Let’s make this very practical: to change us at the core of our being, and to lose weight permanently, requires a miracle in our hearts and lives. It requires supernatural power, Holy Spirit power. This power is waiting for you at the cross! If you come to the cross and see it and put faith in what you see, it will change you.
You know that it would be a true miracle if you were to permanently change the way you eat and exercise, right? I mean, we’ve tried so many diets and exercise programs, lost weight only to gain it back again, right? When will it finally stop? When will we truly change?
The answer is, when we see the cross painted before our eyes and, forsaking all other messages and methods, we put faith in the message of the cross!
As we close today, I want to consider something with you by way of a few questions. If the power of the cross and the Holy Spirit is the only way to lasting freedom, why are there millions of people who lose weight and don’t even profess to be Christians? What about those in diet programs who lose hundreds of pounds and keep it off for life, yet they don’t credit Christ or even believe in Him? Isn’t it possible to lose weight by putting our minds to it, exercising our willpower, and making needed changes?
Sure, unbelievers lose weight every day! Unbelieving alcoholics stop drinking all the time. But something that Jesus said will help us think through this issue more thoroughly:
“Jesus replied, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now, a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-36).
Question 6. What did Jesus say people would be if the Son set them free?
When Jesus sets someone free, they are not merely free, but free indeed! That is, they don’t merely get free from the behavior, but they experience freedom from their former plaguing thoughts, freedom from the desire to sin, freedom from the impulses, and the craving of sin. Jesus actually changes our hearts and continues to change it throughout our lives. Though we will never be free from temptation while we live in these bodies of flesh, when we put faith in Jesus - His death and resurrection - He frees us from a heart that longs to sin with food!
I have a friend who told me of his experience going to a well-known support group for people who abuse alcohol. He asked one of his sponsors what his goals, plans, and hopes for the future were. The man answered, “to never have another drink.” Clearly, this man was not “free indeed” but rather barely hanging on. He, no doubt, felt that if he had even one more drink, he would be right back into drunkenness and would probably ruin his life.
How sad to merely experience temporary and external behavior change when true freedom, heart freedom, thought-freedom is available at the cross!
Summary: To experience real freedom requires real power. We need miraculous, supernatural, Holy Spirit power that changes our hearts, changes our desires, changes our thoughts, and changes our lives. This is precisely the power that awaits us at the cross, where we die with Christ and rise to a new life!
So far, from 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we have talked about the powerful message and the powerful Spirit; in the next lesson, we will learn about the powerful mind that wars against the flesh!
Question 7. In your own understanding, in the area of weight loss, what is the difference between merely being “free” and being “free indeed”?
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I think Sue has it right in her answer to the above question, how about you?
"I think it means that my freedom came from Christ thus it it true freedom, lasting freedom, MY freedom in Christ is for certain, for sure. That is something that the world can never give me."
And Wende is evidencing that she is a freed captive:
"Being 'free indeed' means to be truly set free from sin. It means that my sin is crucified, dead and gone, never to rise up and dominate me ever again. This former slave to sin has been set free and the slave driver no longer has power over me. I am emancipated!"