The Great Escape

The Word of God’s purpose in your life is to liberate you from the bondage of sin and death. Bondage in sin is often exchanged for the bondage of religion. Many people leave the power of sin in their lives only to find themselves in the bondage of religion.

One of the greatest gifts we receive in the salvation experience is freedom. Freedom from death, freedom from the judgment of an angry God and freedom from the guilt of past failures. When we are born-again, the word of God states:

“Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things become new.” (2 Co 5:17)

Jesus said when you come to a saving knowledge of who He is, there is a liberty from religion that comes with understanding the truth about Him and His purpose in coming to earth:

”And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

Jesus, concerning His teachings, instructed that they are not to be applied to subordinate people but to liberate people. Jesus’ words to His distractors revealed the true nature of God’s Word when properly taught:

“Jesus, therefore, said to those Jews which had believed him, If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

God’s Word sets people free but the power of religion seeks to enslave people. The theological teachings found in God’s word properly administrated by the Lord’s Church bring joy, freedom and liberty and faith in Jesus. These same theological teachings, when corrupted by religion, produces fear, doubt, and dependence on having a relationship with the religious leaders and church dogma to complete or preserve their release from the power of sin.       

These church groups and leaders are tantamount of the Scribes and Pharisees in the Jewish religion in the time Jesus was proclaiming His message of freedom. Jesus proclaimed these men were, “blind guides, which strain out the gnats and swallow the camel.”  (Mat 23:24) The Pharisees and Scribes were religious teachers who ignored God’s intent for His teachings by exploiting and arguing minor points. In doing so, they were creating exceptions and conditions that would validate their teachings and change the intent of the teachings of God’s Word. They would construct loopholes using ambiguous language producing support for their teachings and thereby creating the importance of their positions in the spiritual lives of people.   

Religious leaders and their dogma in the church use many of the same tactics employed by the Scribes and Pharisees to create dependence on their teaching on the purpose of the church for the power of negotiating peace with an angry God.  

The Apostle Paul’s teachings on the importance of how we approach and teach God’s word reveals the importance of properly used theology. If the religion of the church hijacks and redefines the church’s doctrine; the liberty of grace will be modified into the bondage of the law. The Word of God makes it clear what is the end of these teachings when they mishandle God’s word--- the death of grace.

These words should send fear into the hearts of all believers who are a part of a church group that has allowed the religious dogma to hi-jack the doctrine of grace and replaced it with a theology that creates a dependency on the church’s dogma for the hope of salvation. The Apostle Paul, speaking to his work as a minister, said:

“Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” (2 Cor 3:6)

If you have escaped from the power of sin and death only to be enslaved to a religion; reject the religious dogma and find the freedom of God’s grace.