You Will Be Free Indeed
Our country’s celebration of Independence Day is on Monday. This holiday commemorates the United States independence from Great Britain. The Second Continental Congress voted in favor of independence on July 2, 1776, but the Declaration of Independence was not ratified until two days later, on July 4. Thomas Jefferson is credited with authorship of the document but it was actually drafted by a committee, that along with Jefferson included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Jefferson wrote the first draft because of his wordsmithing ability. It was then edited by the others on the committee before being lastly edited and ratified by the entire congress.
Freedom is something we all desire. None of us like to feel enslaved to anyone or anything. I once worked for a company where employees felt enslaved. The owner of that company paid his key managers twenty percent more than they could make elsewhere, thus those employees felt trapped. Maybe you right now feel enslaved, trapped, in a job, relationship, some ongoing health issue, an addiction, or some unhealthy or sinful behavior that just seems to have a grip on you. And let me define sin as any thought, action, or attitude that falls short of God’s holiness. It is transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) against Him (Deuteronomy 9:7).
You and I have one thing in common with every other human being. We are all born with a sinful nature. Scripture tells us that sin entered the world through Adam and has been passed on to all mankind (Romans 5:12). King David said this is Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Because of our sinful nature, we all sin, which because God is just, has separated us from Him. We find these words in Isaiah 59:2, “But your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” And here is what we read in Romans, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23).
God gave all of us a bridge to reconcile with Him, allowing us to no longer be enslaved to sin. That bridge is his Son, Jesus Christ, who died a horrific death on the Cross on order to free you and me – “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the wrongdoing of us all to fall on Him” (Isaiah 53:6).
Our ticket to that freedom is putting our complete trust in Jesus, committing our life to following him – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life (found) in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Jesus himself, in answering a question asked by his believers regarding being enslaved said this, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
I encourage you to read the above verse in its context (John 8:31-59). I see the tone of this section as argumentative, in that while these believers accepted Jesus’s messianic claims, they persisted in doing so not in faith but rather by their own ideas and the fact that they were children of Abraham.
So, this holiday weekend, as you celebrate our country’s freedom, also take time to reflect upon the freedom that is offered to you through the blood of Jesus. Have you accepted that gift? If not, this “freedom” weekend is a perfect time to do so; commit or maybe re-commit yourself to Jesus, and in doing so, you will be free indeed.
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