Thursday, January 27, 2005
John 8:36 "If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."
FREE INDEED!
A little boy visiting his grandparents was given his first slingshot. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit a target. As he came back to Grandma's back yard, he spied her pet duck. On the impulse he took aim and let fly. The stone hit, and the duck fell dead. The boy panicked. Desperately he hid the dead duck in the woodpile, only to look up and see his sister watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing. After lunch that day, Grandam said, "Sally, let's wash the dishes." But Sally said, "Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn't you, Johnny?" Leaning over to him she whispered, "Remember the duck!" So Johnny did the dishes. Later Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing. Grandma said, "I'm sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper." Sally smiled and said, "That's all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it." And she whispered again, "Remember the duck, Johnny." So Johnny stayed and Sally went fishing. After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's, finally he couldn't stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he'd killed the duck. "I know, Johnny," she said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I wondered how long you would let Sally make you a slave."
Sin leads into bondage -- into the bondage of guilt. Guilt, in turn, subjects us to a miserable life of trying to hide and cover up our wrong-doings, our lies, our failures. It causes us to live in fear, thinking that someone might discover who we really are and what we've really done. It drives us to wear a mask of false identity so that no one will see that we're not the good person we pretend to be. It causes us to lose sleep, to feel depressed, hate ourselves. Guilt sends us off in a frantic effort to try and make up for the terrible things we've done and continue to do. But guilt is like a stain that -- no matter how hard you try to get rid of it -- you can't. And we are only fooling ourselves if we think that there is some man-made solution that can remove the ugly blemishes that rest upon our hearts and lives.
How can a sinner be free? There is only one way our sin can be hidden from God's sight. The only way God can't see our sin is if it's covered over by the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus says: "If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed!" Only Jesus can free us! And He has! He's taken all the marks against us and replaced them with His perfect obedience to God's law. He's taken our sinfulness and replaced it with His sinlessness. And what has He then done with all that all that sin? all that dirt? all that disobedience? He put it on Himself and then was punished for it! He took it all to the cross and made atonement for it! That is the only way we could ever get free of the guilt. The Son had to free us of it by being punished for it! And now we are set free indeed! 