Bondage or Freedom?

Exodus 14:13-14

After the Pharaoh finally conceded to let the Children of Israel go as Moses had asked, he relented and went after them.  The Israelites were terrified when they saw the Egyptians marching towards them.  They turned to Moses in their fear and complained that he should have left them in Egypt.  We read in Exodus 14:13-14, Moses’ reply: Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

God then instructed Moses to stretch his staff out over the sea, and we know the story of the Red Sea parting so that the Israelites could cross on dry land.  Once they were across, the Egyptians who were hot in pursuit were all drowned as the waters of the Red Sea came back together again.  There was nothing the Children of Israel could have done to save themselves.  The Egyptians were after them, there was nowhere for them to run or hide and even the most brilliant minds in the world could not figure a way out of the situation.  And Moses’ only instruction to them as they saw the Egyptians headed straight towards them in all their fury was to be still because the Lord would fight for them.    

I have often wondered what it would have been like to be an Israelite at that time and witness such a miraculous event.  What kinds of thoughts would have run through my head, what kind of emotions would have coursed through my body as I saw first hand God saving me and everyone around me, not only from the bondage of slavery, but also from the angry Egyptians who were ready to take vengeance on a people who had defied them?  Not only had I been set free, but it happened in such a way that there would be no doubt who had been responsible for my release.  I like to think that I would have fallen on my face and committed my life to serving God forever.  After witnessing God’s supernatural power, I would never again doubt or question His immeasurable love for me.  And as I moved forward in my life and faced difficulties or challenges, I would always be able to look back on that moment in time and know that God would take care of me, rescue me in times of peril and provide for my every need.  But that is not what the Israelites did, and quite honestly, it is not what I do either.

It was not long after the supernatural escape from the Egyptians that the Israelites were complaining to Moses about not being able to find water, and when they did find water they couldn’t drink it because it was bitter, yet God took care of that problem too and made the water sweet. (Exodus 15:25)  Their next complaint was lack of food.  Their groaning and complaining was such that they were convinced they should have stayed in Egypt, because at least there they had food to eat. (Exodus 16:3)  All the complaining, all the whining, all the mistrusting of God continued on for the next 40 years as they wandered through the desert on their way to the land that God had promised to them.  It didn’t matter how much God provided for them, all the supernatural ways that He took care of them, every time they hit a bump in the road the whining and complaining would start again.  It makes you wonder why God didn’t just leave them in the desert and let them figure it out on their own.  God set them free, yet there were times when they preferred their bondage over trusting in God.

And how often do we do that today?  We hit a hard place in life and say, “Oh, God, why did you let this happen?  Why don’t you fix it?” And then we start looking for solutions ourselves.  We want to find the quick fix to make the pain go away, but the quick fix usually gets us nowhere.  Oh, it might leave us wandering around in the desert or even worse, right back in Egypt into the same old bondage we want so desperately to escape from, but we will never be released from bondage or set free from pain until we learn to sit still and let the Lord fight for us.  Until we fully know and understand that God loves us and we can trust in Him completely can we experience true freedom!

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

This Thing Called Grace

Romans 6

The world is moving at a rapid pace, and if you are like me, there are times when you may feel that things are spinning out of control.  There are so many things coming at us to occupy not only our time but also our minds that it can become challenging at times to discern those things that are good from those things that our not.  Even many our churches seem to be sending out mixed messages about right and wrong and how exactly grace fits into the whole equation.

According to Merriam Webster’s on-line dictionary, grace is defined as unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.  I really like that word regeneration; it suggests that through grace we can be made new again.  And isn’t that exactly what we want to know will happen by grace, that when we sin and repent for our sins, we can be made new again in the eyes of God?  Does God extend us grace so that we can do what ever we want to do knowing that His grace will cover all of our sin?  Paul writes the following in Romans 6:1-2: What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? And that is the question, once we know Jesus, how can we go on sinning?

We go on sinning because we are imperfect, flawed humans motivated by our own selfish desires to have our needs met.  Only Jesus Christ lived a life free from sin.  Jesus’ life was sinless for two reasons.  The first reason is that He always chose to do the will of His Father.  Even though Jesus is the Son of God, He still came to earth in the flesh, tempted in all things, yet He never put His will or His desires above those of Father God.  The second reason Jesus was sinless was because He understood what it truly meant to serve others. There was no ego or selfish desires to get in His way of serving others. Not only did He know and understand the concept, it is something that He made a choice to do each day, but this is a topic for another day.

But what does Paul mean when he says that “We are those who have died to sin?”  If we are so flawed and imperfect, how can we die to sin?  The change comes in the heart.  Bill Johnson wrote in his book, Face to Face with God, “And because of who He is, to behold Him and remain unchanged is impossible.”  As we seek God and draw closer to Him, His desires become our desires.  As we allow God’s love to permeate our lives, to infiltrate every fiber of our being, He draws our hearts to Him and the things that used to entice us begin to lose their effect.  Those things become dead to us as we find new life in Christ Jesus.

Will we continue to sin, make mistakes and totally mess things up?  The answer to that is absolutely, but the next question is: Does God’s grace give us permission to sin?  We already know that Paul instructed against it, but we also read in the book of Jude, verse 4 the following:  “For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

Just as it was in those days, the perversion of the grace message continues today.  God has called us to come out of the world and draw close to Him, to choose His way over the ways of the world.  Only when we are seeking Him can we experience true freedom in this world and those times when we do fall, His grace is there to pick us up, clean us off and make us new again!

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11-13