Slavery or freedom?

The man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does (James 1:25).

From the moment of conception, we are slaves—slaves to sinful compulsions.  We are slaves to passionate emotion that won’t listen to reason.  We are chained by desires that won’t go away until we feed them, regardless of the trouble that results.  We are dragged into careless and destructive acts by our raging anger and the thrill we get from holding power in our hands, however limited it might be.  The only freedom we have as our birthright is a freedom to wallow in the clinging mud of humiliation and regret.

True freedom comes only from God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Son of God shows us that the darkness of corruption is inferior to the wonderful light He brings.  In the brilliance from heaven we can see how ugly our sinful behavior makes us—to God and to each other.  In the light that shreds the darkness, compulsions are revealed to be raging addictions that eat away at us until nothing is left but pain and despair.   Only the LORD God has the power to peel back the oily film of evil that sticks to everything in our lives so we can see things as they truly are.

But seeing that we are not free is only the first step.  Sadly, even with the truth of things revealed, we lack the strength and commitment to pry ourselves loose from the inky tar that we are stuck in.  Freedom must come from someone who is not caught in sin’s terrible grasp.  Freedom must come through God’s divine intervention in our lives. 

This is what Christ Jesus came here to accomplish.  Twenty centuries ago, the Son of God put on a human body and came among us to bring freedom.  He freed us from ignorance by revealing God to us and preserving His precious words in the Bible.  He freed us from the devil’s undisputed control of our lives by standing up to Lucifer and crushing the old serpent under His mighty heel.  He freed us from the fear of death by walking out of His own grave alive and extending His life-giving hand to all who will grasp it in humble gratitude and trust. Jesus offers us a freedom so rich, so intoxicating that we don’t mind giving up the false ‘freedom’ to live as sinners.  Thanks to our Savior from heaven we are free to be children of God, blessed with all the good things that entails.