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CLICK-John 8:31, 32 say, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” In verse 36 Jesus goes on to say, “If the Son therefore will make you free, you will be free indeed.” “Free indeed.” Free without question, ultimately free. Christianity is designed to set people free through the person and work of Christ, administered by the Holy Spirit, not to bind them, yet there are many people who are bound and are seemingly 
Christians. I am not talking about sinning or not sinning, but about having the freedom to function. We don’t need freedom to sin; I sinned a lot before I was ever introduced to freedom in the Lord. This freedom that is found in Jesus Christ has an amazing and positive effect on people. Every Christian that has studied the history of Christianity has run across many individuals that have expressed that wonderfully, and yet, their freedom has often become someone else’s bondage. 

 

For example, John Wesley. He was a priest in the Church of England, but felt totally bound. He sought the truth desperately and was introduced to the Moravian Christians and found freedom in the Lord through them. Likewise, he was finally free, yet the Church of England in which he was ministering was stopping him from functioning in that freedom. After some time he left and took his newfound freedom and proclaimed it in the open market with passion and conviction. As a result, he started a movement, and it was so glorious; many people found this freedom through his ministry. 

 

The Methodist Church was established, a church that proclaimed freedom; they were focused on not keeping people bound from enjoying freedom like the Anglican Church did. But over time, especially after the death of John Wesley, people would adopt the system whereby the Methodist Church operated, but no longer experience the freedoms the Lord granted. The freedom took on formality, and then the formality embraced and almost enforced bondage again. Even though there are people today in the Methodist Church that proclaim the freedom in Christ, and there are still people who find that freedom through that ministry, there are many people today that strongly embrace the truth and formality of this freedom John Wesley had but are bound. It is now a system that has “freedom” as its roots, but no freedom within it. John Wesley left the Anglican Church because they proclaimed freedom but bound people, and now the church he started does the same thing to an extent. It was never his intent to bind people—he proclaimed the gospel openly and people were set free—but today many are bound by his freedom, having the formality but not the freedom itself. It is now mostly tradition, tradition like what Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for. 

 

This could be said of many great Christians of the past. Their freedom has become someone else’s bondage. Let me illustrate this one more time. Someone discovered the truth about the security of salvation and found such great freedom in it that he proclaimed it everywhere; wanted all people to experience it. And many did and do, but some only understand that truth intellectually and embrace it to such an extent that it actually blinds them from seeing the fact that they are not even saved themselves. What was someone’s freedom is now someone else’s bondage. 

 

Men no Simon was gloriously set free from religion and enjoyed that freedom, but today there are thousands of people in bondage to the formality of his freedom. Not his fault, but theirs. Christianity was designed by God to set people free, not to live in sin. It was designed to help people function in life and have peace of mind. John Wesley found freedom in Christ and preached that openly. His ministry cannot be condemned in any shape or form. 

 

The church is great. It is God’s plan to proclaim and to structure the faith, but we must be careful that we do not just bind ourselves to someone else’s freedom. It is not the idea of faith that frees people, it is Christ through faith. There are many followers of Luther that believe and support the idea of faith, but don’t have the salvation from the Lord that is given through faith. “Faith without works is dead”

CLICK-James 2:20 The idea of faith, or the support for the truth about faith, does nothing; faith requires a personal response to God for it to function. There are many that philosophically support faith, and it is the very thing that keeps them from it. Bound by someone else’s freedom.