“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” (Goethe)
“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Recently I heard the words of an old song that say; “Freedom come, Freedom go, Freedom never stay long.” (The Fortunes) At no time in history has freedom ever meant freedom forever. We are only as free as a train on its tracks, a kite on a string, as a bungee-cord jumper diving off a bridge. Freedom is a necessity and a pleasure but always within the limits of God’s unbreakable laws. Even an eagle is limited to the sky. A train is free to go ten-thousand miles as long as it stays on those two tracks that are five feet apart.
There is no such a thing as freedom ad libitum or freedom at your own pleasure. That Epicurean philosophy has been tried again and again be it in ancient Israel, Greece, Rome or modern America and it always carries within it the seeds of its own destruction. While we are all free to make our own decisions, we have to live with the corresponding consequences that follow. The fact is that only a virtuous people can remain free, because the more corrupt a nation become so the need for more rules and thus more masters to enforce them.
Consider Adam and Eve. All their needs were provided for. God gave them an important purpose – to fill the earth and rule over all of creation. I think I could get excited about that job! He only gave them one rule—a rule designed to protect them. They could not eat of the fruit from the tree of life. Other than that protective prescription designed to keep them free, they were free to live in sweet fellowship with the Father.
Since they were “free thinkers” they shook off the fetters of the Word and chose to be free. What resulted? They were filled with shame and loss of fellowship. They experienced the curse on the land. They and all of their descendants became slaves to sin.
God is all about freedom. His forgiveness is the pathway to true freedom. Only in His love do we experience everlasting freedom. Freedom is found in careful obedience His Word. Psalm 119:45 says “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.” (NIV) It may sound strange but submission to the authority of God sets us free from a host of different slaveries. There is nothing quite like
John 8:31-32. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Over a century ago our nation was embroiled in civil war. A primary issue was the slavery of people from Africa. On one September day, President Lincoln issued an executive order. He wrote: “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”
Suddenly, thousands of people were declared free people by the government of the United States of America.
One more powerful than that or any president has made a greater proclamation of freedom. It is contained in his Word. This is your proclamation.
“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Invite Him into your heart right now and enjoy the freedom that lasts forever; eternal, spiritual freedom from sin, from the past, in Christ
You are free In Him!
He’s Only a Prayer Away.
Pastor Bryant