Running Free

October 9

(Psalm 119:32 NIV) “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”

(John 8:31-36 NIV) “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. {32} Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." {33} They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" {34} Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. {35} Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. {36} So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

(Romans 6:18-23 NIV) “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. {19} I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. {20} When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. {21} What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! {22} But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. {23} For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

There is a tendency today to see the commands of God as burdensome… a yoke from which we struggle to escape. We want a religion with no boundaries. We want a faith with no obligations. But in any relationship worth having, we give up a bit of our autonomy and freedom in order to enjoy the benefits of love. Freedom in Christ is such a relationship. We were once free of God’s righteous commands, running in sin. We lived with the illusion of freedom, but in reality, we were in bondage -- slaves to our sin. Then the Spirit opened our eyes. We surrendered and became slaves to righteousness -- slaves to the Lord. This new and holy commitment makes us an eternal child of God. We no longer obey God out of fear, but out of love. The Son has set us free indeed, and for the first time in our lives, we are truly running free in His commands. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day