FREEDOM IN CHRIST
FREEDOM IN CHRIST BY CAMERON MCKENZIE
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alatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” It’s an interesting concept to think about, but this world we live in, this body we are born in, desires sin. We live our lives wearing the “yoke of slavery”, to put it in other terms, we live our lives in bondage to our sins. We think there is no way out of it. We grow up in the cage and get comfortable there, never thinking that there is something wrong with living our life in the cage, never thinking that life is better outside.
That’s the world we live in though. Until one day we learn the good news. We learn that Christ lived a perfect life on earth as a human, and then showed his love in the most amazing way. He died on the cross for our sins and gave us a way to have eternal life in heaven with him. To put it another way, when Christ died for us, he broke our chains of slavery, he broke open the cage door and set us free. In Acts 13:39 it is written “Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.” This is what Christ did on the cross, and through him we have freedom from our bondage and freedom from our sins. So, why do we so often choose to stay in that cage after we have been set free? I see it year
after year with students and adults alike. We learn the good news and praise God for what he has done in our lives, we thank him for setting us free and giving us new life in him. And then we never take the first step, we never walk out of the cage and into the life God has planned for us. Imagine what would have happened if the Israelites would have made the decision that so many of us make today. According to Exodus 12:40 they were enslaved in Egypt for 430 years. For generations they thought this was their way of life, there was no way out, and nothing they did would change their circumstances. Then they heard the good news, the good news that God had sent somebody to break their chains and get them out of Egypt. When the moment came, and the Israelites were to be set free from Egypt, I’m sure they were scared, I’m sure they were worried about what was outside of Egypt. Even through all this fear and unknown, Exodus tells us they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground and began their journey to the promised land. They stepped out of their cage, but what if they hadn’t? What if they decided that they were happy God had broken their chains but they were probably better off in Egypt because it was comfortable. We would look at that story and think those people were crazy, those people must have lost their minds. However, we often times make that very decision. Search deep, it probably won’t take that much effort to know if you are still in your cage or not. So if you are, then I ask the same thing that Paul does in Galatians, “Do not let yourselves be burdened by a yoke of slavery.” Do not accept the cage any longer, do not sit in your sin praising our Lord for saving us from it. Get up, take your first step out of the cage and into your new life with Christ and see the things he has in store for you.
July 2019 | www.loumc.org | LIVEOAKCHURCH
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