Friday 6th February - Freedom!

DAILY BYTE

So if we are set free from lies, darkness and slavery, then what exactly are we set free for? Well, Jesus mentions that knowing the truth is an essential part of being free, so it is important for us to hear this: we are set free to be part of the family! We are God’s children!

In John 8.35 Jesus says that ‘a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a child belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’ Paul the apostle develops this thinking in a rather exciting way in Romans 8 where he speaks of our adoption by God. That wonderful old biblical scholar, William Barclay, outlines the consequences of this adoption: (it’s complex but well worth reading through)

‘(i) The adopted person lost all rights in their old family and gained all the rights of a legitimate child in their new family. In the most binding legal way, they got a new father.

(ii) It followed that the adopted person became heir to their new father’s estate. Even if other children were afterwards born, it did not affect their rights. They were inalienably co-heir with them.

(iii) In law, the old life of the adopted person was completely wiped out; for instance, all debts were cancelled. They were regarded as a new person entering into a new life with which the past had nothing to do.

(iv) In the eyes of the law they were absolutely the child of their new father.’ To the extent, that a child naturally born to their parents could be legally disinherited or disowned but an adopted child could not!

What Paul is saying, therefore, is that God will not let you go! We can do nothing to deserve it, but God in his rich and abundant generosity, adopts us into his family.

We began this week with Hollywood, and so it would be appropriate to end it with another Hollywood story. In the climatic conclusion of ‘Braveheart,’ Mel Gibson is tortured by having his intestines removed whilst still alive. His great enemy is also nearby on his deathbed. He sits up from his bed, straining to hear Braveheart’s cries of pain and defeat. The baying crowd hushes as Braveheart raises his head with one last great effort and roars: ‘FREEEDOMMMMMM!’

Freedom! This is what the truth of Jesus brings to us. It doesn’t matter if we are lying quaking in fear in the darkness – the light of God’s truth CAN set us free. It doesn’t matter if our life is continually going around in endless circles of hurt, guilt, or the same old mistakes – God CAN set us free.

It does not even matter if we are trapped in the vice grip of ‘missing the mark’, of being less than what we were created for – God CAN set us free. We need no longer be slaves to lies and sin, because we can be children in God’s family, bearing God’s name, and live according to God’s spirit of love and grace. There need be no more darkness, no more lies, no more judgements, no more guilt and condemnation, no more life of slavery held in the icy grip of sin, no more lying paralysed in bed’s of fear. For in Christ, we can all stand and sing of our freedom.

‘You shall know the truth, and it will set you free.’

PRAY AS YOU GO

Freedom! Thank you God for our freedom! We need no longer be held as slaves to anything. Instead we can enter into life as your children, heirs and co-heirs of your love and grace. Help us to live our lives according to this wonderful truth. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Romans 8:15-17 (NIV)

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of childhood. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs ... heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.