Christ Has Set Us Free!

Freedom! In the time of Paul, as in any time, freedom was a really precious possession. Its opposite was slavery. Paul was thankful that he had been born free.

But Paul is telling us in the words at the top of the page of an even more precious freedom and also of an even greater slavery. The freedom he speaks about is what the Christian enjoys; the slavery is what binds up a person who tries, even very hard, to please God by his own good deeds.

When a Christian is living a faithful life of obedience to Jesus Christ he/she is free from the condemnation of God's law (because of what Jesus did for our salvation). The Christian is free from the daily grind of trying to please God by our own efforts. And we are free from the devil's taunts about past sins which he brings up again (they are all forgiven); and we are free from worrying about what other people think about us because we are following Christ.

Before we became Christians we may have tried to please God, thinking that our own efforts would be enough, but we failed and just became slaves to rules and regulations. Only Christ sets us free!

Prayer

Dear God, I praise you that you have given me your son, Jesus Christ, that I might no longer be a slave to my own efforts. Amen.