Jesus’ freedom is a difficult thing to teach on for many reasons; let me name two. First, there are certain types who will hear this and find it an excuse to live as they please. Many characters in our irreverent age “don’t care what others think.” Their freedom is abrasive and unholy. The freedom Jesus models is not a crass “giving the finger to the world.” Or the church, for that matter.

Others will dismiss the freedom Jesus offers out of fear — either the fear of what people might think (which, ironically, is sin), or the fear of “falling into immorality.” So let me be very clear — the scandalous freedom Jesus models for us is based in an understanding of a holiness much deeper than anything the religious ever concocted. Remember, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). The only possible way that can happen is through an internal revolution, a changed heart. When we have a heart like Jesus’.

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