What are you a slave of?

“Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” John 8:34-36

Before Jesus was born, when Joseph first found out that his wife was pregnant, but not by him, an angel appeared to him in a dream and said this: “do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” Mat 1:20-21.

Jesus’ name means: God is Salvation.  Jesus is actually the same name as Joshua, just like the Joshua of the old testament.  When Joshua is transliterated into Greek we get the name Jesus.  So with all that said, Jesus’ purpose was to save us; save us from our sins.

Now, God is no dummy.  If He sent a Savior for the world, then that means that we need saving.  Some people don’t think so, but they are badly mistaken and will soon learn as much.  What do we need saving from? The bible says we need to be saved from our sins.

Sin is breaking God’s law. But sin is more than just ‘not doing what God says.’  God created the world for the purpose of bringing abundant life to His creation. Sin is what naturally brings death. Therefore He called all that brought death ‘sin,’ and established His law and has written it on every persons conscience.

But we have not listened to our conscience.  We have disobeyed it and gone our own way. We have gone the way of what selfishly feels good instead of going the way of what IS good. We have lusted after evil things and have disregarded our Creator. And, moreover, we have become trapped in these sins and are not able to escape from them on our own.

I’ve met people that are trapped in anger. I’ve met people that are trapped in lust. I’ve met people that are trapped in substance abuse. I’ve met people that are trapped in bitterness and jealousy. I’ve met people that are trapped in the memories of their past mistakes. (I’ve been trapped in most of these things myself.)  They need to be saved from their sin.  God can save them.

The mistake that some people make is to think that Christianity means to stop doing bad and start doing good.  This is not correct. Christianity is about Jesus rescuing you from the bad and, in turn, helping you to do good.  If you are focusing on trying to stop doing something, you’ll never win.  You are doing it wrong. You need to cry out to Jesus to save you like a young child would cry to a life guard when he is in over his head in a swimming pool.  When you’ve figured out that you can’t save yourself, you’ve come to the place where you need to be.

Are you a slave to sin?  Jesus said that those who sin are a slave to sin.  The slave does abide (or live) forever. Only the children do. Christ will recuse you from slavery and deliver you into the freedom of the children of God!