A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2
In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. Romans 8:3-4
Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored. Romans 8:5-8
It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. Romans 8:9-11
Leon Morris writes, “People do not always, or even usually, realize that they are in bondage. They tend to rest in some fancied position of privilege - national, social, or religious.” For some, being in slavery doesn't feel like being a slave at all.
Unlike one being bound by chains in a prison cellar, many held in spiritual bondage and slavery are very often not even aware that they are being held. After all, they are making whatever choices they want to make and they are more or less happy with their condition of well-being. The thing is, Paul writes to people in Rome that "obsession with self...is a dead end." He adds that "anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God." So, is it possible that there might be some who are slaves and don't even know it? Of course.
The tragedy of spiritual slavery and bondage is that, for many, it is hard to notice, feel, or be aware of. This kind of slavery is insidious and treacherous. But as long as one is beholden to anything or anyone other than God, then one is a spiritual slave to a non-God (Galatians 4:8).
May the true God be with us all as we, together, attempt to break the chains of spiritual slavery and allow ourselves to be drawn to the one and only Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote, "The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death."
I really think most people are at this point in there lives and don't even realize it. It's truly sad and breaks my heart when I see my friends in this state each and every day. How do you convince them otherwise?
Posted by: Jamie | Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 08:27 AM