“Not any more.”
What Sméagol realized was that he had a new master, Frodo, who now takes care of him and that he no longer needed Gollum/the Ring. So Sméagol commands Gollum to leave and never come back. And so Gollum leaves. And so Sméagol, rejoicing, is free.
This seems to me an almost exact parallel of Paul’s words in his letter to the Roman Christians:
"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves, whom you obey? You have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness/God." My paraphrase of Romans 6:15-23
Note: Sméagol’s freedom was in the context of a new master, a good master, a better master. He no longer belonged to Gollum, but now belonged to Frodo, and sought the pleasure, protection, and care of his new master.
With the Christian, we are set free from sin by our union with Christ, through faith, expressed and experienced in baptism. We who believe in Jesus spiritually died with Jesus about 2000 years ago. Yet, in the goodness of God, we didn’t (spiritually) experience the crucifixion, but instead the RESULT of the crucifixion, Christ’s death and burial. In other words, we do not reenact the crucifixion when we are baptized, but instead we reenact the burial AFTER the crucifixion. We experience the burial, resurrection, and ascension. We are one with Jesus. What is true of Him is true of all believers.
Jesus died once and for all to sin (self centered self gratification.)
We are one with Jesus.
Therefore we died once and for all to sin. (To “die to” something or someone means we become “unresponsive,” like dead bodies are to those who are alive. So we become “unresponsive/uncontrolled” by self centered desire.
According to Paul in Romans 6-7, neither sin nor the law of God own us, define us, or determine our actions any more. We no longer need the law to watch over us or make known to us that sin is our master (which was the law’s purpose) because sin is no longer a master of a believer. We no longer are subject to sin as a master, or a boss, or one who controls us. We died to them both, sin and the law of God, or external rules or codes. As a wife is free from her husband if she dies, and a slave is free from a master if he dies, so I am free from the law and from sin. We are free indeed from sin by a new master, the Lord Jesus, just as Sméagol was freed from Gollum by a new master, Frodo Baggins.
Now we only need to know it and consider it so, just as Paul said in Romans 6. Sméagol realized his new relationship with his new master. I realize mine and consider this my new reality.
- I rejected the law as a husband.
- I rejected sin as a master.
- I presented myself to the Spirit of God as His slave to obey Him. I am His slave. I will obey Him. I no longer serve God according to the old way of the written code (the law) but according to the new way of the Spirit. Amen.
I am free; free to choose my master.
I choose the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Consider this:
As I said about God in my first blog (through faith in Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit, that you can be as close to God the Father as you want to be,)
So I say about our new natures in Christ: through faith in Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit, you can be as like God the Father as you want to be.
Your closeness to God is up to you.
Your likeness to God is up to you.
How does a free person act?
Or how should a free person act?
Note what Paul says to the Galatians:
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1
Paul makes an analogy of cattle being connected together by their necks, bound together and controlled by a wooden mechanism called a yoke so that both may be driven in working a field. So, we are not to let ourselves be controlled or bound any longer to external rules/laws, which were given to expose our sinful intention.
Note again the words of Jesus:
"Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:34-36
Christ set us free to indeed BE FREE. But free to do what? Like we see with Sméagol, we are now free to serve God, to belong to God, to be like God.
"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature]; rather, serve one another humbly in love." Galatians 5:13
Sméagol used his freedom to serve Frodo, not just to “do what he wanted.” This is not true freedom, for neither creation nor salvation is for us to do merely what we want. We were made for God, to please Him; to be what He made us to be and to do what He made us to do. This is why He created us. This is why He saved us. This is our purpose. This is who and what we are.
I ask the Holy Spirit to help me to make this as practical as possible.
If you were a slave to sexual desire, or to use a modern word, you were “addicted,” and you believe in Jesus, the old person that you were, who used to be addicted to sex (or drugs, or alcohol, or whatever) died with Jesus 2000 years ago, spiritually speaking. A new, free, unaddicted/unenslaved you was reborn; “born again.” The new you, being free, now has a choice: to live for drugs/sex/alcohol/whatever, or to live for God. If you used to have sex outside of marriage, you now get married. If you used to do drugs to cope with reality, or to experience heightened reality, refuse to go to drugs and go to the Spirit who is in you, for it is written:
“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Psalms 34:8
“In your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures forever more.” Psalms 16:11
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger; he who believes in me will never thirst.” John 6:35
Jesus promises to fulfill those who are seeking satisfaction; those who long for fulfillment. He is our satisfaction (bread of life ;) He is the one who fulfills our desires (your thirst.)
Sprite says, “Obey your thirst.” Paul says no longer obey your thirst, but obey the Spirit in you.
Taste and see. With God there is complete joy and eternal pleasure. No man or woman, no matter how physically attractive can give you complete joy and eternal pleasure, by their very finite nature. No drug or drink can do this either. But here is the problem.
Sex does feel good. So does the buzz of alcohol. So does the high of drugs. These are “tried and true.” If you go to the porn site, or meet someone at the bar who will go home with you, and you have sex, or stimulate yourself, you have a guarantee that it will feel good. If you drink the right combination of drinks at the bar, you have a guarantee of the buzz. If you get a good quality of drugs, you are guaranteed a high. These are the best experiences you know of. These experiences come fairly easy, if you know the right drink, drug dealer, or man or woman or web page. You know where to go or what to do. At least it seems like this.
But the truth is, you don’t have a guarantee that you will go home with someone, or that if you do it will be enjoyable; or even if it is, that you and that person will have a good, lasting, committed relationship; or that you won’t contract a disease; or that you won’t conceive a child that you are not ready to care for.
You don’t have a guarantee that the same amount of alcohol will give you the buzz. In fact, you know, or should know, that your tolerance will increase, and that you will have to drink more alcohol for the same effect. The same is true for drugs. And the evil of it is, you will NEVER be able to duplicate “the first high/buzz.”
And even if you find “the perfect fantasy” on the “perfect web page,” the fact is, IT IS A FANTASY, NOT A REALITY. You aren’t really having sex, and you will most likely never meet the man or woman you are fantasizing about. And even if you do, and even if you have sex with them, you have the same uncertainties that you have of taking someone home from the bar. You have even more uncertainties because a porn star, by definition, is not going to be committed to just you, and by definition may have diseases and sickness due to his or her lifestyle.
So, nothing and no one gives you the guarantee of heavenly ecstasy and bliss that you seek. No one except God, for His presence is heaven, and His presence is eternal.
Now, this is not a “high/buzz/orgasm to infinite degree. I repeat and emphasize,
God is not a high/buzz/orgasm. He is not just a super sensation. He is a person. Yet He is the very satisfaction of our spirits, souls, and bodies.
This satisfaction is lasting and not circumstantial. Scripture calls it “perfect peace,” or “a peace that surpasses all understanding.” Paul calls it contentment no matter what. Jesus calls it “never hungering, never thirsting.”
This is a spiritual experience, but it is very real; indeed, it is reality. It is experienced in soul and body as well, but is also experienced in spite of any sadness of soul or sickness of body.
The struggle here is trusting God. The other things have “come through” for us before. Pornography is indeed a pleasing escape from reality. Romance novels (which I consider the female version of pornography) have the same effect. Both men and women get to experience intense pleasure with the other that they may not be experiencing in reality. Even married couples, if they are not getting from their spouses the “bliss” they want, can always go to a website or pick up the latest “steamy” novel on the shelves.
Alcohol and drugs have come through. They have given relaxation, release, and even “fellowship.”
So the devil will attempt to make leaving these things and going to God extremely difficult. If God does not “come through” with a stronger high/buzz/orgasmic experience then those mentioned, then He is not “as good as” sex/drugs/alcohol. But again, the “goodness” of these things in and of themselves is a lie from the devil. And we all know this deep down inside. We all know that we can’t drink/do drugs/have sex all day every day. These surely are not the purposes of life. The pleasure in them may give glimpses of eternal pleasure, when they are experienced legitimately. (I don’t know the legitimate experience of drugs, but it seems as though they mainly enhance pleasure hormones already in our body, given by God.) And even the legitimate experience of these pleasures will leave one “hungry” or “thirsty” as Jesus said. Again, the reason for this is that these things are finite objects of creation, and not the Creator, for whom we were made.
It takes trust. It takes a “denying of our selves.” We must, at first, allow our “needs/desires” go “unmet” in these areas. We must deny ourselves the pleasures of sex/drugs/alcohol/any other controlling pleasure. And we must go to God instead. When we feel lonely or scared or unsatisfied in human relationships or stressed out, instead of pulling out the cigarette to relieve anxiety, we pray. Prayer becomes the lollipop or patch used instead of the cigarette, if you will. Jesus becomes the one you call at night when you have a “crack dream.” Jesus becomes the one who keeps you company when you are lonely, instead of the woman on the porn site, or the man in the romance novel. Jesus becomes the drink that “clears your head” after a hard days work. Whenever you would go to these, you go to Jesus instead. Jesus becomes the one you “vent to” when you are so angry with your husband or wife or children that you think you will explode or hit or say something you regret and can never take back. The Book of Psalms in the Bible is an excellent example of the prayers of people who were angry or weary or experiencing anxiety. With God, we can express all emotions, and He will hear them, understand, correct them, clarify them, when no one else may be able to take them, or even want to take them.
In Romans 6, already mentioned above, Paul says that you are to give yourselves to God in the same way you gave yourself to sin. I know from experience the patience and endurance of seeking sinful pleasure. I wouldn’t give up. I kept trying until I found whatever temporal experience I looked for. Some will endure the first experiences of smoking, which I hear are anything but pleasing, in order to become smokers. Some will literally lie, cheat, steal, and kill for the high of drugs, giving up family, friends, job, and property. Note the drug addict is doing for drugs everything Jesus requires of His true disciples: again, they give up themselves (appearance, health, sanity,) their families and property.
Listen to the words of Jesus:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
“If anyone comes to me and does not take up his cross (accept rejection, suffering, and death), he cannot be my disciple.”
“If anyone comes to me and does not forsake all he has, he cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:25-43
How many of you have stayed up all hours of the night in the pursuit of happiness? How many have gone from relationship to relationship, no matter how many hurts have been experienced? We try and try and try again. We, like Gollum, pursue the seductive rings of power in our lives, even if they mean our death. We pursue. Relentless.
Yet will we pursue God with this same tenacity? Did we really have a guarantee the first time we had sex outside of marriage (or in marriage,) or the first time we smoked or drank, or whatever? Didn’t we do it and pursue it by faith, because of what we had heard? Notice how subtle is the devil. What does he require? Faith. What does God require? Faith. The devil simply wants you to take him at his word, to believe his lies. The hook in his bait is that he is promising your pleasure, or fun, or success or popularity, or whatever you want. God is promising Himself, and making it clear that He is what you really want, but that IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU, BUT ABOUT HIM. His focus is NOT ON MAKING YOU OR ME HAPPY NO MATTER WHAT. His focus is on you and me being what He made to us be and doing what He made us to do, NO MATTER WHAT. And in doing this, you will find true happiness.
Will we stay up all night for Him if necessary? Will we spend whatever money is necessary? Will we keep coming to Him like we kept coming to him or her? Will we simply “taste and see that He is good,” just like we tasted and saw that alcohol was good?
If we are to be free, we must want to be free. We must give ourselves to our newfound freedom to serve God just as we gave ourselves to serve ourselves. We must know and accept our new Master, rejecting our old masters, just as Sméagol rejected Gollum and accepted Frodo as his new protector and provider. I write these words to myself as well as to you, for these truths are what I need and desire more than anything right now. Peace to you. May God make them true in experience for me and you.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
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