Why “Going Our Own Way” Is a Burden, Not a Freedom
He Is the Way
We often hear the encouragement to go our own way or blaze our own trail. We can find our truth or write our story. In a lot of ways, that sounds like freedom. But without Christ, it’s actually bondage because it leaves us exhausted, overwhelmed, and enslaved to our sin—because what Jesus is saying is that we need a way.
Behold and Believe
Courtney Doctor, Joanna Kimbrel
This 7-week Bible study from the Gospel Coalition explores the question Who is Jesus? by walking through his 7 “I am” statements in the Gospel of John.
We need a way to God that we cannot blaze ourselves. Only Christ can be that way because only Christ lived perfectly. Only Christ died in our place for the forgiveness of our sins. And so if we are trying to find our own way, if we are trying to follow the path that makes the most sense to us, it sounds like freedom. But we will be weary, we will be exhausted, and we will never be able to do enough.
But Jesus says, “I have made a way, and I am the way,” and so there is freedom and there is joy and there is comfort and there is peace in knowing that there is one way in Christ. Praise the Lord.! We found it.
Joanna Kimbrel is coauthor with Courtney Doctor of Behold and Believe: A Bible Study on the “I Am” Statements of Jesus.
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