ESOCS Devotional 23 December 2021
TEXT: JOHN 8:31-47
MEMORY VERSE:
“If the Son therefore shall make you free; ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:35 KJV).
According to Christ, a person can’t be spiritually free unless he has the truth, which is God’s Word. Obviously, that person must understand that truth. Few people have realized the freedom that comes from understanding God’s Word. The Scriptures point out that God’s Spirit guides us to the truth (John 16:13), and helps us to understand the Scriptures (1 Cor. 2:10-14). This spiritual understanding leads to freedom. We know that the Holy Spirit is a precious gift that God grants based on repentance, the acceptance of Christ, water baptism, a willingness to obey, and the laying on of hands (Acts 2:38; 5:32; 8:14).
Sin enslaves man in two ways, namely: By producing compelling desires. Sin enslaves by making anything look more desirable than Jesus. That’s what sin is: desiring something above Jesus and then acting on it. It eventually damns us.
Jesus alone can free us from these two kinds of slavery: the domination and damnation of sin. He frees us from the damnation of sin by becoming a damnation for us. He frees us from the domination of sin by changing our nature at the root through the new birth. The essence of it is that He gives us eyes to see that our Saviour is more to be desired than anything in the world. When our sins are forgiven, and God’s wrath is taken away, and we see Jesus as a greater Treasure than the world, we are freed from both the damnation and domination of sin.
A Christian is called away from superstition, error, bondage, deception, guilt, depravity, ignorance, and a destructive life, from being a captive of Satan and facing eternal death. He is called to liberty in Christ, receiving forgiveness of sins through His shed blood, now knowing freedom from guilt, an awareness of the truth of God and, as a free gift, the hope of eternal life. Ultimately, true freedom comes through the resurrection at Christ’s return, as Paul explains in Romans 8:21, “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Jesus is the Truth and knowing the Truth will set one at liberty—free from sin, free from condemnation, and free from death.
- How will correct your reject of the liberty Jesus has offered you?
- Father, help me to accept the truth of the finished work on the cross
Read Other ESOCS Devotional here
FURTHER READING: Romans 6:10–14; 8:2-6
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ESOCS Devotional 23 December 2021
