Free Born part 2

Written by Don Byrd

There can be no liberty aside from the grace of God.


“For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear; but
ye have received the Spirit of adop-
tion, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”
(Romans 8:15). What is the spirit of
bondage? Israel was in bondage in
Egypt for four hundred years. It is
obvious that if a child was born to
an Israelite in Egypt they were born
into slavery. One of the traits of the
flesh is to find a way to make itself
comfortable even under the most
adverse circumstances. It is not
an unreasonable thing to attempt
to live without causing any undue
burdens upon one’s self. The Isra-
elites learned how to please their
taskmasters by obeying every wish
and command given to them, thus
alleviating any discomfort.

What
they did was learn how to be good
slaves. They found ways to please
their taskmasters and this obedi-
ence to their taskmaster alleviated
any undue burdens. Their lives were in the hands of the Egyptians, so the thing to do was keep them
happy. It was not something they
wanted to do to please themselves,
but to please their taskmasters. This
condition for Israel lasted four hun-
dred years while in Egypt.
“And the children of Israel said unto
them, Would to God we had died by
the hand of the LORD in the land of
Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots,
and when we did eat bread to the
full; for ye have brought us forth into
this wilderness, to kill this whole as-
sembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:3).
This became the spirit of the Isra-
elites who were previously under
bondage in Egypt. The way to make
it easy on yourself is to please your
taskmaster; keep them happy and
things will be much easier. Within
a matter of a just a few days, of be-
ing liberated from Egypt, they be-
came dissatisfied with living in the
desert. Many cried out to go back to
Egypt, that life in Egypt was not as
cruel as living in the desert because
they had learned how to please
their taskmasters and thus making
it easy on themselves.

It is obvious that something was
wrong, but most did not realize
what. Israel was now in the des-
sert and was very unhappy with
the conditions. How do they make
things better? They do whatever
their taskmaster wants and when
he is happy their lives will be eas-
ier and better.
Now they are not under Egyptian taskmasters, but
are totally under God’s care. What
they need to do is find out what He
wants them to do and obey it and
their lives will be much easier. In
other words, God became their new
taskmaster in the wilderness. This
was the spirit of bondage that was
developed in them and followed
them out of Egypt.

This same principle has entered
into Christianity because of the
commingling of law and grace as
preached by preachers. Most Chris-
tians think that the born-again be-
liever must be obedient to the law,
its statutes, commands, and pre-
cepts. This is nothing more than
what Israel did while in bondage in
Egypt. Most Christians think that
they must obey the law. God is not
our taskmaster demanding obedi-
ence to laws, statutes, precepts, or
commands! However, this kind of
thinking is due to a lack of under-
standing of the realm of the eter-
nal work of the cross and its grace.

Grace provides a freeborn birth-
ing from God our Father through
“Christ in you” both now and for-
evermore. Born again believers
need to begin to live life on earth
through this “free born” grace prin-
ciple. All things to all men but only
one thing to our Father—we are His
free born sons!

Interesting yet God is not a cruel task master cos he gives us the freedom, through Jesus to obey but if we disobey, we just dont receive the blessings, but we can actually forgiven when we disobey. The Hebrews didnt have that kind of forgiveness when slaving under Pharaoh and they didnt truly understand Gods mercy and loving kindness when they were freed.

Of course life is easier and simpler if we do obey, but God asks us to do more than simply obey out of fear as a slave would its master but its to trust Him, and obey out of love because Hes our Father. This is why he calls us sons (and daughters) and not servants or slaves or maids. We are family, so we are treated as such. We are invited to sup with Him and arent relegated to the back kitchen...we can boldly go the the throne of Grace, we dont have to go to the back entrance. We also dont need to bribe God with offerings to win favour as Jesus already paid for us. We can access God freely and talk to Him like a friend.

Interestingly if Isaac had not be born Eleazar, abrahams servant would have been set to inherit all of Abrahams wealth, as having no heir, its usually the servants expecting if they please their masters and are loyal to them, they become family. I dont know what happened to eleazar after Isaac was born and certainly Hagar, their maid was not treated well but she actually became family in a way too at sarahs behest when she gave birth to Ishmael.

There is certianly something that happens with slaves or servants if serving faithfully for more than seven years the owner has an opporunity to redeem the servant and officially adopt them into the family, and they are no longer a slave, but many become brothers and sisters and serve willingly rather than because they had to out of duty. Am sure Levitivus speaks of this. And so when Jesus says to his disicples I no longer call you servants thats a big thing, they become friends.

No the implication is He becomes the new taskmaster. On another note, what are your thoughts on the way He handles those of the O.T. Think He may be making a point.

Well in the OT they come out of bondage to Egypt, and then Moses brings them to mt sinai where they are given the law but these are a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. I wouldnt say taskmaster. Just to be clear on that its not the bondage of slavery all over again, its more a teaching or school to get the israelites to learn how to be holy. It not easy though its disciplinary.

When Jesus comes, he actually sends the holy spirit to dwell in believers, so that all those laws arent merely written down and followed, they are placed in believers hearts. And believers arent merely serving out of duty anymore, no longer mere disciples they become adopted sons and daughters. So God becomes for believers not just God but also Father.