ELDER: Recognize Your Freedom in Christ

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.