Freedom in Christ
— By M.T. Clark — P-2006, 07/03/2026 —
Today’s Audio Podcast
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Today’s photo of a sweeping view of tall buildings rising in every direction, a vast green park stretching through the heart of it, and white clouds drifting across a wide summer sky comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this view from the Top of the Rock observation deck in New York City on June 22nd, 2019.
Well, it’s Friday, thank God — and on this Independence Day weekend I share this wide view over the city that never sleeps as a reminder of what a gift freedom is. Our nation will celebrate its freedom tomorrow with parades and fireworks and gatherings of family and friends, and that earthly freedom is worth celebrating. But there is a deeper freedom that this weekend can point us toward, a freedom that no nation could grant and no circumstance can take away. Enjoy the celebrations this weekend, and let them turn your heart toward the greater freedom we have in Christ.
Our series, “The Armor of God,” continues today with the truth that the whole armor was always meant to protect — the freedom Christ won for us.
Freedom in Christ
The entire purpose of the armor of God is to enable the believer to stand firm in something Christ has already given him, and that something is freedom. The believer does not put the armor on in order to earn his freedom, and he does not fight in order to win it. He fights to stand firm in a freedom that Jesus already secured for him at the cross, and the armor exists to keep him from being dragged back into a bondage he has already been delivered from.
Paul states this purpose directly, and he states it with urgency. In Galatians 5:1 (NKJV), he writes, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
Every word of that verse matters. Paul says that Christ has made us free, which is a finished and accomplished fact rather than a future hope. Freedom is not something the believer is striving toward. It is something he already possesses because Jesus has already accomplished it. The chains that once held him have already been broken, the debt that once condemned him has already been paid, and the power that once enslaved him has already been defeated. This is the believer’s actual present-tense condition in Christ. He is free.
But Paul also attaches a warning that reveals why the armor of God is so necessary. Paul tells us not to be entangled again with a yoke of bondage, which means that a free person can be drawn back into living as though he were still a slave. The chains may be broken, but the old patterns still call, the old lies still whisper, and the enemy still works to convince the freed believer that he belongs back in the prison that Christ set him free from. This is the great danger of the Christian life. It is not that the believer will lose the freedom Christ purchased, but that he will fail to stand firm in it and will slowly slip back into living like a slave to sin.
This is precisely what the armor of God is for. The belt of truth keeps the believer anchored in the reality of his freedom rather than the enemy’s lies about his bondage. The breastplate of righteousness guards his heart against the condemnation that tries to drag him back into shame. The shield of faith quenches the fiery darts that whisper he was never really free at all.
Every piece of the armor exists to help the believer stand fast in the liberty Christ has already given and to refuse to be entangled again in chains that have already been broken.
So as our nation celebrates its freedom this weekend, let it remind you of the deeper freedom that is yours in Christ. You have been set free by the finished work of Jesus, and no power in heaven or on earth can undo what He has accomplished.
Put on the armor, stand firm in your liberty, and refuse every invitation to return to a bondage you have already been delivered from.
The freedom we have in Christ is real, it is yours, and it is worth standing firm to keep.
Keep on walking and talking with God.
— M.T.
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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
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