As we celebrate our country’s freedom this weekend with fireworks, hot dogs, and cook outs, I want to call our attention to another freedom we have… our freedom through Christ.
As Eve strolled through the garden one day, a serpent began to tempt Eve with lies about God’s intentions for her. Was God holding back from Adam and Eve? Yes, He was holding back death and darkness, and that day, as they accepted the bait of the enemy, death and darkness fell upon mankind. It was their choice, and they made it. It was the darkness of sin that separated us from God.
What holiness and purity could bring us back to the arms of God? Who was good enough to do that? Was it Abraham? No. Was it Moses? No.
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
We were separated by sin. Only the holiness and purity of the One, Jesus, could tear down that wall of separation and bring us forever close again to God. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1Peter 2:24)
He took death upon himself, paying our price so we would not have to. Jesus sacrificed himself, because only through his perfection would death and sin be defeated.
This event was prophesied in Isaiah 25:8-9: “He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
I have to tell you that when I read the above verse, I teared up. “We trusted Him and He saved us.” I am enamored. Jesus is the most beautiful hero.
We now have freedom to be with God, to share our heart with God, to walk with Him, to love on Him, and to receive His love—all provided by Him, through His Son. “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) In Jesus we have life, and we can have it more abundantly. We learn to understand this freedom more and more as we walk with Him in life and as He continues to deliver us from our fears, strongholds, wounds, and pain. He will continue to heal us, but first we must believe that Jesus is the way to this freedom.
I love that God knew in our weakness that we could not pay the price for our sin, and so He made the way Himself. I love that. If a child broke your favorite lamp, and you knew there was no way they could pay you back, the law would demand payment, but grace would say, “I will pay for that.”
Even if we tried, we could never erase our sins and the effect of them. So, Jesus erased it for us with the painful measure of shedding his blood on the cross.
If you have never accepted Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior, now is the time. Say the prayer below and allow the best relationship you will ever have, to blossom–a relationship with the One who loves you the most.
Lord Jesus, I know you died on the cross for my sake. You paid a debt I could never pay myself. I believe that you died and rose again. I repent of my sins and ask you to wash me clean, forever new in you. Jesus, I choose you as my Lord and Savior. I want to walk in all of the freedom that you have for me and I want to walk through life with You and have relationship with You. Teach me who You are and teach me who I am as I stand in your redemptive power. Jesus, it is in your name that I pray. Amen.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
