Freedom

How often do you reflect on your freedom in Christ?

In Deuteronomy, God often reminds the Israelites, in requiring their kindness and justice to the poor, sojourners, slaves, widows and orphans, that they once were captives and powerless too:

"Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the LORD your God has blessed you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today." (Deut. 15:14-15, NIV)

An act of grace by God set his people, the Israelites, free.

We, the new Israel, are called in the same way to offer compassion, justice and love to the whole world. In doing so, we must remember that we were once slaves to sin (Rom. 7:14) but have been liberated (Gal. 4:7) by the life, death and resurrection of Christ, which we receive by faith. We did nothing to deserve that freedom. We did not even generate the faith by which we believe. We have been put right with God by an act of sheer grace.

When someone acts unkindly towards me, how often do I release them with forgiveness, reminding myself that I too am a sinner and only by the grace of God have I been justified? How often do I remember my own slavery to sin and thank God for the victory which does not make me perfect but gives me to power to fight my own sin and the grace to forgive others? How often when confronted with behaviour in others which is all too familiar to me, do I fall on my knees in thankfulness for the assurance that God will never throw me back into slavery (Rom. 8: 37-39)?

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift of grace: may we never forget that we were once slaves too.