Was Jesus really a freedom campaigner? 

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Jesus had an agenda, and he pushed it. He was on a freedom campaign, though not a political one or a violent one. He was constantly talking about the new state of things, a new era of freedom under the direct reign of God. He kept calling people to "follow him" into this new world.

 

Unlike John the Baptist, Jesus never called out the political authorities for their ungodly living, but he ripped the religious authorities up one side and down the other. His criticisms finally came to a head in a confrontation in the religious power center, the Temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 21.12-13).

 

The Temple authorities had made it impossible for foreigners to pray in the Temple by turning the only "foreigners' section" of the Temple into a bazaar for changing money and buying sacrificial animals. Very lucrative. Very indifferent to God's intentions for this area.

 

Jesus had ignored this ungodly abuse of foreigners on several previous visits to the Temple, but this time he walked in and, acting purely on his own personal authority, he threw the merchants out. This was a liberating act. He was freeing up space for foreigners to pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

 

This was the one and only time in Jesus's entire ministry when he did such a thing. He was pushing the buttons of the religious establishment, going for their jugular, and he knew it. But at this point in the freedom campaign, it was what God wanted him to do. 

 

The establishment reacted first by trying to discredit him publicly with several loaded questions, but that backfired. Finally they got so desperate that they arrested him and had him executed as a threat to the nation's survival. He died for talking like a liberator and a king.

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His enemies correctly saw that he was a freedom campaigner, putting himself above the official authorities even though he had no official status at all. The question was not whether he was a freedom campaigner. It is whether he was the one freedom campaigner, the Messiah, anointed by God.

 

And that is still the question for us. If we say yes, we SYNC with his freedom campaign and put ourselves at his disposal. If we say no, we pity him as a sincere but pathetically self-deceived messiah, and we back away.

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Do I have to become a freedom activist in order to get Jesus's freedom for myself? What if that just isn't me?

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 There is a very widespread idea that some of us who "follow Jesus" are not cut out to be activists of any kind. Jesus died to free us from that idea and turn us into his kind of freedom activists.

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 The Spirit whom Jesus sends to live in us is the "activating Spirit," that is, the Spirit who switches us from OFF to ON, from spiritually dead to spiritually alive. He activates us, turning us into activists who are in SYNC with Jesus and his strategy to change the world by bringing heaven's freedom into it.​

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We don't spread the message of the Freedom Declaration in order to create the new era of freedom. The era is already here. The Declaration is already in force. But a lot of people either did not get the memo or did not realize what it meant. They are still living like nothing has changed. So we are activists in the sense of raising awareness and doing everything we can to get people to care.

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Being freedom activists for Jesus does not mean we have to hold demonstrations, go on strikes, gather signatures, enroll members, or organize people. It is true that some of us are not cut out for those ordinary methods of activism, but we don't have to use those to be activists with Jesus. People use those methods because they are working to force something to happen. We are not.

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We do not have to act like broadcasters or salespeople either. Broadcasters may not care how people respond, and broadcasters usually are not official representatives (like we are) of the authority who issued a Declaration. Salespeople are in it for the money, but we are in it for the joy of being in on it, helping people, spreading freedom, and making a name for Jesus the freedom bringer. 

 

All free citizens of his kingdom do make some kind of name for the King, good or bad. If we do not care enough to be activists, we make a bad name for Jesus. The supposedly transforming power of his Spirit did not seem to work in our case because it didn't activate us.

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How do I know if I am already a "free citizen of the kingdom of Jesus"? 

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The simplest way to tell if you are already a citizen is to ask yourself what you think freedom is. If you can name something that used to dominate your life but it doesn't any more because of your connection with Jesus, you are in. If you think freedom means being free to do whatever you choose or having no master, no debts, and no unwanted responsibilities, you are not in yet. 

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Another way to tell is to ask what you are doing to spread the news of freedom and call others to enjoy it like you do. The experience of freedom in Christ pushes you toward living as a freedom activist. If the "activist" part scares you, you aren't into Christ's freedom yet, or not very far in.

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If you still aren't sure, here is a third way to tell, though it is a little more work. Read the story called "The Freedom Declaration" (2 min., see under "Story of the World" tab) and ask whether you see yourself as part of that story. The "Reflections" at the end of the story include five ways to tell whether you are in or not.

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If I wanted to become a free citizen of Jesus's kingdom, how would I do it?

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If you are not in but want to be, the way to get in is basically to respond to the story, "The Freedom Declaration" story (see under "Story of the World" tab) by saying, "I'm in," the same way you might say, "I'm in" when someone asked you whether you wanted to go along on a trip or take part in a business deal. Obviously you have to understand the trip or the business deal. Otherwise it doesn't mean anything to say, "I'm in," and you will opt out pretty quickly.

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In this case, your "I'm in," means you pray a prayer something like this:

 

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