There are two sides to freedom: freedom from something and freedom to be able to do something. This is true for individual as well as societies.
A Free Society
It is easy to see when a country is not free: there is no freedom for the press, no free speech. The courts are corrupt and there is no justice. The prisons are full of the wrong people – political prisoners and so-called enemies of the state.
Jesus came to earth to establish the Kingdom of Heaven, which is a radical new society, where rulers are servants and the last will be first, where we are all free to love and serve each other and to do good to our enemies, where everyone is of value and everyone has work to do. A very different kind of Kingdom.
Moses led the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom and Joshua led them into the promised land. When the Israelites smeared the protective blood of the Passover lamb onto their doorframes, they were painting a picture of the cross.
Christ Jesus is our Passover lamb – He died, once and for all, to give us freedom – freedom for individuals and freedom for the people of God.
A Free Person
The power of sin over us was broken on the cross and so we are free to become who we were intended to be.
A junkie is bound by their slavery to drugs, which becomes the most important love of their lives. Jesus can set us free from the power of addictions, when we realise his love for us and he becomes the most important person in our lives.
It is clear to see that addicts are enslaved, but Our Lord teaches that anyone who keeps sinning is enslaved to sin.
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8 v 34 - 36 (NIV)
We are free to do the right thing.
The thief can leave her life of crime and be completely reformed and set free through Jesus.
Jesus can set us free of any sin that seems to have power in our lives.
He can also set us free from past hurts, present anxieties and future worries.
His love can transform us and heal us, showing us what love really is.
See the article on Healing
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4 v 19 (NIV)
Because he loves us, we can learn to love ourselves. As we love others as ourselves, we transform ourselves and the society around us, and we see something of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
The woman, who has known no love growing up, can learn to love.
The man who is anxious and depressed can be set free by the love of Christ Jesus.
The Work of The Cross
Jesus has taken on the sin of the whole world. He had become sin. Our sin and the sin of the world was laid on him. God cannot abide sin, so the Father looked away. Jesus was truly alone on the cross.
Jesus had taken on the sin of the whole world. He had become sin. Our sin and the sin of the world was laid on him. God cannot abide sin, so the Father looked away. Jesus was truly alone on the cross.
Jesus died, that we could have life.
He took our sin and gave us his righteousness.
He took our shame, so we need never be ashamed.
He was naked, so we could be clothed.
He was bound up to win for us freedom.
He was powerless to give us power.
He was whipped to give us healing.
He was separated from God so that we need never be.
He broke the barriers between God and man and between peoples.
We erect barriers between ‘us and them’. Jesus tore them all down. We can all become children of God and gain a new identity and citizenship. So that now there is no male or female, no rich or poor, no slave or free, no Jew or Greek, no black or white, no educated or ignorant. We are all equally valued in his sight. We are all one in Christ Jesus.
That was why Jesus chose to die for us.