Free Indeed!

Luke 4:18-19  "“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
    that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,
 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come."  

Jesus quoted from Isaiah to state the purpose of his ministry (setting all humanity free), but they have
a parallel in our nation's history.  January 1, 2013 was the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order of President Lincoln, declaring freedom for some of the enslaved peoples in the United States (the proclamation was limited by politics and the ongoing war).  Nevertheless, Lincoln's proclamation was the first domino to fall that caused the end of slavery in the United States. 

There's another parallel.  All slavery was outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and all humanity is declared free in Christ.  Yet illegal human trafficking still occurs in this country.  And many do not know, or understand how to live in, their freedom in Christ, so they feel they are still enslaved by their sins, or under God's judgment. 

Jesus said "So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free" (John 8:36) and I believe him more than I believe myself!  So how do we live in our freedom in Christ?  First we have to believe we are free.  Believing God means letting him change our thinking:  "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" (Romans 12:2).  Notice, it's surrendering our self-will and letting God change us -- not getting up the gumption to change ourselves so we can present ourselves to God already changed, because he is the only one who can truly change us anyway! 

Living in that freedom every moment of every day comes from knowing the will of God, as Paul said.  That leads us back to (no big surprise) spending time in the word of God and in prayer, along with other tools of spiritual formation that we know and practice.  And notice, these spiritual tools only work if we believe Jesus has truly set us free -- otherwise we keep trying to obey without faith, and that's a legalistic dead-end, spiritually fruitless.  (If you have any doubts about that, re-read the book of Galatians, especially chapters 3 and 4.) 

The freed slaves had to learn a new life -- how to make good decisions, think about the future, and care for their loved ones -- challenges created by their new freedom.  Christian discipleship, including the process of spiritual formation, is the exercise of learning to follow Christ in our spiritual freedom.  Let's make that spiritual formation a major goal in 2013 as we walk together in Christ.