The Offer Of Liberty

“Do you think I’m crazy?” shouted the prisoner, but the stranger made no reply. “The king would never forgive my crime no matter who you are or think you are!” his words trailed after the vanishing silhouette. “I’m the only one who can set me free,” he cried, “and someday I’ll find the way out! ME, I . . . I can do it!” But there was no further reply and the stranger was gone.

That same day the jailor came again to rattle the lock, and the next day he did the same. Nothing was different. The prison was still dark and damp. The lonely emptiness still dripped from the stone cold walls. The prisoner still sat arrogantly and plotted and schemed.

But on the third day . . . on the third day the prisoner felt the floor begin to rise as though the earth were sucking in a deep breath. The walls trembled and the iron bars rattled and rang out in a deafening clanging. Stone blocks cracked and fragments shattered on the floor. The very rocks roared. For an instant, it seemed like the ancient dungeon would split asunder . . . but then it stopped as suddenly as it had begun. The silence was deafening. The prisoner sat shaking in a fearful sweat – huddled in the farthest corner from the door.

“Is this the third day?” the thought flashed through his mind. The calm had been restored; dark silence returned; it was all normal again. No guard appeared to rattle the lock, but after all, he could still see the lock in the dim light.

“A false hope,” muttered the prisoner. “Nothing has changed; nothing will ever change unless I change it.” And the prisoner resumed his squatting, thoughtful pose in the dank darkness of his dungeon. Meanwhile, down the distant corridor, other prisoners pushed wide their creaking cell doors and danced into the light of their liberty.

This story is our story. All who sit within the sound of my voice are either free in Christ or still prisoners by their own choice. If you have not, yet, known the freedom of Christ’s love, then know this . . . Jesus Christ died to set you free from sin and death. He is the only one in history who ever rose from the grave. He did so for you. He conquered death so that you will never have to know death. He purchased your freedom with His blood. You have only to believe this and, by faith, push open your prison doors.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one God. He is the author of all liberty, and our liberty was made manifest through faith in Jesus Christ.

"But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved." -- Ephesians 2:4-5

Someone once wrote:

"We have no claim to bring to God! We have no right to demand salvation! We have no power within us that can hold on to life! Only God’s love can bring us life, hope, and grace. Only God’s mercy can bring us salvation. Only God’s gift of Christ can awaken us from the death-slumber of sin."

This is the opportunity that God offers to us and to the world. He is the author of all liberty, and He offers it to you. Without Him, there is only bondage and despair.