Abundant Life Church

"Give me liberty or give me death!" Patrick Henry evidently placed a high value on freedom. Often, it is for "freedom" that soldiers fight on the battlefield, sometimes to take it away from others or to protect it, or to restore it to those who have lost it. In the United States, we generally think of such freedoms as the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly.

But there is more to freedom than simply civil laws protecting such. There are some freedoms that civil law cannot give and armies cannot secure. We have to look elsewhere for certain freedoms, and they are extremely important ones. Freedom from sin, freedom from sin's eternal consequences, freedom from hopelessness and despair, and ultimately, freedom from death.

Liberty In Christ
"Jesus was therefore saying to those Jews who had believed Him, 'If you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,'" (John 8:31,32).

When Christ came, the whole world was lying in the power of the Evil One. In the context of Jesus' promise to "know the truth and the truth shall make you free" is an objection of some who heard Him. They countered that they had never been enslaved to anyone. Besides being historically inaccurate (they had, indeed, served as slaves in Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and many Jews were slaves in Rome as they spoke), they were missing the point. Jesus explained He was talking about their being enslaved to sin (John 8:33-36).

There was pride and pretentiousness; hypocrisy and greed; hatred and selfishness. They held to outward religious form and pomp; self glory and human tradition, often setting aside God's commandment in favor of their traditions. They were self-righteous and often hard-hearted. Jesus came to free them from such, and us as well. Sin is a cruel slave master which will always kill its faithful servants in the end (Romans 6:23; 5-7; 12-14).

While the Jews dealt with these things, the Gentiles were no better off. They were enslaved to false gods (Galatians 4:8). Their degradation seemingly knew no limits (Romans 1:28-32).

Jesus came to set us all free. He was the only One who could do so. We could not free ourselves, neither could any other force in heaven or on earth. It had to be Jesus. In Him we are set free as we are made new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Remember Jesus' own words about it; this freedom is related to and dependent upon "abiding in (His) word" (John 8:31).