Free at Last

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

This Monday was the official national holiday to honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King. We all know that he campaigned vigorously for equality among the races and that his life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. His life’s passion was very controversial at the time, but nearly 50 years after his famous speech, the results of his vision are being seen. True, there is still very much yet to be done, but the world today is much different than the one Dr. King lived in. Despite huge issues that remain, more people than not have finally seemed to figure this out. People are people and what they look like doesn’t matter a hill of beans. Those who haven’t realized that yet are in the minority, and they are the losers. I would tell you to go ahead and greet them with the big capital “L” sign across your forehead, but that would be unkind. True, but still unkind.

Yet there remains an element of oppression and bondage that is even more severe than in the days of slavery that we fought a civil war over. In the same context of the verse I quoted above, Jesus said in verse 34, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” Mankind was plunged into sin by our first parents, and we have been held in its powerful grip ever since. Those who make a lifestyle of it find that their particular pet sin grabs hold of them and won’t let go. Cigarettes and alcohol are classic examples, and I am sure you could name others. Proverbs 5:22 says, “His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.” You know how it goes. We dabble in a sin once or twice, and we like it, so we try it again. The “pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25) lure men and women into a lifestyle. When there are only a few occasions of sin, there are very few “cords” to hold us. Most of us can break through a simple thread wrapped around us a few times. But sin is deceitful. Wrap that same thread of sin around a person 10,000 times and even the “Governator” in his prime can’t break it.

Campaigning peacefully for civil rights was and is a noble cause. Liberating oppressed societies from brutal oppression as was done in Iraq makes the world better and safer for all. But what good is it to free someone from political and societal oppression just so they can remain in their sin and live in that bondage? What benefit is derived from freeing the masses only to have them plunge into the eternal damnation of the lake of fire without Christ? The gains are temporary. The so-called “freedom” a person or a group receives is short lived if it does not include liberty from the bondage of sin that is found only in Jesus Christ.

Freedom is bound in the human spirit; it is the eternal longing of the heart of mankind. It stems from the garden of Eden, when man was free because he was created in the image of God. He was given only one limitation – the commandment not to eat of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil. It was a test to see if he would follow God or his own desires. It was necessary for God to do that. Love forced on someone without choice is not love. Despite the boundless liberty Adam and Eve had, Satan convinced them that they really were not free, and in the process, they “were taken captive by him at his will” (II Timothy 2:26). Despite every effort of man since then to rid himself and others of bondage, the only true liberty that exists is found in Jesus Christ.

“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (II Corinthians 3:17) Only the Son can truly make a lost man free. Only the word of God can truly free a believer from the stranglehold of sin in his life. A man can be free from discrimination and still be held in the desperate bondage of sin. Others can be oppressed, abused, and even in a political jail, yet dwell in the “glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Only Jesus gives us that true freedom. Do you have it? Do you seek to pass it on to others?