Listening to the Indiana Bible College praising God with the song Freedom; images of our world; that is in bondage; came to mind. War torn Sarajevo, African AIDS victims and West African countries decimated by “blood diamonds,” civil wars and political wars; Iraq and Afghanistan; just to name a few. Even in the United States, domestic violence is on the rise. People with mental illnesses are released from institutions that are over crowed. These people, who desperately need that type of treatment and security, are released to live in the prisons of their own minds. Homeless people, the hungry and malnourished are held captive in a free nation. Sin and its consequences; has put our nation and the world in shackles. Where freedom reigns, it is not true freedom. There is only one true freedom; and that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Freedom does not come from a watered down, liberal; feel good gospel. Yes, the grace of Jesus Christ is the message of the Gospel and salvation can not be earned, it is a free gift.
“But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many” (Romans 5:15).
Grace is unmerited pardon. It was procured at the high price of our Savior’s crucifixion; paid by His blood. Released from sin, we are to avoid being entangled in it again. We need to walk in freedom.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).
Unless born into true Christian faith, the church Jesus Christ started through His apostles; most come to Christ from the midst of the brokenness and bondage of a sinful world. Generational curses magnified over decades and even centuries have kept in bondage, an unsaved world
“Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7).
Sin has a chokehold on our world that has separated man from God since the Garden of Eden. Where there is lawlessness, there is bondage. The world’s starvation problem is not because there is not enough tillable farmland. Unfortunately, the illegal drug traffic makes it more profitable to raise drug crops than to raise food crops. Distribution problems that are purely greed in origin keep food from many of the poor and starving in third world nations. We live in a sin sick world. God’s Word says to come out of sin; come out of the world.
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).
At the center of all of the world’s problems, is sin. There are physical laws of cause and effect associated with transgressing God’s perfect law of liberty; but there are blessings for those who walk in it.
“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:25)
God made a plea to the Children of Israel to choose life and blessings over sin and curses.
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).
God has always wanted us to prosper, be in health and live in His liberty. Living in Christ brings that true freedom. We love Jesus, because He first loved us and paid the ransom for our sin. Let us walk in newness of life; walk in the liberty of Christ our Lord.
Prayer: Lord, you are the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace; my Creator, Savior and Sustainer. True freedom comes only from you and living in you. Thank you Lord that you have given me the Holy Ghost. Thank you that I am the temple of your habitation. Strengthen me this day to walk in newness of life and in the light of your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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