Photo by Jenny Venturo
Last week, we celebrated the birth of a nation completely separate and independent from her former controlling nation. There is good reason to celebrate. America is the nation of freedom. We enjoy independence and opportunities that no other country can experience. But are you free?
In America, you are free to worship the way you please. You are free to vote. You are free to have a voice in your government. We are free in many ways. Yet many of us are trapped in a prison from which there is only one way of escape.
Sin a prison—and inside that prison are many cells which may cage you up. Guilt. Despair. Depression. Bitterness. Doubt. Consequences. Ruined lives. Ruined relationships. Everything is ruined by sin. Sin destroys and binds. Sin kills. And in the end, sin leads to eternal condemnation. The wages of sin is death—eternal death in Hell (Romans 6:23).
But the Bible not only identifies the problem of sin—it explains the solution. Though all of us are sinners because we have offended a holy God by breaking His law, Jesus (God in the flesh) died on the Cross in the place of guilty sinners, rising from death and defeating it forever. Those who repent (turn from their sin) and trust in Jesus alone for salvation from sin and from God’s wrath receive forgiveness and a place in heaven.
In the same way that America broke free from tyrannical oppression, those who are in Christ become new creations (II Corinthians 5:17). They are completely separate from their old lifestyles. The Bible says “we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?" (Rom 6:2). I Peter 2:24 says that “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” Not only has the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus delivered us from the penalty of sin in hell, it delivers us from the power of sin so that we no longer are under its control. We are free. Not free to live however we want but free to live in right relation to God. True freedom. The freedom God originally intended us to have.
Are you free? Really free? Free from guilt? Free from the fear of death? Come to Christ. He is the Way out of condemnation and the Way toward God. Throw yourself on God’s mercy today—mercy manifested through Christ—and you will be free from the guilt that would condemn you at the final judgment (Romans. 8:1).
If you have experienced freedom from sin in Christ, the Bible says you continually experience the same freedom from sin. You die to yourself every day so that you might live to God (Romans 6:12-14; Galatians 2:20). Are you living that way? Or is there sin in your life which you must confess and forsake? Nail the sin or the burden to the Cross and let Christ’s blood cover it. Then, let the spring in your step carry you quickly to the shackled souls around you, to whose chains you have the key.
Are you free? You can be free only through Christ. But you are free to choose or reject Him. What will you choose? Guilt or forgiveness? Wrath or reconciliation? Christ or condemnation?
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Used by permission. All rights reserved.