| Free At Last; Free At Last, Part 2: The Emotional Grasp of Freedom |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Sunday, September 27 2009 00:00 |
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Last week I mentioned meeting with a Christian brother and friend who had recently been released from prison and asking him about the transition back to normal life. He cited his difficulty in realizing that he was actually free. There are so many parallels to the Christian experience from which we can draw. Jesus told the Jews in John 8:31-36 “’If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?’ Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’” Freedom is a fundamental Christian doctrine. The reason is clear from what Jesus said. Whoever sins becomes a slave to sin, and all of us sin; thus all of us have been in bondage with no place in the family of God. Like being in jail, we have no freedom. We have no way to earn our way out; there is nothing we can do to release ourselves. The sentence is not only a life sentence but an eternal sentence. The only way to freedom is through the Son of God. Unfortunately, like these Jews, people truly in bondage do not realize it, as that is all they have known. Like the person, my friend told me, who is given a long sentence, prison becomes his world. However, when we come to Christ, the Son sets us free. And Jesus’ words, “free indeed,” suggest that it is a complete freedom that is multi-faceted in nature. Like unbelievers who do not understand that they are actually in jail and bondage, many Christians who have come to trust Christ, like my friend, cannot comprehend freedom. Thus we study and preach on texts like this one. Many, many Christians then come to assent to the idea of freedom, for the Scriptures clearly teach it. Like my friend, they come finally to understand intellectually that they are free, but emotionally they do not, and the devil is pleased because they are constantly in a state of fear and concern over their salvation. (To be continued) |
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