Liberty and Justice for All

This month marks the 225th year since the United States of American gained its independence from Britain. So while the topic of freedom is already fresh in most of our minds, I would like to direct your attention to a story of freedom won—a story that we all can benefit from, no matter where we live or who we are. It is a story of a battle, two opposing sides, a victorious hero, and liberty and justice for all.

“It is finished,” Jesus said as He breathed His last breath. The sky turned dark, the earth shook, and the curtain in the temple, which separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple, tore right down the center. Some people present at the crucifixion of our Lord may have interpreted Jesus’ final words to mean that He was finished. After all, they probably thought, Jesus had been defeated—He was hanging on a cross and obviously didn’t have the power to save Himself. His scam of playing the part of a king and savior was finished. Yet, that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

In actuality, Jesus spoke about the end of sin’s rule and reign over our lives. He spoke of the end of Satan’s power to enslave us and kill us without giving us a chance to choose Christ. And, Jesus spoke of the end of the curse of death that had come with Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Most of all, Jesus referred to the end of the separation between God and man. All that was finished—over with—because one person, the only one who could have ever pulled it off, gave His life for the cause.

In the three days that Jesus’ body lay in the tomb, Jesus’ soul descended into the pits of Hell to confront the devil and take back the keys that Satan held in order to keep us against our will. Jesus fought valiantly, rendering Satan powerless, and finally Satan had to retreat. With that, our freedom was won. We were liberated. And we were given a choice…. We were given the choice between life and death, freedom and slavery, Heaven and Hell, God and the devil. Jesus conquered death so we would have a second chance at life; He took away Satan’ s power to destroy us so that we could choose to live freely in His grace or remain bound in Satan’s judgment.

You were given a choice about your freedom. Jesus won it for you; He fought for you. But ultimately you get to decide if you live in that freedom. It’s just like in the secular world: You have the freedom of speech, but you get to decide if you use it. If you don’t use it, you still have it, but it just won’t do you any good. If you don’t live in the freedom that Jesus won for you, though, you may or may not lose it, depending on how far you allow yourself to be enslaved by the devil and whether you ever call upon the Lord to rescue you again. But, in the end, if you never choose to live in it, you definitely will lose it as well as your chance at eternal life. The freedom that Christ Jesus won for you so long ago is very important; it’s essential, and it has a lot of value in it. It’s worth celebrating; it’s worth living in; it’s worth accepting and holding on to so tightly that you never lose sight of it again. You may or may not be a very patriotic person when it comes to your country, but, please, treasure your freedom in Christ. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever the circumstances of your life, Jesus has already fought for you and won your freedom from Satan as well as from sin. Now you get to decide what you do with that freedom. Jesus offers liberty and justice for all, but it’s our decision to accept or reject that liberty and the benefits available to us because He gave His life as a sacrifice in the battle over our souls.

-HK



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