For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

January 4, 2024

For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free

There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.

Colossians 3:11 (NJB) 

I believe what set Saint Paul apart from so many of his contemporaries, what makes his words still resonate deeply within the hearts of men and women two thousand years after they were first written, is that Paul was so very certain of the sufficiency of Christ. Whether Paul was in a jail cell in Philippi, debating with Greek philosophers on Mars Hill, or proclaiming the Good News of Jesus in every hamlet and village across his missionary journeys, Paul lived, moved, and existed in Christ. (Acts 17:28) Paul heard God tell him, “My grace is sufficient for you,” and Paul believed God (2 Corinthians 12:9a NRSV). How might our lives be different if we too rested in the sufficiency of Christ in our lives?

Several years ago, I toured Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, and Antietam. About one hundred sixty years have passed since Civil War battles were fought on these grounds. Yet there remains evidence of what men and women sacrificed for the cause of freedom. In visiting Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, I was struck by the commitment he, and fifty-five others, made to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” in support of the Declaration of Independence and freedom for the United Colonies. What has our freedom to be the people Christ called us to be, or to do?

“For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1 NRSV). In our personal lives, the prevailing culture tempts us to find satisfaction in the accumulation of power, money, and self-indulgence in temporal pleasures. Over and against the ways of the prevailing culture, Christ has set us free from the powers of the spiritual forces of evil so that we can dwell continually in his presence. The same words God spoke to Paul, He speaks to all His children: “My grace is sufficient for you.”

My Takeaway: If we, like Paul, will choose to believe God, like Paul, we will conclude, “There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything,” and we will be free.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.