What a feeling!
So Jesus said to those who believed in him, ‘If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’
‘We are the descendants of Abraham,’ they answered, ‘and we have never been anybody’s slaves. What do you mean, then, by saying, “You will be free”?’
Jesus said to them, ‘I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin.’ (verses 31-34)
Read John 8:31-47
Imagine how those thousands of slaves in North America felt when they were granted their freedom.
Imagine how convicts in Australia felt when they received a pardon and became free citizens.
Imagine how miners trapped underground by a rock fall feel when a rescue party breaks through their rocky prison.
Imagine how former drug addicts feel when they are finally free of the physical and mental anguish which dominated their lives.
Imagine the feeling of knowing that your death sentence has been revoked and you are free.
We are all born as captives – or slaves – to sin and its damning consequences. But Jesus tells us, ‘If you obey my teaching … you will know the truth and the truth will set you free’.
So easy – yet so hard. Freedom is on offer to us. All we have to do is believe. Our freedom has been bought for us through Jesus Christ and his life, death and resurrection.
Freedom is for you, too. What a feeling!
Dear Jesus, through your grace I am free from sin and its damning consequences. Thank you for the feeling this gives me. I will never stop praising and thanking you. Amen.
by Grace Bock, in ‘Assurance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2004)
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