Freedom or Captivity

 

As we in the United States prepare to celebrate Independence Day,  honoring our freedom from English rule and the birth of our new nation, may we never forget to thank God for that freedom. May we humbly pray for His continued protection from all enemies and evil, guidance, mercy, love and grace.

May we especially remember our Lord Jesus Christ Who freed us from the captivity of sin (Romans 7:23) and death to the ultimate liberty of eternal life!

Through His death and atoning sacrifice on the cross (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2), the perfect, sinless Lamb of God (John 1:36) paid the price in full for our crushing sin debt that enslaved us to the tyranny of sin, and its terminal consequences of physical and spiritual death (Romans 6:23) and everlasting punishment in hell (Matthew 10:28). Then he arose from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit, liberating those who trust Him as Lord and Savior to eternal life (John 3:16) that begins at the moment of salvation!

The prophet Isaiah (61:1) foretold that Christ could claim: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

Now we who are His church (Colossians 1:24) are freed from the penalty of sin, or everlasting death. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13), we are freed from the power of sin, as He guides and strengthens us to live as a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15), and not as slaves of our carnal desires and sin nature (Romans 7; 8:6).

One day we shall be freed from even the presence of sin, as Holy God cannot allow the corruption of sin to enter the perfect holiness of His Heaven. Praise God that He allows us, sinners saved by grace (Ephesians 3:8-9), to enter Heaven because of the imputed righteousness of His Son! (Romans 4:6, 11,22)

Once we were as depraved as the young Hebrew man who wasted his inheritance on sinful living until his hunger and poverty drove him into the captivity of defiling himself in a pigpen. But now, like the Prodigal Son, our realization of the depths of our sin freed us from that prison and allowed us to return to the loving embrace of Our Father (Luke 15:11-32).

No longer slaves to the devil, we are now God’s children and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17), Who clothes us in the pure white robe of His righteousness (Job 29:14; Isaiah 61:10) and places the ring, bearing His seal, on our finger!

While we are in this earthly life, we experience the bondage of aging and of death. Friends and loved ones leave us, but if they too are saved, we have the living and sure hope (1 Peter 1:3; Hebrews 6:19) that we will be reunited one day. We may be losing our physical and mental abilities and hardly recognize the wrinkled face in the mirror, but we know that one day, we will live forever in a glorified body (1 Corinthians 15:42-54) like that of Christ Himself! Then we will never grow old; experience pain, sickness or sorrow; sin; or die.

Meanwhile, while our physical body is aging, we can experience the freedom of knowing that our inward man is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16), if we do not quench or grieve the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19; Ephesians 4:30), and if we die daily to our sin nature (1 Corinthians 15:31).

May we do that by bringing every thought in captivity (2 Corinthians 10:5) to His guidance and perfect standard, knowing that Christ led captivity captive (Psalm 68:18; Ephesians 4:8) and proclaimed liberty to all who follow Him!

Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Only through trusting Jesus Christ can we have eternal life, liberty from sin and death, and joy in His perfect and complete salvation – please let Him free you from captivity today!

© 2022 Laurie Collett