Free Indeed: Escaping Bondage and Brokenness for Freedom in Christ

by Richard Ganz

Dr. Ganz has the heart-probing insights of a doctor, along with the love and concern for people that comes from 25 years as a pastor. In this practical and easily read book Ganz exposes the patterns of thought and behavior that trap us and keep us from the freedom God offers his children. Not me-centered freedom, but true freedom, found in Christ, that really effects every area of life.

Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard Ganz writes Free Indeed because he wants Christians to experience the freedom Christ intended in their lives. As a counselor and pastor, he longs to see those he ministers to free from the entrapments of sin in their lives. He believes that most of the church is “a body of conflict-riddled, burden-bearing, guilt-filled, miserable creatures, more worthy of pity than emulation.” We don’t have to live like this, Ganz says, we can experience “the full freedom His salvation offers.”

Written in short, punchy chapters, Ganz’s strength is in speaking words of truth into our entrapment in sin: Jesus Christ has destroyed the power and grip of sin and evil over our lives. The lie that we buy is that we are free, we are autonomous. And yet “all around us we see people adrift on a sea of limitless alternatives, and the consequences are devastating.” The reality is that the world is in bondage. Autonomy is bondage. “Freedom should no more be a goal than happiness. Freedom is the by-product of a life rightly lived.”

Jesus shows us the way to true freedom as he surrenders his will to the Father’s in Gethsemane: “The cost of Freedom is the denial of personal freedoms that stand in the way of true freedom.” In rejecting the freedom of the world for the freedom of Christ, we experience freedom from condemnation and freedom to live into Christ’s righteousness. “We are liberated to love!” Ganz exults.

We have to understand the entirety of our being: mind, will, and emotion to be able to move forward, Ganz says. If we reduce ourselves to just one of these, then we will misunderstand who we are. We move forward by moving forward in Paul’s call in Ephesians 4 to take off the old and put on the new. We can’t just take off, we must put on. As Christians, we are no longer slaves to sin, so we can do this.

Unlike the psychologized love offered by pop-psychologists today, Ganz says that our love does not begin with self-love. In fact, “To esteem yourself is a perversion of the call to esteem others, and to love yourself is a perversion of the call to love others.” This is one of the few times that I disagreed with Ganz. I agree that true love does not begin with self-love, but I do believe that someone grounded in the profound love of God does experience some level of healthy self-love. A healthy self-love reflects God’s love of us, a love that is poured out through the grace of Christ, not because of our merit, but a love that is poured lavishly on us nonetheless. In fact, the second half of the great commandment appears to even be based on a presumption of self-love: “love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus says.

There is a lot of truth in Ganz’s punchy book, Free Indeed, and there are certainly chapters I will use and even would love to walk through with counselees. There are two weaknesses that hold Ganz’s book back from being a go-to resource for me. First, Ganz’s own voice in the book lacks a certain amount of empathy. That comes through especially in his examples where he never reveals his own struggles with freedom and sometimes is a bit condescending toward those who are struggling. A more significant weakness is that, unfortunately, in Ganz’s own framework, he deals a lot with our mind, and not very much with our will and our emotions. What does it look like to have our will and emotions conformed to Christ that we might fully experience his freedom? I would encourage the reader to pick up Thomas Brooks’s Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, Tim Keller’s, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, Peter Scazzero’s Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, and Ann Voskamp’s Ten Thousand Gifts or The Broken Way as a helpful place to start on that front. With that said, I would recommend Ganz’s Free Indeed as a helpful place to start for those who are struggling.

[Annie Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read You Shall Be Free Indeed, published 1989, which I assume is the same book. The copy I read looks self-published and was of uneven quality and tone; I assume the book represented here is professionally edited.

Some profound thoughts. I will be reviewing it in detail on my blog to discuss its ideas, both the good ones to recommend them and the bad ones to refute them.

[Jeff]

Ganz writes directly, clearly, and most significantly biblically. Good book!