Dependently Free, October 31, 2021

October 31, 2021
John 8:31-36

While we may live free to do as we please because of geography, our condition as sinners does not change. There is no amount of flag-draped apparel, apple pie, or fireworks that can undo this condition.

In following Jesus, we have been sent from the consequences of our sin. All of them. That is what we mean when we declare our sins to be forgiven. That very declaration of forgiveness is our declaration of freedom, a declaration of dependence, not independence, upon one in who we find freedom. Freedom has little to do with our ability to deserve or earn it, and instead, freedom extended to all of creation, regardless of geography or birthright.

Freedom in Jesus Christ is more than forgiveness. Freedom in Jesus Christ is liberation from what we have turned toward at the expense of our relationship with our creation. And this freedom was not bought with military might or thoughtful diplomacy. It is freely offered to us through the righteousness of the One whose righteousness we clothe ourselves in when we are baptized. The freedom transforms us from the inside out when we listen to Jesus and place our whole trust in his grace. In the church, we call this new life. It is what Bartimaeus pleaded for, what the rich young man could not imagine, and what the saints of the past have placed their trust in.

The truth revealed in and through Jesus Christ and the subsequent freedom from sin that is ours, we can, like the saints before us, walk in his way of love in the world that others might know that freedom is theirs.