Jesus Set Us Free - Freedom in Christ

I want to ask you to think back for a moment… back in time… back thirty-five years. What were you doing 35 years ago? Where were you 35 years ago? How old were you 35 years ago? And… I want you to recall some of the major events in your life over those 35 years… your work, your play, your relationships.

Thirty-five years is a long time. Alot of wonderful things can happen in 35 years of a person’s life. That is, if they are free. But, not so if you are a prisoner held in captivity. Just ask James Bain…

James Bain was only 19 years old when he was arrested and incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. Bain insisted upon his innocence for 35 long years until finally DNA testing provided indisputable evidence to the fact that James Bain was innocent.

Can you imagine his joy when, at the age of 54, James Bain was finally vindicated and set free?

Freedom for James Bain was a hope and dream that he had held on to for the majority of his life. Yet, James Bain is not alone. Thousands of falsely incarcerated inmates all across the United States of America are being set free after years of imprisonment when DNA evidence substantiates their innocence. It is estimated that one out of every seven death row inmates are now being exonerated and given their freedom after having been falsely incarcerated for crimes they did not commit.

And yet, all of this is just the tip of the iceberg when one considers the millions… no… the billions of people who are living in self-imposed prisons. Prisons not of steel, and concrete, and barbed wire… but of shame, and guilt, and fear. Prisons not erected by human hands… but by the false accusations, sinister deceptions and tyranny of the devil. Each of us have been like so many men and women on death row, prisoners condemned to perish.

And yet, it was for this reason that Christ came into the world. John 3:16 tells us…

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And it was for this reason that Jesus commenced his earthly ministry with these words, when he said in Luke 14:18-19…

¹⁸ “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
¹⁹ To proclaim the
acceptable year of the LORD.”

We forget sometimes that Jesus came to set the captives free. We forget that we were those captives… prisoners to sin… inmates to the devil, the prince of this world. But, Jesus came to shatter the shackles of sin and crush the chains of corruption and condemnation.

You see, so long as we lived our lives without God, driven by passions to fulfill our own selfish desires, we were prisoners to sin. And the consequences of sin bring shame, guilt, misery, anger, fear, drunkenness, wild living and eventually… death. Not just death of our bodies… but eternal death, separation from God’s presence. And there was nothing that we could do that would set us free from sin. Good works could not save us. Church and religion could not save us. Success, fame and fortune could not save us. Nothing we did could save us, because the penalty of sin is death. So, each of us were on death row to perish and the devil was our warden.

Yet, despite our sinful condition, the Bible tells us that God loved us. That is why He sent His Son… to save us. But, we were not saved from sin because Jesus was born into the world. Nor were we set free from sin because Jesus performed mighty miracles. We were set free because Jesus died upon the cross in our place.

We were set free because Jesus paid the price for our sins. He who was sinless walked death row on our behalf and was nailed to the cross where he died a criminal’s death. He exchanged his life for our life. He died in our place and paid the penalty. And because the price of sin has been paid we don’t have to suffer the penalty for sin… eternal death. Instead, we gain eternal life. That is why Jesus could say, as he did in John 8:36…

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

And the good news is that Jesus has not only set us free from the punishment for sin… he has set us free from the power of sin. That means that when the old devil comes along and tells us lies… that we are failures, that we are not good enough, or that we are doomed because we have slipped in our behavior…
that we don’t have to listen to him, because the devil is no longer our warden. Our sins have been paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ upon the cross at Calvary and we belong to God.

So many of us are like James Bain… he was an innocent man, yet he was in prison for 35 years of his life. Like Bain, there are Christians who have become prisoners despite their innocence. There are those whom have been prisoners to fear for decades… to them, Jesus says, “I have set you free.” There are those whom have been prisoners to anger for years. To them, Jesus says, “I have set you free.” There are those whom have been prisoners to depression, anxiety, grief, or confusion. To these, Jesus says, “I have set you free.” There are those whom have been prisoners to physical ailments, disease and illness. To them, Jesus says, “I have set you free.” There are those whom have been prisoners to poverty, broken hearts and despair. To them, Jesus says, “I have set you free.”

Praise God Almighty! Jesus has set us free!