Free Indeed!

Free Indeed!

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who delivered a speech that conveyed a powerful message to the nation at a time when it was needed. On August 28,1963, he gave his I Have a Dream! speech. That speech concluded with the topic we are going to discuss. Let me read for you the ending of that speech:

"And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and White men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last."

What does it mean to be free? What is FREEDOM?

The definition of FREEDOM in the dictionary is:

the quality or state of being free: such as

a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action

b: liberation from slavery or from the power of another

What were the people King referred to being set free from?

Can slaves free themselves?

Are you a slave now or have you ever been a slave?

Slavery is an evil practice that takes many forms. The type of slavery That Martin Luther King was talking about was when the African-American population was being controlled by the white population. That is the type of slavery most people think about when they hear the word slave. But that’s not exactly the kind of slavery we’re going to discuss.

For all of us the correct answer to the question that asked if you have ever been a slave is yes. At one point in our lives, we were all slaves. Slaves to sin. This evil was powerful & controlling us.

In John 8:34, Jesus tells the unbelieving Pharisees, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” He uses the comparison of a slave & his master to make the point that a slave obeys his master because he belongs to him. Those who are slaves to sin cannot free themselves from it. They can flea from bondage but they do not have the power to truly free themselves. But once we are freed from the penalty & power of sin through the cross, we become a different kind of slave, & in that slavery, we find complete peace & true freedom.

Slaves are in bondage to their masters. When sin is our master, we are unable to resist it. However, through the power of Christ to overcome sin, the apostle Paul writes, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:18).

What does it mean to be a slave to righteousness? What’s Paul saying?

The biblical model of freedom is the true freedom of the slave of Christ, or slave of righteousness, who receives love, joy, & peace; the products of freedom we will experience in this life. The slave of Christ is truly free. We have been set free from the control of sin by the Son of God who said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Satan has been trying to steal, kill, & destroy God’s creations for many years & he is very good at what he does. Sin is tempting in any form. And it’s deceptive. There are sins that you feel nobody else will ever know about so it’s alright to commit that sin when you feel like it. Nobody’s looking so go ahead, it’s not hurting anybody. Those are what some people have called pocket sins. They pull them out of their pocket when nobody’s watching, commit the sin, then put it back in their pocket to hide it & nobody will ever know.

What’s the problem with that belief? Is everyone unaware that you committed it?

The answer is no. God knows all that we have ever done, are doing now, & will ever do. In spite of knowing we will commit these offenses He still loves us enough to sacrifice the life of His Son Jesus. Hallelujah!

Once we come to Christ in repentance & receive forgiveness for sin, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit who comes to live within us. We have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ in God’s eyes. It is by His power that we can resist sinning & become slaves of righteousness.

We are commanded by God to not let sin reign in our bodies, obeying its lusts, but instead we are to present ourselves to Him as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:12–14). In Romans 6:16-18, we’re told that we are slaves to the one we obey, either of obedience to sin or of obedience to righteousness. We are to be enslaved to God from whom we receive our gift of eternal life. We do this because the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Anyone have any questions or comments?