Slaves

 "You are not slaves; you are free. But your freedom is not an excuse to do evil. You are free to live as God's slaves." I Peter 2:16

The love of and desire for freedom is deeply imbedded in the human race. We see that on display throughout history. The slave rebellion in ancient Rome, led by the gladiator/slave Spartacus. In medieval England and Scotland, where William Wallace led a rebellion of Scotsmen, held under the English yoke aimed at breaking that yoke. Later, that same spirit filled the founding fathers of this nation as they led the thirteen colonies in a rebellion to free themselves from that same England. Men and women want to be free, and both history and the current stage is filled with examples of them seeking to be just that, free.

Yet, for all our talk, all our rhetoric, are we truly free? Where is the full evidence for that, in this nation or any other? True, we may enjoy certain outward freedoms, especially in America, but how many truly live in freedom today? How many have hearts, minds, and spirits that are free. We may have the appearance of freedom, but where is the reality?

Look at our own culture, which is what most of us are familiar with. Everywhere we look we see people held in the grip of a multitude and ever growing number of addictions. Drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex, video games, computers, i-phones. It has no end. Counselor's offices are filled with clients seeking freedom. 12 step programs are everywhere, trying to help people to break free. Beyond the addictions are emotional prisons like anger, unforgiveness, fear, anxiety, and depression. We may walk about with the appearance of freedom, but we are "prisoners walking." We are part of a long, seemingly unending "chain gang," linked to each other while far from each other. We are slaves with a seeming infinite number of jailers and masters. It needn't be so, but we are blind to that truth. There is one who can break any chain, open any prison door, defeat any cruel master. He can do so because He already has defeated them all.....on the cross, and in His resurrection. If only we could see that. If only we could believe that.

We hate the very thought of being a slave. We will always deny it. We see that with Jesus' words to the Pharisees when He told them they were slaves. They replied that they'd never been slaves to anyone, when the open truth was that through most of their history, that's exactly what they'd been. To Egypt, to Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, and at that time, Rome. I'll connect what I say next with what I wrote in my last writing when I said that before you could be saved, you had to realize that you're lost. In the same way, before you can be free, you have to admit you're a slave. Our delusion of being free will always strive to keep us from that admission. But if we will admit, then the door swings open to our release, to our freedom. But it's a freedom that can only be known through our surrender to Him. Through our becoming slaves to Him, which makes no sense to our flesh, but is true nevertheless.

For that to be involves a mystical work of grace that can only take place in Christ. Peter says, through the Holy Spirit that they are not slaves, but free. That's the truth. Then he says that they are free, but also slaves to Christ. How can that be? It can be through the reality that when we yield completely to His Lordship, we are totally His. No other master can lay claim to us or have power over us. Thus, all these addictions and "masters" that have held us, abused us, ruined us, have their claims and power over us completely broken. We are free from them, and free in Him. Fully free. Can you dare to believe that? Will you dare to believe it?

This is a lot for one reading, I know. So, I challenge you to study I Peter 2:16. If there is anything that is holding you prisoner in your life, anything, ask Him to break its power over and in you. Exchange your chains for His freedom. Let Him prove to you the power of His risen life. He has done so for multitudes already, let Him do so for you right now. Know what it is to be free to be His slave.

Blessings,

Pastor O