Oppression Vs. Freedom (The Truth Will Set You Free 1)

"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, 'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.' They answered him, 'We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is that you say, 'You will become free'?' Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin' (John 8:31-34)





Almost 2,000 years later, people are still taking offense to Jesus' teaching. In recent years, you would hear people say, instead of saying they were sons of Abraham, that they are sons of the Enlightenment, sons of Higher Criticism, sons of Scientific Reasoning and that they don't need Jesus' truth to set them free.





This issue is very simple. Many people see following Jesus as just another religion. It's another set of rules and rites to follow. It's just a bunch of people being confomists. Some people even like the message of mercy and forgiveness offered in the Bible, but they don't like the idea of taking up their crosses and becoming Christ's slave. They are unaware that they are slaves to their sin.





Those who like to consider themselves as rational or logical believe that their knowledge has set them free. They think that people who follow Christ are a bunch of morons with no ability to think for themselves who have been brainwashed by dogma. They are senseless automatons, letting corrupt religious leaders pull their strings. These "rational" and "logical" people don't realize that they subscribe to a form of slavery, a slavery where they always have to prove a point using scientific "proof." However, theory will never take the place of observation no matter how much they boast that it does. I had one co-worker tell me, when I asked him if evolution was a proven fact, that evolution was a fact, but the idea of how everything got here was a theory. How can someone assert that something is a fact when it is also a theory? Is it a stubborn addiction (or slavery) to being scientific, rational, or right?





I don't want to turn this into an evolution versus creation post. My point, or, more importantly, the Lord's point in the book of John, is that only the word of God can make us free. Yes, there is service and sacrifice involved in letting Jesus be Lord, but his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He gives rest to the soul of those who are truly his children. He rescues them from the spiritual death and destruction of sin. He guides them through his Holy Spirit. He breaks away the chains and ties us to him with his cords of grace, mercy, compassion, and love.





I'll take that kind of slavery any day over the chains that used to bind me and binds everyone who chooses not to follow Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that "[...] the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."



I am so thankful that God has opened my eyes. My prayer is for all of those who mock and scoff Christianity, and lump it and its followers in with any other religion, is that they would, by the grace of God, have their eyes opened and see the unique beauty and irresistible grace of Jesus Christ and the life-changing power of the Bible, which is not a book written by lunatics. I would assert that it is a book that has been taken out of context by egotists. I also pray that those who don't agree with me would not feel judged by my words, for I, even with the new vision God has given me, have to renew my mind daily with Scripture, killing the lies that my mind would like to tell me about God and His ways.