Elder
While visiting our daughter’s family, I started playing with two of my young grandsons. At one point they suddenly decided that I was their prisoner. So they wrapped a rope around me with the intention of tying me up. However, I discovered very quickly that among their many activities, maybe they need to include some Boy Scout training concerning how to tie knots. They couldn’t get that cord to stay very tightly against me. As a matter of fact, I actually had to hold onto it in order to keep it from falling completely off. Needless to say, I could have very easily escaped from those bonds, but I didn’t. I played along, voluntarily allowing them to pretend that they had me securely under their control.
It reminds me of how Jesus must have felt when the religious leaders and their mob showed up to arrest Him. If Jesus had resisted, no one could have bound Him. As He pointed out on the occasion, He could have called 12 legions of angels to rescue Him. But He didn’t. He voluntarily submitted to their nefarious plans in order to fulfill God’s will for Him to be the suffering Savior who would be sacrificed for our sins. He allowed Himself to become a prisoner in order to set us free from our bondage to sin.
This incident also reminds me of something we need to be careful of as those who have experienced freedom in Christ. We need to recognize what Jesus has done for us and make sure we are making full use of the opportunity. Let’s not keep holding onto the rope from which we have been set free. Jesus plainly declared, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin…Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:34-36). Do we believe that Jesus has truly delivered us from the control and domination sin had over our lives? If so, are we living like it?
I am not suggesting that once we put our trust in Jesus as Savior that we will no longer be tempted nor ever fall into any acts of wrongdoing. However, we now have a newfound liberty to say “no” to those enticements, as well as a power beyond ourselves through the Holy Spirit living with us to do that which is right and pleasing to God. We are no longer hopelessly destined to serve sin as our master, but we are free to serve God and to live more holy lives.
In Romans 6, it refers to how we are no longer to continue in sin but walk in newness of life. It declares that we are to yield ourselves and our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness. It says very plainly that we have been set free from sin to bear the fruit of holiness (v.22). However, this doesn’t happen without our cooperation. We have to “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 11). It goes on to instruct us, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (v.12). We have choices to make. Do we see ourselves as free in Christ to live for Him or do we still view ourselves as helplessly under sin’s control? Do we let sin control us or do we yield ourselves to God’s control?
Don’t keep hanging onto the rope from which Jesus has set you free. Let go of it and venture forth to serve the Lord and to live a life from the standpoint of victory over sin. We are no longer prisoners — we are free to fully follow Jesus as His holy people.
The Rev. Tony W. Elder is pastor of Wesley Community Fellowship Church. He can be reached at 770-483-3405 or by e-mail at revtelder@aol.com.
