Freed by the Resurrected Jesus
Scripture Reading: Acts 13:36-39
“What will you do without freedom?” Mel Gibson famously asks the assembled warriors in the 1995 movie “Braveheart,” just before his epic shout “Freeeedom!” We all have a God-given desire for freedom. Freedom is not merely a political or social reality though. There is a spiritual freedom we yearn for as well. But how can we be free? Jesus declared, “He who commits sin is a slave to sin.” Doesn’t that then condemn us all to spiritual slavery? Yes and no.
We are slaves to sin, but we can be set free. Jesus also said, “whom the Son sets free is free indeed.” Paul, preaching at Antioch, warned that we can make the mistake of seeking freedom through the law of Moses. We can try to break the chains of bondage to sin by hammering away with the dull chisel of our self-righteousness. And it will be a complete failure.
Our other option, the one which set us free is faith in the resurrected Savior. As Paul says, “by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.”