I recently read a story
in my devotional that painted a fascinating picture of freedom. The story was
about Abraham Lincoln visiting a slave auction.
Upon arriving, Lincoln
saw a young black girl up on the block. Moved with compassion, he placed a bid
and won her. After purchasing her, Lincoln told the young disbelieving girl
that she was free.
In her surprise she said,
“What does that mean?”
“It means you are free,”
he replied.
“Does that mean,” she
said, “I can say whatever I want to say?”
“Yes, my dear, you can
say whatever you want to say.”
“Does that mean I can be
whatever I want to be?”
“Yes, you can be whatever
you want to be.”
“Does that mean I can go
wherever I want to go?”
“Yes, you can go wherever
you want to go.”
And the girl, with tears
streaming down her face, said, “Then I will go with you.” Although this account
is probably more fiction than fact, it reminds us that, just like this young
girl, we too have been set free.
Paul, in his letter to
the church in Ephesus, paints this very picture:
Therefore remember that at one time you
Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the
circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at
that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near
by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one
and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing
the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in
himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile
us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who
were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So
then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with
the saints and members of the household of God Ephesians
2:11-22
Paul writes that when God
reconciles us to Himself, He calls us out of death and darkness into life and
light. He makes those who were once strangers and aliens sons and daughters.
He did not just enter our
story, but He also grafted us into the grand story of redemption. This story is
one of a loving God setting the captives free.
You and I were once far
from God, dead in our sins and trespasses and without hope. But God, being rich
in His mercy and love, reconciled us to Himself through Christ. We have been
set free by the blood of the cross.
This means that you and I
have been set free, and like this young slave girl, our response is to cling to
the One who set us free – our response is to use our stories to paint a picture
of freedom to those around us
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