How can you enjoy immense freedom in marriage?
First, understand what freedom is. Freedom is the absence of limitation, confinement or restraint.
Also, there are varying degrees of freedom. The greatest freedom is the freedom Jesus has obtained for us. He said that if the Son sets you free, you’re free indeed. I take this indeed to mean the greatest possible freedom there is.
That begs the question, free from what? Jesus offers freedom from sin and its consequences. That means guilt, condemnation and control. But how do we get this freedom? Answer: move into God’s presence. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is,” Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 3:17), “there is freedom.”
Jesus came to free us from sin and reconcile us to the Father, which means we get to move into the presence of God where the Spirit and real freedom are.
So how does this apply to marriage? Remember that Jesus and His bride, the body of Christ (the church) serve as the perfect model for marriage. So, how did and does Jesus bring freedom to His spouse (us believers)?
Jesus went to great lengths to bring freedom. We mere humans have an eternal future, but not an eternal past; our existence began when our parents conceived us. God the Son, however, has both an eternal past and eternal future. He was in the beginning (See John 1:1). My point is that Jesus left a perfect eternity to enter a sinful world to bring us freedom. To what lengths can we go to help our spouse live free.
Jesus sacrificed all of Himself to gain our freedom. He gave up His rights, any claim to what He deserved and all comfort and privilege to bring us freedom. How many of our rights, our merits and our comforts can we forego for our spouse’s freedom?
Jesus gave up His voice, His breath, His body, His blood – His life to afford our freedom. What sacrifices can we make for the freedom of our spouse?
Jesus offers forgiveness to free us from our sins. For what can we forgive our spouse to set them free from guilt and condemnation?
These are just four things we can see that our Bridegroom did as both a gift and an example.
Now lest we have the idea that freedom’s purpose is something other than itself, consider Galatians 5:1, which states, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Obviously, God wants us free, not constrained by something destructive. And that goes for spouses, too.
What if we get into the habit of waking up daily with the goal of helping our spouse live free?
Let’s try it.
