And in many an ensuing war, men have fought to remain free or to set someone else free from another nation’s tyranny.
Jesus said we would hear of wars and rumors of wars until the day of His return to earth. And I cannot think of a place on earth where war has not reached. Where there are people, there will be the penchant to fight, right or wrong.
I do not need to list the many things that are wrong with our world for us to know there are serious problems facing us. And this is not a post about solutions to those problems because I don’t have those answers.
My deeper, heart-felt concern is for a different kind of freedom. One that we can know here and now despite our circumstances. The kind that only Jesus can give to us.
When Jesus walked the earth, his disciples and the rest of the people were looking for a Messiah to lead them in battle, to set them free from the tyranny of Rome. They wanted freedom from oppression. They wanted to see the Kingdom come to earth so that they could be free from the rule of any other nation. They wanted to declare their independence day.
But Jesus didn’t come then for that purpose. He came to expose a different kind of bondage to a different kind of oppression.
I know we don’t like to hear that. We want to think that we are good. And I’m not suggesting that people cannot do good things. We can. We do. But our hearts are not good in the way that God is good. And by comparison the thoughts and intents of our hearts weighed against His Goodness is not good.
Still, all of us see ourselves differently than God sees us. The people of Jesus’ day did the same thing, felt the same way we do. John 8 tells us:
“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Sidenote here: The offspring of Abraham had been slaves in Egypt and at that very time were under the oppression of Rome. They knew that. That’s why they were looking for a Messiah to free them from the outside forces that kept them from living free.
So Jesus spoke to their misguided thinking and told them how they could have true freedom.
I wonder why the idea of freedom upset them? The text says they already believed Him, yet when He tried to teach them to remain in His teaching, to follow Him as His disciples where they would discover what is true, they took exception to freedom. Not to truth. To freedom.
And I wonder if that isn’t our blind spot today. Victims often return to their captors because they can’t accept or imagine freedom. Prisoners commit crimes again and return to prison because life behind bars is something they understand.
Freedom can be scary.https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wt5X91ciE6Y?wmode=opaque&enablejsapi=1
And yet freedom at a heart level, freedom from that sin nature that has us at odds with God and with our fellow humans, is ours for the asking.
Jesus paid a huge price for our freedom, and yet He offers it to us freely.
He simply asks us to believe and follow Him. And as we follow Him, we will know the truth and the truth, who is Jesus, the Son of God, will make us truly, eternally free.
Independence Day is a day to celebrate our country’s freedom and to remember the sacrifice of many, many people.
But as much as I appreciate the relative freedom I enjoy in this country, I care much more about the freedom in Jesus Messiah because His freedom lasts beyond this life. His is the only true freedom.
If I could give this freedom to everyone, I would.
I can’t.
I can only point you to the One who can.
~Selah
#freedom #july42018 #thetruthwillsetyoufree #jesusisthetruth
