Most Christians understand they're saved by grace, not rules. But here's where it gets complicated. What happens when your freedom becomes someone else's stumbling block? Today on Insight for Living, Bible teacher Chuck Swindahl tackles one of the most challenging tensions in the Christian life. The collision between liberty and love.
Should we adjust our choices based on what offends others? Or does that lead back to legalism? In this penetrating study of Romans chapter 14, we discover why both extremes miss the mark, and we learn the surprising secret to living freely while loving deeply. Ah! If you brought a Bible, uh Find the letter to the Romans.
If you didn't, that's okay. You'll see what the text says and then we'll be guided into it by the Spirit of God as He speaks to us in a special way. We love God and we love how great He is, and we. Thank him for his word. I'll read for you this section from Romans 2.
14 beginning at verse 13. down to the end. Therefore, let us not judge one another any more, but rather determine this, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean. in itself.
But to him who thinks anything to be unclean, To him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, You are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christians. Christ died. Therefore, Do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil.
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. But righteousness And peace. and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God. and approved by men.
So then, let us pursue the things which make for peace. and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but They're evil for the man who eats and gives offence. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which your brother.
stumbles. The faith which you have. have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself. and what he approves.
But he who doubts is condemned if he eats. Because his eating is not from faith. And whatever is not from faith. is sin. Um You're listening to Insight for Living.
To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook by going to insight.org/slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, Liberty on a Tightrope. It's the 7th of August, 1974. It's New York City, and it's a hot, humid morning. The sky's clear.
You notice that as you step up out of the subway and onto the main thoroughfare. making your way to the place where you have worked for a few months. You see it, of course, immediately upon coming out of the subway. The towers stand tall over a quarter of a mile high into the air. 1350 feet high.
not counting the 70 feet below street level. Where the foundation sits like a gigantic bathtub. Steel laced concrete. below all the way down to Manhattan granite. You realize as you approach these towers that stand tall and high.
That there are some hundred and seventy acres of office space within them. A hundred and ten floors, we will all remember that. having lived through 9-11. Where all kinds of businesses occur from one day to the next. Your office is about halfway up, but you reach this.
towering building and before you walk into the lobby with its Seventh-story high ceiling. You stop because others around you have stopped, and they're all looking up. Their mouths are open and they're staring, and they're seeing something that was not a part of the original architectural design. There is a thin, thin line that stretches across. the two buildings way, way up at the top.
131 feet apart these buildings sit. Like a wind tunnel, and they must be that far apart, said the architects, or the buildings will vibrate when the wind swishes through like a wind Tunnel surging through because of its high velocity. But you see this strand high up there. And then there's a speck. in the middle of it.
You're like everybody else around, you cannot believe it because the speck is moving. What you are looking at is a 25-year-old French-born tightrope walker. Named Philippe. Petit. Who is out on this 450-pound cable that he has strung up there the night before illegally?
There are policemen on both ends as he is dancing out on this tightrope. One source said he went back and forth eight times, and on occasion, jumped on the cable as if it were a trampoline. Yeah. One of his friends had said to him, You have to wear a harness and connect it to one of the towers. Are as sure as the world a gust of wind will come along and blow you off.
He laughed at that. One of the policemen standing on the other end screamed out, You get off there, or I'm coming out to get you. Yeah. Yeah. Can't you see, Philip?
Come on. Ha ha ha ha. His words describe his philosophy. Two towers. I walk.
Well, he was arrested and later set free after just a little brief incarceration. And of course, the talk shows, and all sorts of interviewers wanted to hear him tell his story. These are his words. I feel I belong to the sky. It is the moment of purest happiness, absolute freedom for me.
At no other time am I more free. I breathe very slowly and enjoy immensely the miracle of balance. I breathe. slowly and I realize I felt fear earlier, but no longer. The fear of letting go and I fought it and then I laughed at it.
I was surrounded now by complete peace out on the wire. I know the rapture of the heights in the middle of the wire. I dropped to one knee in the traditional salute of the tightrope walker. There at my feet was all. of New York.
He's a nut. Yeah. Absolute none. He's a brave nut, but he's a nut. What is it that sends that guy out on places like that?
It is the feeling of freedom. There are many analogies between the experience of that remarkable acrobat.
Some would call a fool. and the exhilarating experience of the Christian life. Once you have tasted of true liberty, You never can go back. Even though they'll shout at you from both sides. You realize you have never been more free, and the ecstasy of the freedom.
is unspeakable. You have lived your life Anchored. Anchored to the rules and regulations of a legalistic church or pastor. or body of people who would hold you in their grip. and push you down.
Tell you to never ever walk. That that kind of freedom is for those who were stupid. who are heretics. Who have no understanding of the Christian life, but you know better and you've learned better. No longer is there the harness of lists and demands and.
Legalistic expectations that you have to live up to to rid yourself of guilt or even worse, shame. You're free. You're free in Christ. And you just begin to experience the joys. That sense of almost careless freedom.
As you breathe the fresh air of grace. And we at Stonebriar Community Church applaud you. for taking the risk. Against the memories of your past and against a number of friends who frown, you're determined. You're not going to live in the guilt and the shame of their.
Expectations. And you are rare. And you're ready to dance. and tell the world a story. You feel like at times Below you is all of the world.
that needs to hear it.
Now um The first 12 verses of Romans 14 is all about the acrobat out on the wire. The last half of chapter fourteen of Romans is all about. the balance he maintains. or she maintains while enjoying the freedom. I've even given you a little artist.
Cartoon. I like the guy. I like the hair on his chest. I like his eyes at half moon. I like it that he's relaxed.
I like his thumbs.
Okay. But what's most important is not the little acrobat. Not Philly. What's most important is what's on each end of the pole. On one end is the control that we place on ourselves.
Out of the other end, love for others. You forget that, and you become a careless, independent. Rebel of a Christian. You're going to do your thing regardless. It doesn't make any difference what anybody may say or think.
I am free, thank God Almighty. I am free at last. And nobody is going to hold me down. I don't care. Who's offended by my freedom?
It's to you Paul writes these last Verses of Romans chapter 14, and there are some of you here like that. Just as there are some of you here who are still in the clutches of the harness. Can't even imagine being free. The way you were reared, the things you were taught, the churches you attended. The groups you were a part of, the pastor you served under.
Emphasis on under. You were, if you will, Entrapped. In the clutches of those demands and expectations. Paul understands, remember, he was a Pharisee. Remember his past.
He was a member of the Sanhedrin. It's impossible to think of one more legal. in the first century than the apostle himself. But he's been set free. And so he writes the letter to the Romans to explain it.
But now a word of caution. There must be Control. Mixed with love. Or it won't be freedom at all. It'll be an offence.
It'll be license. Yeah. I am of the conviction, the same as Martin Lloyd-Jones, from whom I learned it. That, unless some take advantage of it, you really are not preaching grace. It doesn't mean we want people to take advantage of it.
It means that when we do declare grace, there will be those who go too far. Who in a Careless and independent spirit care little for what others may say or think or how their lives may be impacting them negatively.
So Paul writes these verses to bring it into balance.
Sort of a summary as he begins. Therefore, he summarizes at verse 13: let us not judge one another anymore.
Now, you sat through. Whole sermon. Last time on How important it is that we let people live their lives and that we free ourselves. From judging, looking down on others, both extremes are seen in the lives of both legalists who judge the one who is free and the one who is free. having no regard for the one who isn't, the weaker brother.
And so he speaks to both of us when he says, let us. Let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother or sister's way. You see, I put it like this. Love. is the card that trumps liberty.
And you show your immaturity when you have little room for love and most room for liberty. Because they must be seen together and held in balance. Hold your place and look a couple of letters further. into Galatians chapter five. Galatians is what I've sometimes called the Magna Carta of Christian liberty.
Chapter 5, verse 1, connected with verse 13. Don't have the time for the verses in between, but look at these two. In juxtaposition to one another. Verse 1, verse 13 of Galatians 5. If it was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore, Keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Amen. We believe in that. We stand in that. We exalt in that. Don't go back under the legalistic lifestyle.
Don't think by living up to someone else's do's and don'ts, you're more spiritual. Or that God somehow will smile on you or accept you into a special category of His family called the spiritual. Verse 13. He says it again. For you were called to freedom, brethren.
And then this word, only Do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. But true love, there it is again, serve. one another. If you've never marked a verse before in your Bible, I suggest you start with verse 2. Yeah, yeah.
Wonderful guideline. We'll mark another one in Romans a little later, but this is one to mark. You're called to freedom, there's no doubt about it.
So get out on that on that cable. Start your walk. Learn to balance.
However, remember. Not all can walk there as you do.
So you need discernment. Most importantly, You need love. for others. In other words, have a heart. Take note that not everyone is as far along as you are.
Especially when you are in public places, when you are in a place where you could easily be an offense. Put on the brakes. Apply some control.
Now, we have two or three reminders in this last part of Romans chapter 14 that I think are worth repeating. The first one comes from the Fourteenth verse. Nothing is unclean in itself. That's just exactly what the verse says. I know.
And I am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean. In itself. Last time we talked about meat that had been offered on the idol. We talked about those who observe one day over another. Turning festivals and special days into a fetish.
We talked about those who were offended by those who would eat meat that had. Come from a carcass that had, part of which had been burnt on an idol's altar. Paul says there's nothing to it. There's nothing unclean about the meat. There's nothing wrong with any day of the week or month or year.
There's nothing innately. Wrong about it. Nothing is unclean in itself. You sit down to a T-bone steak. that was cut from the steer Part of which had been offered on an idol's altar is no problem.
The state does not contaminate you. But there are those who have been raised in idolatry and have been saved out of idolatry, and they've not yet come to the place where they can see. That the meat is okay to eat. They think to touch anything that was once on an idol altar is a. is wrong.
And so? Paul sets it straight, nothing is in itself unclean.
However, Remember the control part, remember the love part of our balance. To him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Mm-hmm. Talk to the young Christian who was saved out of that. Who has a deep and abiding fear of ever coming anywhere near that or anything that wants touched that?
And you'll hear another story. Remember last time? We talked about meat that had been offered on the idol. Before the idol, and the good meat left over found its way to the meat market and went on sale. Christians would buy that meat and Then throw a party and They found themselves surrounded by friends who loved that meat, and suddenly talk came from: where did you get this meat?
Oh, the meat came from the shambles, from the meat market. Oh, really? Yeah. Ashley's meat offered to a nut. You got a few there that go, wait, wait, wait, wait, you realize my background?
I came from that background. I mean That'll contaminate your life if you eat meat that was once offered to an idol. He'd prefer to eat vegetables. than any piece of meat cut from a carcass that has been on an idol's altar. That's what he means by the meat here.
Paul says there's nothing unclean. if God's called it clean.
Now let's understand that. lest you think this means anything goes, which is the whole point of this message. Um If the Lord writes in His word anything, About something being wrong or unclean or sinful, stay away from it. That's not legalism. That's obedience.
While he doesn't condemn a sip of wine or a bit of wine at a meal, if that's your choice. He condemns from start to finish drunkenness. There's no question. That's never in question. Our Lord says there's even room for anger.
But he says, rage and anger, where you go to sleep on it and you sustain anger, that's wrong.
So be angry but do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. And there are other gray areas we could name. Verse 15, here's the love flowing through. For if because of food your brother is hurt, You are no longer walking according to love.
Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ. Christ died. Both of you are equal in God's eyes. Both of you are equally loved. How about a little love for one another is the whole point.
These are gray areas. In fact, he goes further: do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. Put in today's language, don't flaunt your liberty. I know you're free. We know you're free.
You know you're free. But if you flaunt your liberty It becomes an offense to some. And out of love for them, guard yourself from doing that. Way back when Cassius Clay began to box. He won the Golden Gloves, some of you will remember.
You are sports fans, and before he was named Muhammad Ali. He was just cassius clay, but he was already believing his own clippings. And he was telling everybody, I am the greatest. I am the greatest. He'd swing himself around and one occasion he sat in first class to fly to a destination and he refused to buckle his seatbelt.
And the flight attendant walked over and said, Sir, you need to buckle your seatbelt. We're about ready to take off. He said, Superman don't need no seatbelt. To which she replied very wisely, Superman don't need no airplane. Buckle up.
There's a flaunting of things that. It's offensive. If you need to buckle up, buckle up. We don't need to know how free you are. We need to know how much you love us.
That'll help us. In fact, there's a proverb that says: a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong. city, and their contentions are like the bars of a castle. I don't know if you've ever talked to someone who has been offended by another Christian. But if you have, as I have, You got your work cut out for you.
to win them back.
So, out of love for those who can't quite keep up or catch up or get to where you are yet. Have a heart. Apply the brakes. Be wise. There's a second reminder that appears down here in verse 17.
The kingdom, I love this verse, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. But it's the deep things that are intangible and invisible. And so Christ like righteousness and peace and and joy of the Holy Spirit.
So The reminder is this: the essence of Christianity is not externals. It's eternals. It's not external. How easy to get hung up on tangible things and foods and habits and clothing and drinks and obvious things. But the organ of life's richest delight.
It's not the stomach. It's the heart. What you will answer for is not what you put into your stomach. But what the attitude of your heart was. Or is Uh Yeah.
Well, put a bookmark in your Bible at Romans chapter 14 because we're just getting started on this practical topic. You're listening to Insight for Living, and we're midway through a message from Chuck Swindall he titled Liberty on a Tightrope. After hearing Chuck today, perhaps you're ready for some healthy introspection. Putting aside our own liberties for the sake of a weaker brother is a central theme in Romans fourteen. To gain a better grasp on what this truly means, we encourage you to take a deep dive into Paul's letter to the Romans, using your Bible and a custom Bible study guide that's been tailored for this very purpose.
The Bible study workbooks on Romans are part of our Searching the Scriptures studies. And all the details for ordering both volumes can be found at insight.org/slash offer. I also want to tell you about a brand new 25-day Advent devotional. When you request it today, it'll arrive in time for the holidays. This new book, written by Carlos Sasueta along with Chuck Swindahl, is called Everlasting Light: A Journey from Promise to Presence.
Our only request is that you include a generous donation to support the media ministry of Insight for Living. As we deliver biblical truth on the radio, online, and all the other ways you can freely access Insight for Living. This thank you gift provides a two-fold objective. First of all, it will guide your family's preparation for celebrating the birth of our Savior. And second, your gift will help others embrace the hope of Jesus, our everlasting light.
In our history together, there has never been a more urgent time to deliver this message. Thanks so much for giving generously as you measure the impact of Chuck's teaching on both your life and countless others. Again, the Advent devotional is called everlasting light. Send your donation and your request to Insight for Living. Post Office Box 5000.
Frisco, Texas, 75034. You can also call us at 800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org slash donate. Uh I'm Bill Meyer. Don't miss Thursday's program when Chuck Swindahl describes what he calls liberty on a tightrope. Right here on Insight for Living.
The preceding message, Liberty on a Tightrope, was copyrighted in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
