Last time, we looked at how our internal security is rooted in the fact that we are once saved, and always saved. The goal was to try to show how that foundational truth actually makes us secure in God. But today, our discussion is going to shift to our free will in relationship with that salvation. It’s such an important question: “If I am saved, can I just do whatever I want?” Sometimes that’s framed as a criticism of Eternal Security or of Evangelical Christianity altogether. You hear the "bad" beliefs pop up—like, “Since I’m secure in Christ, I can just sit on the couch and do nothing,” or “What if I decide later I don't want to be in a relationship with Jesus anymore?"

       When we really dive into this, it seems like there are two extremes that a Christian can fall into. The first is what will be called the "fatalistic" perspective: “I’m saved, so I can do whatever I want.” The idea here is that it doesn’t matter what your character looks like because once you’ve chosen to believe, you can just live however you want without any fear of Hell. And we’ve seen people take that approach, and honestly, it doesn’t turn out well. That’s the problem. You can’t commit to a new path if you keep one foot out the door on the old path. You just end up stuck in the middle. It ends up looking like hypocrisy. You say, “Yes, I’m a Christian,” but your actions don’t back that up. If you’re living in immorality, it just looks, well, it looks foolish. Why call yourself a Christian if you aren't going to live the way the Bible says we should?

       Then there’s the second extreme—the "legalistic" perspective: “I’m saved, but I have to work incredibly hard to stay saved.” This comes from a place of deep insecurity. If you feel like that, you probably need to go back and listen to last week’s message, because that’s exactly what it’s about. But the person living this way is constantly on an emotional rollercoaster. One day they’re a fired up Christian; the next, they feel like a failure because of something they did wrong. Now, as we grow, we’re going to have struggles—especially in the beginning as we try to align ourselves with our new faith. But if we keep that "beginner" mindset our whole lives, it’s not going to be a very enjoyable experience. You’ll be striving for a perfection and a performance that simply can’t be met. We all have a sin-nature; we can get better at managing it, but we don’t need to be on a yo-yo with our relationship with God.

       Let’s think about this for a second. Pay attention to your inner voice when you mess up. What do you actually hear? Do you hear a voice of condemnation saying, “I’m not good enough, I’m going to lose my standing”? Or do you hear a voice of indifference saying, “It doesn’t matter what I do, I’m safe anyway”? We have to identify where we are so we can see where we need to go. It might be a little uncomfortable at first, but isn’t this what the Scripture tells us to do? This is what Jesus meant when he told people to give “ear” to his words. This is what Paul meant when he told us to examine ourselves. Paying attention and doing that honest self-examination is the only way we get to the core of these things. We have to get up the courage to do it. Once we stop letting those voices of fear or indifference drive us, we can start to see the truth of our position. If we want to move from a life of reaction to a life of intention, we have to understand the mechanism of our salvation.

       So, here is the core of it: our eternal security in God is not a “get out of jail free card.” It is the foundation of an uncoerced free will. Let that sink in for a second. That’s big. It shows our utter security in our relationship with God. It leads us to that classic cliché we’ve all heard: “We’re not saved by our works, but we were saved for good works.” It appears it’s better put this way: We were saved, and now we take our newfound love to help others. It might not happen instantly, but it will happen over time as we grow, as we become better people, and as we become more like Jesus.

Let’s look back at John chapter 1, because that’s where we find the foundation for our new character. Verses 12 and 13 say, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (ESV). Notice two things here. First, it says he gave us the right to become children. It doesn’t say it’s automatic; it’s a gift of status. Second, it says we were born. Don’t miss that phrase. It signifies we have been born again—just like what Jesus talks about with Nicodemus in chapter 3. If we’ve been reborn, we have a new makeup. We are now geared toward aiming to please God rather than aiming to serve sin.

       Think of it like this: When a child is growing up in a house, they are “free” to eat whatever they want, but there’s a limit. They are free to eat whatever the parents have put in the cabinets. Ideally, the parents are steering them toward a healthy diet. The child has freedom, but they have freedom within a healthy environment. Because that’s all the child has ever known, they eventually won’t even desire the "bad" things. Of course, as they get older, they’ll see other things, but because they’re being fed the right things, those healthy habits stick. When we are born a second time, the Holy Spirit awakens our deepest, built-in appetite for God. As we cooperate with His love, He empowers us to freely choose and desire the good things.

       But how does that look in the middle of a long day? How do we move from the theory of ‘new desires’ to the reality of our own daily appetites? Again, we have to examine ourselves. Take inventory of your desires. Let’s just pause for a second and ask: What are you craving most right now? If you find yourself still craving the things of the world—bitterness, lust, greed—it might be a sign that you haven't fully surrendered in that specific area. It can be a hard thing to hear, but our emotions can tell us the truth sometimes. Our minds aren't always right, but they are sometimes right. Ask God today: Is this thing I'm desiring actually good? And if you think it is, ask Him to reshape your appetite. Don't just try to ‘stop’ the bad desire; ask God to give you a replacement. If we just try to ‘stop’ something, it usually won't go away. One little trick that was learned once was to think of one or two good things about a person or situation, and just focus on those. Don't dwell on the bad; just focus on those couple good things.

       This is the beautiful paradox of the Gospel: we are simultaneously secure in our position and yet active in our sanctification. We are "settled" in our standing with God, but we are "struggling" in our daily walk. That tension is something every believer encounters. Some of you might be asking, “If I’m saved, why does it feel like I’m still struggling so much?” And that’s a fair question. The reason is that we still have an embedded sin-nature. Unfortunately, God doesn’t just erase that nature from us the moment we believe. We still experience brokenness and selfish desires. Before we were saved, he had that ’void’ in our hearts. It is our nature to want to be in a relationship with God—nobody is "totally depraved," but because of our sin-nature, we still have bad habits. We still try to protect ourselves in ways that actually end up hurting us.

       So sanctification is a daily process. It’s about becoming aware of God’s love as we pray and meditate. It renews our minds and helps us die to our old ways of living. In Romans 7, Paul describes this shift beautifully. In the climax of that discussion, he says, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Romans 7:21-23, ESV). That’s where we all started—trapped by sinful desires. But the reality is, God moved us out of that the moment we freely chose to believe in Him.

       The beautiful thing is that as we step away from sin, we aren't losing our freedom—we are finally rescuing it back to ourselves. Our deepest, God-given desires within our beings aren't destroyed; they are finally set free so we can love God in the way He always intended. Each of us has good things and actions we wish to perform in our free will, and God doesn’t want to prohibit those. Because we are naturally moving away from sin, we naturally start to want to do good—to love God and others. It’s an incredible thing. God doesn’t want us to be robots who have to do this or that. He wants us to willingly choose to do good things, the way we want to do them. A lot of people don't understand this. They think becoming a Christian means giving yourself over to a bunch of things you actually don't want to do. But that’s not how it works.

       As we talk about this newfound freedom we’ve been discussing, we have to realize—and really this was talked about at length last week—that we have to have security in Christ. We have to have security in God. Imagine a playground for a second. The play-set is a big one, a double-decker. To a child, it looks huge. There’s this high, circular tube slide, and to get to it, the kid has to climb way up high. Now, if that child is terrified to climb up there—if they’re scared of falling, or if they just lack that sense of security—they aren’t going to climb. They aren’t going to have fun on that slide. But, if that child has been encouraged by their parents, if they’ve had that security instilled in them from a young age? They’ll climb that ladder. They’ll be determined to go down that slide without any anxiety, with nothing but fun on their mind. They’re free to play their hearts out because they feel secure. And that is truly what we get, every single one of us, when we believe in Jesus. But—and this is the catch—if we don’t choose to believe we have it, if we don’t choose to live in that comfort, then it doesn’t really matter. We aren't going to feel it, and we’re going to live a much less fulfilling life than we were meant to.

       You see, that’s the whole point. God gives us security so that we can finally be free to obey Him out of love rather than out of necessity. Those are the two options. Unfortunately, it seems like most Christians are still stuck in the first area—living in a state of fear. And really, that can be one of the hardest things for a Christian to overcome because, most of the time, it’s a mind problem. It’s that deep-down belief that God doesn’t really love us, or that He wants something more from us, or that we just aren’t 'good enough.' It’s a real struggle.

       And a lot of that stems from our attachment styles—the ones we developed as kids. In psychology, it is said that about 50% of the population ends up with a 'secure' attachment style, which makes life a lot smoother. But the other half ends up with some kind of 'insecure' attachment. For those people, it can be so much more challenging to trust what God says is true. There’s this constant doubting, this underlying insecurity. And in all fairness, they didn’t choose this. It came from less-than-desirable parenting.

       What’s interesting is that what modern psychology has identified actually feels experientially true. There are four main attachment styles, and they start in early childhood. You have the ‘anxious’ child—the one who fears abandonment. This often creates a Christian who is routinely, let's say, ‘legalistic.’ They’re terrified God will leave them if they mess up. Sound familiar? Then you have the ‘avoidant’ child—the one who fears intimacy in the first place. While the anxious child wants closeness out of fear, the avoidant child wants to avoid closeness entirely. This can create a Christian who falls into a kind of 'fatalism'—basically keeping God at a distance in their life. There’s also the avoidance of shame—not wanting to feel the weight of any wrongs. A child can also have a mix of both, but those are the primary styles alongside secure attachment.

       Certainly, this can feel very personal as we talk about it. If you realize today that your struggle to trust God is actually rooted in those childhood wounds, the first thing that needs to change is your perspective on your own struggle. You need to stop being angry at yourself for struggling. You aren’t 'bad' at being a Christian. You aren’t 'bad' at having faith. That’s the first realization. The goal is healing from that insecure attachment. And it’s going to take time—probably a lot of time—to replace that 'parental' voice of fear in your head with the ‘gentle’ voice of God. This is exactly why Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Comforter or the Helper. Understanding how God really operates can help us understand who we are actually meant to be.

       So, what does a securely attached person actually look like? Well, according to the psychologists, a core marker is the ability to self-soothe. It’s the ability to encourage yourself even when a parent isn't there, or even when something bad happens. They are happy when there is closeness with God, but they’re also okay when God feels a bit distant for some unknown reason. And why is this? Because they’ve already established what God feels about them. They don’t have to base their identity on a momentary feeling that comes and goes. They have it deep in their core because of what He says in His Word. They don’t view their relationship with God as something they have to sustain by their works—or by doing 'enough' good. See, if your acceptance is based on your performance, something is wrong. Jesus tells us we’re already connected to Him.

       Jesus talks about this in John chapter 15—in the analogy of the Vine and the Branches. He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, ESV). In nature, the vine feeds the branch. That’s how they stay healthy—they’re attached to the trunk. That’s how it is for us in Christ. Because we are attached, life is constantly flowing to us. Christ encourages us, and he speaks His Spirit into our imagination to manifest His love through our thoughts, words, and actions. Again, we are new creatures. Just think about that. What is one area of your life where you’ve been trying to 'earn' God's love? Is it your parenting? Your career? Your purity? Stop trying to buy His favor with your performance. Instead, just ask: 'Lord, because I am already loved, how can I love my spouse or do my work more fully today?' Move from the 'I have to' to the 'I get to’ frame in your mind .

       Now, we know the Vine feeds the branch, but how does that nourishment actually show up in our daily choices? We have to look at the difference between responsibility and conditionality. If we believe our security is conditional, we say, “I only belong to God if I act in ways that are good.” See? There it is. That’s how many of us think, and it’s a really poor way to live. The other option is to say, “I am already God’s child, so therefore I should act in ways that show I am.” See the difference? The first option is acting out of fear and desperation. The second is acting from a position of love. We believe God already loves us, so we want to act in that love to show who we are. Our status isn't based on our performance in front of Him.

       At this point, we might ask: “Well, why did God give us a will? What’s the purpose of it?” The reason is simple, and even people who don't know God understand it: it’s to do good. To do the greatest good we can for ourselves, for God, and for others. This is how we live the way God actually wants us to live. We have the freedom to choose to be 'fruitful' or 'barren.' We can bring forth good fruit or bad fruit. Our security is guaranteed, but our impact is our choice. In John 15, Jesus also says “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2, ESV). See that? God actually helps us in the process. We might view pruning as a negative thing, but why?

       It can be remembered back when first getting certified to teach, a pastor was explaining this very passage. He told the speaker—basically, in so many words—that if you didn’t do enough good, if you didn’t reach a certain level, that Jesus would throw you out. He thought Jesus would cut you down and burn you. It took some real courage to challenge that in that room, and honestly, he didn't like being challenged. But it seems perhaps that it was God working through the speaker because, as we can see now, that theology was just wrong. It was a heavy, fearful way to view the Gospel. You see, Jesus said there in John 15 that “If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15:6, ESV). People can act like they believe, and act like they have done what God wants, when they really haven’t. What matters is that you are connected to the vain.

       Think about it. We see this in our society all the time. If people don’t behave, there are consequences. For us as Christians, when we don’t do what is right, we might forfeit our peace, or our sense of security. It’s not a fun thing. We can forfeit our fellowship with God if we grieve the Holy Spirit. And if we continue in wrong after being warned, we can forfeit heavenly rewards. We often don’t let that resonate. Of course, in all of this, we don’t lose our status with God. We don’t lose our position in Christ. But we can lose these other things. We can choose to walk away if we want to.

       We talked about the Prodigal Son last time. The son was still a son while he was in the pig pen—even though he was miserable and had squandered his inheritance. But in the background, the father’s love was quietly there as his security. The son’s choice to return was of his own free will. He didn't have to. The father didn't force him, but in his misery, the son decided to try. He even thought of offering to work as a hired hand, but the father wouldn't have had it. He freely accepted him back, no questions asked. It was beautiful. And that offer is open to anyone today. Maybe you were a Christian once and you walked away for some reason. It doesn't matter why. If you want to come back, God is only interested in freely accepting you back.

       The reality is, we are secure in Christ. We have freedom, and no one can take it away. Paul told the Corinthians, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17, ESV). That is true for every single one of us. God isn’t against our freedom. Now that we understand we have it, let’s go and live in it. Let’s do something specific today. Let’s stop running to the 'pig pen' of your own efforts; stop trying to 'work' your way back into the house. You are already welcome at home. This week, live as a child of God himself. Go out and live with the confidence of someone who is loved, not with the anxiety of someone who is living from fear.