron, take thee a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering without blemish and offer them before the Lord. 3 – And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, Take ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering; and calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering. 4 – Also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Lord; and a meat offering mingled with oil: for today the Lord will appear unto you.

What is the price of freedom from sin? In the Old Testament God spoke to Moses and gave Him specific instructions on the price of sin. As we just read in Leviticus, the price of sin was the blood of the animals listed, and then the Lord would appear to them. God could not come to them until the sins had been paid for with blood. Who has sinned, and who needs to make this sacrifice of blood?

Romans 3:10

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one

Can anyone do anything else to gain favor with God without paying the price of blood?

Isaiah 64:6

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

The most important words are “none” and “all”. No one ever born, is being born, or will be born will ever be righteous, and anything anyone ever does no matter how “good” or “amazing”. Do you give to a church? Not good enough. Do you save lives as a doctor, nurse, or EMT? Not good enough. Do you teach other people to stay away from drugs, a drunken lifestyle, or immoral behavior? Not good enough. Do you give everything you are, everything you ever had, all you have, and ever will have away to a good cause? Not good enough. Nothing is good enough.

Ezra 9:15

O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this.

Only Lord God of Isreal is righteous, and as we read in Leviticus, the only way to Him is through Blood. The Old Testament shows us the price that must be paid. This price is of blood, and the Lord God demanded that this be done every year. So, what changed between the Old Testament and the New Testament? Nothing changed, yet everything changed. Our sin, our wickedness still has a price that must be paid with the blood of a sacrifice.

Hebrews 9 16 – Hebrews 10

Jesus Christ became that sacrifice. In Leviticus, we read that God demanded a sacrifice that was without blemish. This is to say, that God demanded a perfect blood sacrifice.

1 Peter 2:21 – 25

21 – For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. 22 –  Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. 23 –  Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. 24 –  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 25 –  For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls

Jesus Christ, perfect, who did no sin, spoke only the pure truth and never threatened while He was threatened. Jesus Christ is the perfect Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, so that we, can become righteous through Him. Why?

John 3:16-17

16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 – For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.

As in the Old Testament, God will not appear to us, until our sins have been paid for. Must we sacrifice animals? Must we follow rituals, traditions, and rules for the Lord God to come to us or for us to go to Him? No. Jesus Christ paid it all with His death on the cross, He defeated death as He was raised up on the third day, and He now sits at the right hand of the one and only Holy God.

Jesus is the free gift – and through Him, that is TRUE FREEDOM. Freedom from sin, guilt, and shame. Free from paying the price with our own blood and death. Free from “religion”, from rituals, and from tradition.

To know Jesus Christ, The Lamb of God, The King of Kings of Kings, the Lord of Lords, is to be Truly and completely Free.

The ungodly price of “freedom”

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Acts 22:28

And the chief captain answered, “With a great sum obtained I this freedom.” And Paul said, “I was free born”.

In Acts chapter 21:27 we have a scene where the Jews saw Paul in the Temple and attacked him creating a very violent scene that drew the attention of the Romans stationed there. As he was being beaten, the Roman chief captain had his soldiers arrest Paul to try to quell what was about to turn into a mad riot and more than likely the murder of Paul. As the Roman soldiers pulled him out of the crowd it appears that the crowd forced them into a corner where the only way out was “up” a flight of stairs. Paul took advantage of that flight of stairs to face down the crowd and with the permission of the Roman chief caption, gave his testimony. His message drew so much ire from the crowd that they openly started to proclaim that Paul must be killed.

Seeing that this was only going to escalate, the Roman chief captain, brought him into a castle to be scourged and beaten. They felt that he was the instigator of this riot and they were going to punish him. As they bound him and prepared to beat him, Paul turns to the centurion in charge and lets him know that they are about to beat a Roman citizen. This was against Roman law.

The fact that the chief captain stated “With a great sum obtained I this freedom” tells us that this Roman paid a large price to reach his rank. While the Bible does not go into detail about what the price actually was, looking into the Roman culture and laws of that time, we can say that it was not a price in gold or money. We can say that this man worked hard and sacrificed quite a bit, all of his life to reach this status and rank. It is possible that this man was not a Roman citizen, and it is possible that he was paying off a form of debt in service of Rome.

When Paul states “I was free born”, it gave him instant status above this Roman captain to a level that the captain was suddenly very afraid, and immediately released him.

Paul’s words “I was free born” are so much more powerful than “With a great sum obtained I this freedom”. Paul is literally saying that there is nothing that can take away his freedom, he was born free. The captain is saying “I paid a large price to get where I am” and his actions could destroy his position.

This is a representation of our Freedom in Christ. We are born free when we are born again.

John 3:3

Jesus answered and said “Verily verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he can not see the Kingdom of God”

There is nothing that can be done against us and nothing that we can do to jeopardize our Freedom.

We are truly Free

My free Freedom

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Freedom is not free, if you are human and have an IQ above the length of a shoestring, you will know this. So why am I starting off with “My Free Freedom”.

Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning, God created heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

John 1:1-5

In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, All things were made by Him, and without Him, was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

Romans 3:9-12

As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

What does this mean? The all-powerful God that spoke all existence into existence has made Freedom, free… for me. WHY? Because in the presence of a Holy and all-powerful GOD, there is nothing that I can do that can ever match up to the price of True Freedom.

Thus, my freedom is free from anything I can ever attempt to try to earn. There is nothing, I can do to earn this Freedom. Thus, to me, it is free.. nothing I possess is can match the price.

The Price is the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

The only thing I can ever do to earn this freedom is to understand that it is free – not through anything I do, but through the love of God, and me, simply accepting this fact. My freedom in Christ, while costly, is beyond my reach in anything I do to attempt to earn it. Thus… my Freedom is Free from anything I can ever imagine doing, and is completely reliant on everything Jesus Christ did for my freedom.