Freedom from the Slavery of Sin

Verses: John 8 : 31 - 47

My thoughts about the verses:

This is something hard for many of us to understand.  We do not live in a time of slavery so it is hard to grasp the full concept.  Yet, there is a way to compare things that happen today with that of slavery.  I ask that you bear with me on this because to understand the concept I will have to make a giant leap. See one of the things that we are slaved to is money.

Think about this just one second is you not dependent on money for many things in life.  Let's look at this closely do we not need money for food, water, housing, and clothing.  Therefor we are enslaved by the need of money.  What makes things much worse is that the way to get money usually involves doing whatever we can physically and legally to make it.  So for many of this we work jobs that we do not like or feel fit us perfectly.  We are afraid that if we lose the jobs we have that we will lose everything that we need to survive.  Then this crazy thing happen your job starts coming between your services to God.  Yet, you justify working on Sunday's or missing family or church events because you need the money to survive.  This is similar to the enslavement of sin.

Sin often starts as small things but over time our enslavement grows and grows.  This reminds me of a story many of us have heard as a child.  The little boy who yelled wolf shows how one lie, sin, can lead to much destruction.   The people got to the point that they did not believe him because of his lies and they suffered when the actual wolf showed up.  Isn't that what happens with sin in general.  We think it is okay to do little things that are against the law but those things get bigger and bigger until we end up hurting ourselves or others in some way.

This in itself is enslavement to sin.  What Jesus did was sacrifice his innocent life so that our sins could no longer enslave us.  We are freed from the bondage of slavery so that we can live freely.  The new covenant fulfills the promises of the old covenant.  We have the opportunity to ask the Holy Spirit to live within us so that we can live abundantly.

The problem that we have and the people of the time have is that we struggle with sin every day.  We constantly struggle between doing well and sinning.  Jesus cleanses us through the blood of the new promise so that we do not have to be afraid of this struggle.  We are naturally inclined to do bad because that is human nature.  Yet, with the invitation of Christ into our life we have chosen the side we want to work for.  We have chosen to put God first and to create a special bond that no one can break.

Therefor the only thing that we must do to free us from slavery of sin is to believe in Christ.  If we are not willing to do this then we are choosing to live in sin.  Jesus sacrifice breaks the bonds that tie us to slavery of sin yet we must accept it.  This freedom will allow us to blossom and help us deal with things through a different set of values.

Prayer:

Dear God we thank you for offering Jesus for atonement of our sins.  We thank you for providing the innocent so that we may be freed from our bondage of slavery.  We ask that you fill our life with the gift of love.  Help us share the gift to others in need.  Help us overcome our fears and accept Jesus in our lives.

Questions:

Have you been freed from the bonds of sin slavery?  Are you hesitant on allowing God in your life? Are you like the little boy that kept calling wolf and put up road blocks between God and those lives you touch daily?  What can you do to help others come closer to God?