Enslaved no longer

ByHal Hammons

“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.’ ” — John 8:34-36

 

Sinners do not properly understand the principle of being enslaved to sin. They know nothing other than slavery. They have found contentment and even joy in slavery. They have convinced themselves that sin is the inevitable and preferred state of mankind. By committing themselves to slavery, though, they are prohibiting themselves from living the life that they were, in the most literal of senses, born to live.

Jesus offers us freedom. He, the Son, living completely apart from sin and its master (John 14:30), enjoyed full and unfettered fellowship with the heavenly Father. “I and the Father are one,” He famously claimed in John 10:30. His contemporaries hated Him for this claim, even making preparations to stone Him on the spot; they resented someone who claimed to enjoy that level of association with God.

Jesus does not promise to make us “one with God” in the same sense that He was and is. But He does promise to free us from the battle that we have been waging (and losing) with sin since the fall. Romans 6:23 encapsulates it beautifully — “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Not only are we free from sin itself, we are also free from the Law of Moses, which Paul calls a “yoke of slavery” in Galatians 5:1. The Law itself was good (Romans 7:16), as all creations of God are; it showed us God’s expectations, identified sin, and condemned those who fell short. Unfortunately, the ultimate conclusion we reach while serving under the Law is that no one is perfect, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Earnest people of faith persevere, desperately hoping somehow that their good behavior will be counted to them as righteousness. And, as was the case with Abraham and David (Romans 4:1-8), it can be and will be — but only through the blood Jesus shed for us all at the cross.

When we come to Him in trusting and obedient faith, we receive His gift of grace. And immediately we feel an incredible burden lifted from our shoulders. The fight we had been losing was now a fight that we could and would win. With Jesus showing us how to “walk in the Light” (1 John 1:7), we find ourselves no longer slaves. The truth has made us free (John 8:32). And as long as we live as free people, “born of God” (1 John 3:9), we will stay free.

 

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Perhaps you have heard of “food deserts.”  The term refers to places where people have limited (or less) access to grocery stores and other sources of healthy food.  Now there are “food swamps” — that is, where food is plentiful, just not nourishing.  Food swamps feature lots of gas stations, fast-food joints, and other places that promote obesity and bad eating habits.  No farmer’s markets or kale smoothie shops, though.

Studies differ with regard to whether proximity to grocery stores is actually an indicator of general health.  (They sell Snickers bars at Publix, you know.)  But there’s certainly a case to be made that the food’s quality may be as much a factor as its availability.

“Food” is relative — whether the food is carnal or spiritual.  We can pat ourselves on the back all we want for “going to church” or even “reading the Bible.”  But if we are not nourishing our spirits, what good is any of it?  A preacher who does not “preach the word” (2 Timothy 2:2), substituting human philosophy and personal opinions, may be doing more harm than good.  Reading for five minutes just to say you did it, without an eye for application or contextual understanding, may be feed a sense of “fullness” that is completely misleading.

With that in mind, consider the following spiritual nutrition tips:

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Why does a truck full of birds at rest weigh the same as the same truck with the birds in flight?  The birds are weightless in the air, right?  That’s why they don’t go splat.  Flying birds should make the truck weigh less.

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Needless to say, the review — and for that matter, as far as I know, Yeti tinned meats — is bogus. 

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When my mom served us fried chicken, she insisted on taking the back.  That’s a piece of chicken the Colonel doesn’t serve, of course.  But it’s there, right there with breasts, thighs and drumsticks.  I always thought she was “taking one for the team,” as mothers often do — leaving the choice pieces for the rest of us.  Now I’m starting to wonder if Mom was playing us.

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I got behind in my work during my recent vacation.  That may not sound strange; getting away from work is kind of what vacation is all about.  But my “vacations” are not entirely work-free, in most instances.  I usually have a few articles and a sermon or two that need to be ready to go before I get home, plus I have my various online obligations and my regular, run-of-the-mill Bible reading.

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It is said that the word “nerd” originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the cool kids who somehow managed to find their way to and into MIT characterized the uncool kids as knurds.  Knurd, you will note, is drunk spelled backward.  Therefore it was trendy to be drunk, whereas it was the sign of ultimate and irreversible squaredom to study, achieve, graduate with honors, and get a job.