Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Today's Verse of the Day is 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 17 and says, "For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." I love this verse so much. I think a lot of people who have experienced the conversion experience, to know that you've gone from death to life, from blindness to being able to see, realize the beauty and the glory of Jesus.
When you read this verse, you probably feel just like I do. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. This idea of freedom is important in humanity. This idea that we would be free people is something that has been the reason wars have been fought. There are different stories that have unfolded over history, and the central idea is the importance of freedom.
When you hear that word freedom, it has a lot of connotations. When you're reading the scriptures and you see the word freedom, every time freedom is present, it reflects what this verse is saying, that the Spirit of the Lord resides where freedom is.
Slaves to Sin
I think about this time in the book of John where Jesus is talking and in His discourse He's describing people's relationship in their humanity to sin. Apart from Him, He basically says that those who are in sin are slaves to sin. That word slave also has connotations in our humanity. To be a slave means you have no rights, no ability of your own to make decisions, to do, to move, to be. When you are a slave, that means you are restricted and you are beholden to your master.
When Jesus spoke the words that those who are in sin are slaves to sin, you feel the weight of the relationship that humanity has to sin, that we are beholden to it, given over to it. As a matter of fact, sin becomes a master that dictates the actions of the slave.
The Beautiful Release
I love that there's this beautiful release. It's almost like you feel the tension and the pressure of the moment when Jesus says, sin and slavery are synonymous. This idea that you are captured and caught, you are in a cage, and there is nothing you can do to set yourself free. John chapter 8, verse 36 says, He whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
He sets the stage for this tension, this moment of restriction and constriction in a cage. Slavery to sin, but then Jesus says, I can set you free. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. When you imagine being set free from slavery, you would run with the wind in your hair, never looking back, saying, I won't return to bondage again. When the Spirit of the Lord sets us free, we are free indeed.
Don't Return to Bondage
I want to encourage you today to maybe consider if you might even at times be tempted to return to that place of bondage. It would be ridiculous if I told you a slave was set free and then voluntarily walked back into captivity. I think sometimes if we're not careful, we can find ourselves in our humanness being tempted to go back to the bondage of slavery.
He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Rest in that truth today.
