Freedom That Makes Us Free Indeed!

      Many modern Americans have a rabid focus on freedom and liberty.

Sadly, because our culture has largely rejected the reality of moral and spiritual truth, liberty for millions is now nothing more than a license to sin and a demand to live life free of any moral and spiritual restraints & strictures beyond what individuals decide between their own ears. Because of that, many wrongs are now declared to be right. Sin has been baptized and sanitized to the point many things once considered to be sinful now enjoy widespread social acceptance as well as legal  and constitutional protection. There is a “new normal” which very often is the same old immoral behavior and thinking wrapped up in new verbal packaging and terminology. Where and when and even if America’s current gallop away from God and His truth will ever stop is anybody’s guess. All the more reason, then, for genuine Christians to tighten their grip even more firmly on the great truth declared by Jesus Christ in John 8:32, 34, 36 – “You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free . . . . Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. . . Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” As you think about the political and legal freedoms we enjoy as Americans, consider, as space allows, just a few ways New Testament writers depict the magnificent freedom Christ gained for us through His perfect and peerless performance as our Savior at the cross:

  ☛ He ransomed us from sin – Matthew 20:28;  Mark 10:45;

     1 Timothy 2:6.

  ☛ He redeemed us from sin –   Galatians 3:13;  Ephesians 1:7;

      Titus 2:14;  Hebrews 9:14;  1 Peter 1:18-19.

  ☛ He reconciled us to God –    Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20-22;

      Romans 5:6-11.

  ☛ He delivered (rescued) us –  Galatians 1:4;   Colossians 1:12-13;

      1 Timothy 1:10.

  ☛ He saved us from our sins –  Matthew 1:21.

  ☛ He provided propitiation for our sins (that’s good news – check a Bible

      dictionary!) – Romans 3:23-25.

  ☛ He justified us, made peace with God & gave us access into God’s

      grace by faith –     Romans 5:1.

  ☛ He gave us newness of life through His death, burial, and resurrection,

      pictured beautifully by our repentance and burial into His death in

      baptism and subsequent rising to a new life – Romans 6:1-6.

  ☛ He released us from the guilt of sin and keeps us in a state of no

      condemnation – Romans 8:1-3.

  ☛ He made us who once were far off from God near through His blood,

      made peace, gave us access to the Father, and made provisions for us

      to become fellow-citizens with the saints and members of the

      household of God, a holy temple in the Lord, a habitation of God in the

      Spirit – Ephesians 2:13-22.

      Christ provides us with a freedom that makes us free indeed!

      I close with a statement I read a while back – “I spent most of my life

     searching for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Then I finally

     found it at the foot of the cross.” Won’t you think about it?

--Dan Gulley