Recognize Your Freedom in Christ
While visiting our daughter’s
family, I started playing with two of my young grandsons. At one point they
suddenly decided that I was their prisoner. So they wrapped a rope around me
with the intention of tying me up. However, I discovered very quickly that
among their many activities, maybe they need to include some Boy Scout training
concerning how to tie knots. They
couldn’t get that cord to stay very tightly against me. As a matter of fact, I
actually had to hold onto it in order to keep it from falling completely off.
Needless to say, I could have very easily escaped from those bonds, but I
didn’t. I played along, voluntarily allowing them to pretend that they had me
securely under their control.
It reminds me of how Jesus must
have felt when the religious leaders and their mob showed up to arrest Him. If
Jesus had resisted, no one could have bound Him. As He pointed out on the
occasion, He could have called twelve legions of angels to rescue Him. But He
didn’t. He voluntarily submitted to their nefarious plans in order to fulfill
God’s will for Him to be the suffering Savior who would be sacrificed for our
sins. He allowed Himself to become a prisoner in order to set us free from our
bondage to sin.
This
incident also reminds me of something we need to be careful of as those who
have experienced freedom in Christ. We need to recognize what Jesus has done
for us and make sure we are making full use of the opportunity. Let’s not keep
holding onto the rope from which we have been set free. Jesus plainly declared,
“Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin…Therefore if the Son makes you free, you
shall be free indeed” (John 8:34-36). Do we believe that Jesus has truly
delivered us from the control and domination sin had over our lives? If so, are
we living like it?
I am not suggesting that once we
put our trust in Jesus as Savior that we will no longer be tempted nor ever
fall into any acts of wrongdoing. However, we now have a newfound liberty to
say “no” to those enticements, as well as a power beyond ourselves through the
Holy Spirit living with us to do that which is right and pleasing to God. We
are no longer hopelessly destined to serve sin as our master, but we are free
to serve God and to live more holy lives.
In Romans 6, it refers to how we
are no longer to continue in sin but walk in newness of life. It declares that
we are to yield ourselves and our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.
It says very plainly that we have been set free from sin to bear the fruit of
holiness (v.22). However, this doesn’t happen without our cooperation. We have
to “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ
Jesus our Lord” (v. 11). It goes on to instruct us, “Do not let sin reign in
your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (v.12). We have choices
to make. Do we see ourselves as free in Christ to live for Him or do we still
view ourselves as helplessly under sin’s control? Do we let sin control us or
do we yield ourselves to God’s control?
Don’t keep hanging onto the rope
from which Jesus has set you free. Let go of it and venture forth to serve the
Lord and to live a life from the standpoint of victory over sin. We are no
longer prisoners – we are free to fully follow Jesus as His holy people.
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