God’s Eternal Freedom
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ach year in July this nation celebrates the Declaration of Independence. This is a day set aside to remind us of the freedoms that we enjoy as an independent nation. These freedoms have been handed down to us at a tremendous cost to others, and we should truly be grateful to God for all of them.
But
as important as freedom is to our nation, there is another freedom that towers
high above this and all other freedoms. It is the freedom that comes from God
through His Son Jesus Christ. You
are now invited to study freedom as it is pictured in God’s divine Book.
The
subject of freedom takes us all the way back to the Garden of Eden. When God
placed the first couple in the garden to care for the trees, they experienced
total freedom. Did they fully recognize this freedom? Probably not, because the
serpent convinced Eve that God was holding back something from them. In his
words, “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Of course, the serpent implied that
he was there to set them free!
But
Jesus taught that the devil is a liar, and “there is no truth in him. When he
speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father
of it, (John 8:44). What was the mission of the serpent? He wanted to take from
them the beautiful freedom that they were enjoying with God. In a deceitful
way, he was offering to Eve a door to an invisible prison. And the moment that
she and her husband sinned was the moment that they entered the pain and
bondage of sin! When they lost their freedom, they lost everything—the tree of
life, compatibility with God, and all eternal hope. They were driven from the
garden in shame to enter the prison of sin, and to become servants of the
devil! (Romans 6:17).
How
cold, dark, and dismal that dungeon must have been! However, the beautiful
account of Genesis tells us that God’s love was able to shine a beam of light
far into the future by promising the Seed of Woman to bruise the head of the
serpent (Genesis 3:15). Although this light of hope was very remote, this was still
the first promise of hope to the human race.
To
fulfill this promise of freedom through the “Seed of Woman,” it was necessary
for God to prepare a special nation through which His Son would be born.
Therefore, a covenant was made with Abraham, and then renewed through Isaac and
Jacob. Thus, from the twelve sons of Jacob, the Israelite nation was born as it
was first formed in the land of Egypt. But Egypt was not the Promised Land for
this nation. God wanted them to return to the land of Canaan—the land promised
to the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). This would be a land of
freedom for His people.
However,
in the mean time, this nation was placed under the most sever slavery in
history. They lost all of their freedom to a heartless Pharaoh who did not know
or care about what Joseph had done for Egypt. Day by day and year by year, they
felt the heat of the Egyptian sun, and the awful pain from the cruel blows of
the taskmasters over them. The men of Israel were afflicted with heavy burdens
as they were forced to build supply cities for Pharaoh (Exodus 1:11). Even a cruel attack was
made on their newborn sons, but one important baby named Moses survived all of
this.
Some
years later, God appeared to Moses at a burning bush and said, “I have
surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their
cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down
to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians...” (Exodus 3:7,8).
The
story unfolds as Moses finally accepted the challenge, and day-by-day he
battled with Pharaoh to let God’s people go. After many broken promises and ten
awful plagues from the Lord, Pharaoh agreed that God’s people could go.
However, he later changed his mind and pursued this nation as they marched
across the Red Sea. But when all of the Israelites were delivered safely, the
waters returned (that had parted for Israel) upon Pharaoh and his army, and
they were all drown in the sea (Exodus 14:27).
When
the enemy was completely destroyed and Israel was safely out of bondage, Moses
led the children of Israel in a “Freedom Song” (Exodus 15:1-19). God had guided them to
gain their independence from the evil hand of Egypt, and they rejoiced. Even
Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, led the women in song and dance to
celebrate their deliverance. She said to them, “Sing to the Lord, for He has
triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!”
(Exodus 15:21). Can you imagine this deliverance and the new freedom they felt?
No one can give freedom like God!
The
pages of sacred history record how that over the centuries this nation abused
their freedom. They involved themselves in rebellion, lack of trust in God,
disobedience, and in idolatry like the nations around them. This nation also
divided into two separate nations, and chose kings who often led them astray.
For example, the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were so wicked that
the ten tribes were led by these kings into Assyrian bondage. In fact, their
idolatry was so severe that God allowed them to lose their identity as His
people.
The
Southern Kingdom of Judah also turned to idolatry, and her people were taken
into Babylonian captivity. But after seventy years God guided Cyrus, king of
Persia, to let God’s people return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and the
temple (Ezra 1). Although they were still under bondage, they received a certain
amount of freedom. But the years found this nation being passed from one
bondage to another, and when God finally sent His Son, they were serving under
the Romans.
We
have just seen the physical bondage of this nation, and this is the bondage
that Jesus found when He came to earth. But you can be assured that He found
bondage even greater! Jesus found a world in the bondage of Sin, as He came to
bring freedom! The Jews had sought to be free from sin, by offering the blood
of animals in sacrifice over the years, but “it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Only the innocent blood
of God’s Son could set them free! Why? Because Jesus is the Seed of Woman
promised to Adam and Eve—the only One who could deal a head blow to the devil (Genesis
3:15).
Jesus
taught often (during His ministry) about His mission of freedom from sin. He
said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). The Jews as a whole rejected His
offer for freedom, because they thought they were already free. They thought
that just being in the bloodline of Abraham had brought them freedom. “They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham's descendants, and have
never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, `You will be made
free'?" (vs. 33). Jesus informed them that being of Abraham was not true
freedom. Then He continued: “Therefore if the Son
makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (vs. 36).
Jesus
is the truth, and the ONLY One who can make anyone free. Yes, like the Jews
mistakenly believed, there are so-called freedoms offered today, but these are
false, because Jesus represents the only way to reach God in forgiveness. He is
the only way to regain the freedom lost by Adam and Even in the garden when
they sinned. Therefore, Jesus forever settles the issue of who can truly bring
freedom, when He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE
comes to the Father EXCEPT through Me” (John 14:6).
All
of us who are citizens of this nation can enjoy the freedom that has come from
the Declaration of Independence, but not all in this nation have found the
eternal freedom that comes from being delivered from the bondage of sin. In the
words of Paul to the Roman Christians, “But God be thanked that though you
were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to
which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves
of righteousness” (Romans 6:17,18). Have you obeyed this same gospel to receive
this eternal freedom? —BBBristow