2 Corinthians 3
Freedom. It’s a word that we cherish as
Americans. In recent years people have warned directly that our freedom is
eroding and being stripped away from us. Recent revelations about the
government spying on us citizens might make us wonder!
Freedom is an important topic for Christians,
too. Not so much political freedom; we have seen that the Gospel can be
declared in the face of persecution and God does amazing things through the
suffering of his people. In fact the ancient church historian Tertullian
observed, “The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the church.” No, the freedom we are most deeply concerned
with is spiritual.
Jesus once said that whoever sins is a
slave to sin. All of us can see evidence that we break God’s law - and to break
God’s law is to sin. We might not want to admit that we are slaves to sin, but
if we look we can behaviors which are, as Proverbs describes, like a dog
returning to its vomit. We aren’t proud of it. We want to quit. But we keep on
doin’ it.
In that frustration and bondage we hear
2 Corinthians 3. The Spirit of God gives freedom. The new covenant with God is
not about our deeds, the Law, or death. It is about life, forgiveness and
righteousness (not our righteousness, but Jesus’ righteousness given to
us.)
The Spirit of God creates faith in us to
receive Jesus’ forgiveness and that sets us free. He not only sets us free, but
he opens our eyes to see and our ears to hear God’s will and word. He empowers
us to pursue that will through the power of the word.
Not that we do that perfectly! We
struggle. Sometimes we prefer the veil over the Word and our old slavish ways. When
the veil is removed we see how short we fall. The condemnation we deserve comes
into much sharper focus. But when the veil is taken away we can also see that
as truly as we deserve condemnation, God even more so loves us and forgives us
in Jesus.
Our freedom in the Spirit of God does
not make us our own masters, but it sets us free to approach our Father. We are
free to come to God. We are free to do His will. We are free to enjoy his
blessing, because the Spirit of God is within us!
Lord, let me be truly free in Jesus’
forgiveness! Amen.
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