FIVE: Freedom to be Free
Minutes after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, on January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 collided with a flock of Canada geese. Both engines on the A320 jet shut down after the big birds were sucked into the turbofans. The passenger jet continued to climb for another 19 seconds, reaching an altitude of 3060 feet. Without thrust from the engines, the plane, weighing about 90,000 kgs., began a glide descent, making an emergency landing in the frigid waters of the Hudson River. When aerodynamic laws weren’t in effect, gravity’s pull became dominant, ending the ability to fly.
Flight 1549 depicts spiritual failure in the life of a believer. The apostle Paul crashed and burned, thrust down under the law of sin and death. In Romans 7:7-25, Paul explains it all. He struggled against the sin of coveting, the desire to possess what another has. Things escalated until he coveted everything.
In his battle to overcome coveting, he threw gasoline on the fire by fixating on the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet.” I can imagine him poring over the scroll of Exodus with pharisaical discipline, a dirty finger smudge under the words, “You shall not covet.” But the more he focused on the Law, the worse his sin became.
“The Law is perfect, good, and holy.” Paul said. “I agree with the Law and want to obey it. But the more I focus on the Law, the more I covet.”
One thing led to another. The Mosaic Law activated the principle of sin in him, which led to acts of sin, and finally death.
“I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;” Romans 7:9 NASB.
How did Paul “die?” Not physically, since he continued to live. Not spiritually, unless one believes one can lose the gift of eternal life. And not as an unbeliever, since unbelievers are spiritually dead; not described as being “alive.” Paul experienced the death awarded to believers who return to law-keeping to attain maturity in Christ, including moral failure, discouragement, resentment of God, depression, exhaustion, joylessness, and broken relationships.
Just as flight 1549 was condemned to the Hudson River without the laws of aerodynamics, Paul was condemned to spiritual failure without a greater law to deliver him.
In Romans 8, he discovers a greater law.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1, 2 NKJV.
Paul had neglected a minor detail in his quest to be free from coveting—the Holy Spirit! When he set his mind on the commandment, his sin, and his efforts, he was stuck on the runway, condemned, sentenced to the endless cycle of sin and death. But when he set his mind on the Holy Spirit, trusting Him to produce holiness, the law of the Spirit of life took him to the heights of holiness and peace he had dreamed of.
I can’t point to one sin that was my undoing, like coveting. It was everything. Anger fits, impure thoughts, self-pity. I was easily offended, a champion worrier, and compared myself with others.
Obsession with rules and commandments. Awkward schemes to avoid sin, and talking myself into joy. Constant confession of sin with pledges to do better. I imagined my struggle was the normal Christian life. Whatever freedom Jesus had set me free for, I was not experiencing it.
When my desperate heart was ready, God enrolled me in the Law of Liberty masterclass—the great freedom passages in Romans 5-8, Galatians 1-5, Hebrews 8-10, Colossians 2-3, and 2 Corinthians 3.
“When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” Heb. 8:13 NASB.
At first, the new covenant principles were counterintuitive, like jumping out of a plane with only a parachute to save me. It almost felt irresponsible to leave law-keeping behind. But God is adamant.
“Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
2 Corinthians 3:5, 6 NASB.
As I meditated on my co-death and co-resurrection with Jesus, the things of the Spirit, I thought less about myself and my sin; laws, commandments, and standards; and more about the new way of living, the new covenant in Jesus’ blood.
“For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:5 NASB.
Growth was slow and awkward. I often lapsed into focusing on myself or others. I was not measuring up to God’s standard. I wasn’t loving enough. Or wasn’t a good parent. Not working hard enough as a missionary. A legalistic book or friend would derail me with old-covenant counsel. Am I understanding the new covenant correctly? Does this mean what I think it does? Can I depend on the indwelling Holy Spirit to make me the person He wants me to be?
I kept studying to lay hold of the freedom Jesus promised. As understanding dawned, I slipped out from beneath the yoke of slavery to law-keeping and self-effort and learned to depend on the Spirit of Christ in me for guidance, power, and godliness.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Gal. 5:16 NASB.
The life I had striven so hard for became a byproduct of walking by the Spirit. Yes, temptation and old habits pressed in. The evil one laid his traps. The allure of the world beckoned. But now I faced them by faith in the indwelling Christ. It was the difference between relaxing in my airplane seat and flapping my arms to help the plane out.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Gal. 2:20 NASB.
Before the first successful flight by the Wright brothers in 1903, people did not fly. The brothers employed the laws of aerodynamics to overcome gravitational force, and now anyone can fly. Anyone can conquer the force of gravity.
“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Rom. 6:14 NASB.
After deplaning the passengers, flight 1549 was towed 4 miles downstream to Manhattan, where it was loaded onto a barge in pieces to be taken to New Jersey for forensic investigation. The A320 Airbus never flew again. It remains on display in an aviation museum—a testament to the law of gravity.
I don’t know where you are in your spiritual flight journey. Perhaps you’ve hit some geese and find yourself in a gliding descent. Maybe you’ve crash-landed in the Hudson River, defeated and discouraged. Freedom is at hand.
Join me in God’s masterclass, the New Covenant in Jesus’ Blood. Choose one book mentioned in this article. I recommend starting with the book of Galatians. Read it slowly. Ask God to open your eyes to the freedom for which He has set us free. He will surely do it.
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Gal. 5:1 NASB.
