3 Why we need to be set free

GOSPEL FREEDOM

WHY WE NEED TO BE SET FREE

Only those who are in a situation of some kind of bondage, deprivation of liberty, slavery or entrapment need to be set free. The Bible assumes and teaches that all human beings are in such a condition. So ‘normal’ is this state of affairs that most people don’t realize that they are not free or that a rescue, a release is both desperately necessary and freely available. They assume that ‘this is as good as it gets’ and that, in the words of a former Australian politician, ‘life wasn’t meant to be easy’.

Our human bondage is both deceptive and deadly:

In our sin and rebellion against the one true God we cut ourselves off from him and were exiled from his presence, forever banned, forever excluded [Genesis 3:24; Isaiah 59:2].

In our rebellion against the one true God we unwittingly put ourselves under the authority of Satan [Ephesians 2:2].

Under his dominion he holds us under his deception, entrapped in darkness and blindness, ignorant of both the one true God and of our own spiritual destitution [2Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:13].

In our human religions we are ‘slaves to those who by nature are not gods’ – deceived into the believing in false gods [Galatians 4:8] or in mistaken concepts of the true God [John 8:19, 42-47].

We are held captive by the ‘weak and miserable principles’ of rules, regulations and ritual worship – deceived into believing that our perceived compliance and conformity will achieve acceptance by whatever god or gods we are trying to impress [Galatians 4:9-10; see also Colossians 2:8,23].

We live our lives as the slaves of sin [Romans 6:16].

We are bound under the wrath of God in an inescapable condemnation and an inevitable judgement [Romans 1:18; Hebrews 9:27].

We are all our lives held in slavery by our fear of death [Hebrews 2:15].

We are trapped in a life of on-going agony – a life of pain and suffering, a life that is not God’s creative purpose for us [Genesis 2:17; Romans 8:18-25].

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, sets us free from all of these.

From all except the last we are set free the very instant that we believe in him. We spend the rest of our lives enjoying this freedom and living out the implications of this freedom as our understanding of what Christ has done for us constantly increases.

For release from the last, ‘we wait eagerly’ for ‘that glorious freedom of the children of God’ that will become a complete and permanent reality when Christ returns [Romans 8:23,21; Revelation 21:4].