I once watched a video where Jane Goodall, the woman who devoted her life to studying and protecting chimpanzees, helped to release a young chimp, Wounda, who had been abandoned very sick and was nursed back to health. You can watch the video here.
In the video, they take Wounda in her cage to a jungle island where there are other chimpanzees to release her. There are a couple of men, Dr. Goodall, and another woman who had overseen Wounda's care. The men set the cage down in the jungle and pull open the door. Wounda immediately comes out and takes a few steps, then stops and turns around. She goes back to the caretaker, then embraces Jane in a long hug. You can tell Wounda is thinking about the freedom that's been given to her but she is still unsure. She takes a few more steps, then stops and hangs out in a tree near her humans. Freedom has been offered to her but she is trying to decide whether or not to take it. She has been set free, but she has a choice to make. She could take it, or she could go back to her cage. It's her choice.
The freedom we have in Christ is not quite the same.
John 8:32 says, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Words are so important and we can learn a lot from the words God chooses. Being "made free" and being "set free" are a little different. Wounda was set free, but she wasn't made free.
How are they different?
God "made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21). God made it happen. He caused it, compelled it, constrained it. It happened according to his will on purpose, and Jesus submitted himself to the Father's will.
"Christ was made a curse for us" (Gal 3:13). Again, this was an act of the Father's will upon Christ, for our benefit. It was done purposefully and Christ accepted that he was made a curse. His will was in accord with the Father's.
When we believe this, God says "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Just like Jesus was made to be sin for us and made a curse for us, we are made free. We are caused, compelled, constrained. The Father makes us free on purpose as an act of his will.
Once we believe Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, we have no choice in whether or not we are free. God declares we are. We could choose, as Wounda could, to go back to our cage of pre-belief bondage, but we don't have to. If we did, it would be in direct opposition to what God has already done in us. We don't have to go back to our old sinful way of living. We are free because God says we are. Do we believe that? Do we live like we believe it?
We are commanded to "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5:1). If we were only set free and had to choose every day whether we felt free or not, it would be hard to "stand fast." We would always be waffling this way and that, depending on the feeling of the day. Some days I feel free, and other days it's a struggle to believe I am. This is a warning from the Apostle Paul to not go back to the cage God brought us out of, but to believe what God has already done—he's made us free. In order to stand we need a firm foundation, one that doesn't shift and move around based on how we feel that day. That foundation is the freedom God placed us in by no act of our own will, but because he made it so. He made us free.
And finally . . .
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). I can't be under two opposing laws at the same time. I can only be under one. If there were a law that said you could only drive 45 mph and another law that said you had to go at least 60, could you obey them both at the same time? Obviously not.
When I believed on Christ as my substitute on the cross, I was freed from the law of sin and death and put under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. The first law was removed and the second was placed on me. One or the other, but not both, and no jumping back and forth. The transfer is a one-time event. I've been brought out of my cage and placed in a position of freedom. It was done on purpose. I was made free. That's my current position.
"If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).
We who trust in Jesus' payment for our sin are free. We've been made free. We don't come out of the cage of our sinfulness and try to decide if we want to continue being in bondage. We are made free.
Free indeed.