Freedom: Freely Loved In Christ

“When we say that God loves us, we must never think of that in terms of a cold statement of doctrine; we must understand that the Holy Spirit is God in the act of loving us, embracing and enfolding His arms about us. The Holy Spirit is God running to us, flinging His arms around us, and passionately loving us.” (p.195)--Malcolm Smith, The Lost Secret of the New Covenant


That the Christ follower is freely loved is a radical thing. In that love we are wholly freed. Unfortunately this concept is hard to grasp for many Christians. I understood the basic concept early on but it took another twenty years for it to sink in.

I was in the middle of a divorce. I was struggling with my own sexual brokenness. I was attending a group to work through my brokenness and one of the leaders handed me a series on God’s unconditional love by Malcolm Smith. At that place in that season God used the series to ground me in His love.

We are fully free through the cross of Christ. We experience that freedom fully when we understand God’s deep love for us and that we do nothing to earn it. This frees us to enjoy life. It is so easy for us in the church to worry about behaviour; the music we enjoy, the food we eat or the places we hang out. The Biblical key is of course to glorify God in whatever we do—whether we eat or drink or go to the movies.

Oh that we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge…” Oh to live in joy and freedom in Christ!


“Agape is not wakened or created by the beauty of its object, but arises spontaneously from the heart of God. It is therefore a love that cannot be earned or deserved… His love for us originates in who He is, not in our being loveable.” ---Malcolm Smith