Many years ago, we had a stray cat that was hanging out around the house, bothering our own cats, so we decided to try to capture it. Because we didn’t have a normal live trap, we decided to improvise with a wheelbarrow. We flipped the wheelbarrow upsidedown and placed a stick under one edge of the bucket, propping it up. Attached to the stick we had a string which we led through the sliding glass door. Placing some kind of bait under the wheelbarrow, we watched and waited.
Not soon after, the cat appeared, and strode up to the bait. With a quick pull of the string, the wheelbarrow dropped to the ground, trapping the stray cat inside. At that moment, the cat became our “prisoner.” We found some kind of box or crate and transfered the cat into that so we could relocate it somewhere else.
We drove about 20 miles away and found a nice spot to set it free. After being trapped in it’s box, it couldn’t wait to be set free from it’s confinement, and as soon as we opened the box, out the cat ran, a furry blur as it ran away. (Somehow, though, it did manage to find it’s way back to our house about two weeks later).
Before Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt, the Hebrew people were in bondage (slavery), forced to make bricks and build Pharaoh’s statues and cities. They couldn’t do the things that they wanted because they were not “free.” They were slaves, confined to Egypt.
After all of the plagues had come upon Egypt, and after Pharaoh’s army was lost in the Red Sea, they became freed from that bondage. No longer slaves, they were a free people.
That is what Jesus has done for us. He sets us free from our sins. Like the cat that we had trapped, we are all trapped in our sins, slaves to it.
Jesus was talking to some Jews in John 8, and explained to them that if someone commits sin, then they are servants of sin, and in bondage to it, but that if they believed in Him continued in His, He would set them free.
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:31-36
“Free” means “to set at liberty; release; rid of that which confines, limits, embarrasses, or oppresses.”
Imagine for a moment that everyone was a helium-filled balloon, each balloon attached to a string and tied down so they won’t float away. The string represents sin, and it holds each balloon back from floating up into the sky. The balloons are forced to stay on the ground because of the string, but if someone comes up and takes a scissor and cuts those strings, it will be free to fly up into the air. They will be “free.”
We are freed from the bondage of our sins though Christ. Through His act of love on the cross, He takes away our sins, and sets us free. No longer a slave to sin, we now can rise up to be with Him in Heaven someday.
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Corinthians 3:17
The forgiveness that is found in Christ is the only way to be released from your sins. Don’t let yourself be a servant to sin any longer; come and get set free!
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 