LOOSE HIM, AND LET HIM GO II
John 11:44; 12:1,2,9-11; Galatians 5:1
Just as there is a process that leads up to “Loose him, and let him go”, there is a path that leads further up the ladder of deliverance.
True and total freedom is never a cut-and-dried, one-off affair. It has a beginning but it also progresses. Freedom is a process, a journey and not a destination.
Every revelation of new truth that we receive brings us into more freedom in areas of our lives that we are still bound. It is the truth and the TRUTH that we know that sets us free (John 8:32,36). The written truth and the LIVING TRUTH combine to set us free indeed.
The enemy is never happy to loose his prey. He will contend every freedom we have and seek to bring us back into bondage. However if we have been loosed and let go, it is our responsibility to preserve that freedom and refuse to be entangled or destroyed again.
CLIMAX OF TRUE FREEDOM
John 8:36; 12:1,2,9; 2 Timothy 1:7; Luke 13:11-13,16; 4:18; Isaiah 61:1; 10:27; Galatians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 3:17.
The climax of true freedom is to be free INDEED (John 8:36). The family members did loose Lazarus from the graveclothes binding his hands and feet and the napkin covering his face. They let him go because he was now a free man who could socialise with other people and could even be the centre of attraction. Lazarus was free to be a guest at a banquet rather than a corpse in the grave. He was free to live! (John 12:1,2,9). The Jews came to see Jesus and “Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead” (John 12:9). Are you free, free indeed? Have those who could “loose you, and let you go” responded to the Saviour’s commission and therefore set you free?
To be free and yet bound by graveclothes and napkin is not to be totally free. True and total freedom is desirable and this should be the ultimate desire and goal of each individual.
Lazarus was totally set free to be himself as he used to be before he died, functioning in God’s true liberty in the community of the living (John 12:1,2,9).
CRUELTY OF OUR TERRIBLE FOE
John 12:10,11; 10:39; 11:53; 8:37,40,44; Ephesians 6:16; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 12:12-17; Jeremiah 50:33; Isaiah 14:12,16,17.
The devil is the ultimate father and architect of every captivity. He never likes anybody to respond to “Loose him, and let him go”. He will do everything possible to hinder our response to such injunction, commission and commandment. His agents reacted violently and angrily to the loosing of the woman bound by Satan for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-17).
The devil’s alternative to that command will be “leave him, and let him remain bound”.
However when we have obeyed the injunction and set the captive and bound free, the devil will want to take them captive again or totally destroy them again.
This was the case with Lazarus: “But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death BECAUSE that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus” (John 12:10,11).
Instead of rejoicing for Lazarus’ resurrection and freedom, they wanted to nullify the freedom and kill him again. How this resembles the devil’s strategy! Every divine blessing and miracle will attract the devil’s hatred and attack (John 12:10,11; Luke 13:10-17; Job 1:9-12; Daniel 10:12-21; John 10:10).
Are you free? The devil is not happy and he will want to bring you under bondage again or completely destroy you.
The enemy does not give up easily. He will try to nullify our victory and deliverance if he cannot succeed in hindering the blessing.
CHALLENGE TO THE TRULY FREED
Galatians 5:1,13; 4:9; 2:4; 2 Peter 2:20-22; Matthew 12:43-45; John 5:6,8,14; 1 Corinthians 8:9; 1 Peter 2:16; 2 Corinthians 11:20; 2 Timothy 2:24-26.
Now that Lazarus is free, it is his responsibility to keep his freedom. Christ has raised him up from the grave, the family members have loosed him and let him go, he now has to “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).
We are set free to serve God and not so that we can do whatever we like. We should never use our liberty for self-gratification and indulgence. God heals blindness not to give eyes for watching pornography (Galatians 5:13; 1 Corinthians 8:9; Romans 13:14; 1 Peter 2:16). Blind Bartimaeus’ first task was to follow Jesus and not to go and see the great sights in the city of Jericho (Mark 10:46-52).
Your resurrection and liberty is free. The deliverance is by grace. However you need to realise the following:
(1) What you get by grace, you keep by obedience (John 5:6,8,14).
(2) What you get by other people’s faith, you keep by your own faith (John 11:39-44).
(3) Christ made you free, it is your responsibility to keep your liberty (Galatians 5:1).