We Are Free
The Text
John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.
The Devotion
What has the Scriptures firmly established? You and I cannot and do not seek after God, go to God, turn to God, repent of sins to God, face God and choose God in our natural state.
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
Dead people do not choose. Dead people are dead. They stay dead.
We have been dead in our trespasses and sins. Then how do we choose to be rescued since we are dead. You might say, "I am taking the death too liternal." Oh, and yet, if someone outside of us does nothing to intervene, then we will perish! We will die in our trespasses and sins and burn in the eternal torment of hell under the just wrath of the Christ Almighty because we are his enemies.
For us not to perish in our sins, we must be rescued!
Romans 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Who is going to do it?
Who can rescue us?
Your pastor? He is as sinful as you are. He too was born in inquity and born as a son of Adam.
Your latest idol? They are not even gods and God is far above all puny gods.
Your good works? But our good works are infected, stained, and spoiled by our born sin. Our "good" works are messed up and jacked up beyond redemption.
Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
Who can rescue us and set us free from this bondage of death? Christ Jesus is his name!
Romans 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.
And since Christ, the only begotten Son of God, holy, righteous, and perfect in obedience for us, his rescue alone comes with only bonafide guarantee:
John 3:14–17 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,
1 Timothy 1:15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.
Romans 8:18–21 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.
We have been rescued by Christ on high! And since God is free, we are free indeed. Since we are co-heirs with the Son who has inherited everything, we get everything, including, the glory of the freedom of the children of God.
My brothers and sisters, you have been free from the bondage of sin. Now, go and love God! Now, go and love others. You are free to do so. Go and worship him freely in the name of Jesus. Amen!
The Scriptures
Saved from sin
Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Romans 6
1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,
7 since a person who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,
9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him.
10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.
13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.
14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not!
16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?
17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over,
18 and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.
19 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.
21 So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death.
22 But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life!
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Saved from Satan and demons
Colossians 2:15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
Saved from hell
2 Peter 2:4–11 For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment; and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones; however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.
Saved from death
Romans 8:12–13 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Saved apart from the world
John 15:18-20 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
Saved from God
Matthew 10:28 Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Luke 12:5 But I will show you the one to fear: Fear him who has authority to throw people into hell after death. Yes, I say to you, this is the one to fear!
Hosea 2:2–13
2 Rebuke your mother; rebuke her. For she is not my wife and I am not her husband. Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face and her adultery from between her breasts.3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her as she was on the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and like a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
4 I will have no compassion on her children because they are the children of promiscuity.
5 Yes, their mother is promiscuous; she conceived them and acted shamefully. For she thought, “I will follow my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”
6 Therefore, this is what I will do: I will block her way with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will think, “I will go back to my former husband, for then it was better for me than now.”
8 She does not recognize that it is I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil. I lavished silver and gold on her, which they used for Baal.
9 Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time and my new wine in its season; I will take away my wool and linen, which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will expose her shame in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my power.
11 I will put an end to all her celebrations: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths— all her festivals.
12 I will devastate her vines and fig trees. She thinks that these are her wages that her lovers have given her. I will turn them into a thicket, and the wild animals will eat them.
13 And I will punish her for the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense. She put on her rings and her jewelry and followed her lovers, but she forgot me. This is the LORD’s declaration.
Saved by God
Hosea 2:14–15
14 Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.15 There I will give her vineyards back to her and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.
Saved to God
Genesis 17:7–8 I will confirm my covenant that is between me and you and your future offspring throughout their generations. It is a permanent covenant to be your God and the God of your offspring after you. And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as a permanent possession, and I will be their God.”
Genesis 28:21 and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the LORD will be my God.
Exodus 6:7 I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians.
Exodus 19:5–6 Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”
Exodus 29:45 I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God.
Leviticus 11:45 For I am the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy.
Leviticus 22:33 the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the LORD.”
Leviticus 26:12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.
Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 26:17–19 Today you have affirmed that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, commands, and ordinances, and obey him. And today the LORD has affirmed that you are his own possession as he promised you, that you are to keep all his commands, that he will elevate you to praise, fame, and glory above all the nations he has made, and that you will be a holy people to the LORD your God as he promised.”
Deuteronomy 29:13 and so that he may establish you today as his people and he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
2 Samuel 7:24 You established your people Israel to be your own people forever, and you, LORD, have become their God.
Jeremiah 7:23 However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’
Jeremiah 11:4 which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace.” I declared, “Obey me, and do everything that I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God,”
Jeremiah 24:7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.
Jeremiah 30:22 You will be my people, and I will be your God.
Jeremiah 31:33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the LORD’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Jeremiah 32:38 They will be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezekiel 11:20 so that they will follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezekiel 14:11 in order that the house of Israel may no longer stray from following me and no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions. Then they will be my people and I will be their God. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.’ ”
Ezekiel 34:24 I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among them. I, the LORD, have spoken.
Ezekiel 36:28 You will live in the land that I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 37:27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Hosea 2:23 I will sow her in the land for myself, and I will have compassion on Lo-ruhamah; I will say to Lo-ammi: You are my people, and he will say, “You are my God.”
Zechariah 8:8 I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their faithful and righteous God.”
Zechariah 13:9 I will put this third through the fire; I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’, and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’ ”
2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said: I will dwell and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Hebrews 11:16 But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Revelation 21:3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.
Revelation 3:12 “The one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never go out again. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God—and my new name.
Hosea 2:16–23
16 In that day— this is the LORD’s declaration— you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer call me, “My Baal.”17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth; they will no longer be remembered by their names.
18 On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will shatter bow, sword, and weapons of war in the land and will enable the people to rest securely.
19 I will take you to be my wife forever. I will take you to be my wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion.
20 I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.
21 On that day I will respond— this is the LORD’s declaration. I will respond to the sky, and it will respond to the earth.
22 The earth will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will sow her in the land for myself, and I will have compassion on Lo-ruhamah; I will say to Lo-ammi: You are my people, and he will say, “You are my God.”