“… you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes you are
Well, it may be the Devil, or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody”
— Bob Dylan
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about something most of us in the USA tend to take for granted: Our freedom.
As we watch those brave young people in Hong Kong risk life and limb to resist the ever-tightening grip of Chinese communism’s mainland domination, we are reminded of freedom’s cost in blood, sweat and tears.
Sadly, breaking free from tyranny is a costly, deadly business. Looking back over American history, a 2017 KQED Memorial Day article observed, “America has never been a stranger to war … we’ve fought a lot of them: In just our major wars, combat deaths have been staggering: American Civil War (618,000); World War I (116,516); World War II (405,399); Korean War (36,574); Vietnam War (58,220).”
Factoring in related injuries, these wars have cost America’s precious sons and daughters an obscene number of casualties — all in the name of freedom.
Spiritual Repression
But suppose you learned that you were born in slavery and didn’t know it? 1 John 5:18-20 tells us just that, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” This story goes way back.
From the dawn of human history, one sobering fact comes through loud and clear: The default position of mankind is bondage to something. If it isn’t a personal addiction to a substance or destructive behavior, it’s living under a totalitarian regime, being enslaved by colonists, or becoming victimized by racial, ethnic or gender prejudice.
Subjugation is everywhere and it speaks of an underlying spiritual condition that is rooted in mankind’s descent into rebellion in the Garden of Eden. As outlined in Romans 8:19-22, the devastating consequences were global, long lasting and involved the whole of creation:
“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”
Today, this message of enslavement is hard to swallow. It was the same 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ confronted the Jewish religious leader of his day with this, from John 8:33-36:
“They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’? Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
And as if that wasn’t enough to enrage them, Jesus made the seemingly audacious claim that, “… if the Son (Jesus) makes you free, you will be free indeed.’”
He meant it, but it would cost him dearly.
War in the Heavens
Some 2,000 ago, an epic battle was fought in the spiritual realm between an enormous concentration of dark spiritual forces set against a lone, despised carpenter’s son from a tiny village in a vanquished country under the heel of its Roman master.
The stakes could not have been higher, nor the weapons more lethal. The future of the entire human race hung in the balance. Satan and his minions would not give them up easily.
This was a fight to the death.
This sacrificial Lamb had been selected by Almighty God to be mankind’s spiritual Champion. It hardly seemed fair, with billions of fierce principalities and powers arrayed against this singular mutilated figure nailed “helplessly” from a cruel cross of execution.
In Luke 4:17-19, Jesus had once said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me … He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives … To set free those who are oppressed.”
Now He was delivering on that promise. The results of that voluntary substitutionary sacrifice reached around the world and throughout time, as noted in Colossians 2:13-15:
“He (Jesus) made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”
How About You?
We honor our American veterans every year for their sacrifices. Yet often ignore or take for granted the fact that Jesus stood in the gap for you and me, single-handedly purchasing our freedom from spiritual death with His life blood. Have you personally turned to Him in gratitude, honor, and reverence?
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and Internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information, or contact him at don@peervalue.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.