- Screen Colours:
- Normal
- Black & Yellow
How time flies. Apparently it is ten years since the film ‘Twelve years a slave’ won the best motion picture award at the golden globe awards. The film, based on the memoir of Solomon Northrup, a black man born free in New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the deep south. It took him twelve years to regain his freedom and return to his family. Sadly, there are all too many forms of slavery which still exist today. Vulnerable people are exploited as cheap labour or even worse. There are other kinds of slavery too. In truth we can become a slave to anything which masters us, be it an addiction, a habit, a compulsion we cannot break or even our own rage and passion. All these things can bind us to the point where we are not really in control of our life at all.
Jesus takes this idea one step further when he says, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin”. Sin is rather a taboo word today unless you go to Slimming World where it is spelt’ syn’ (it used to be spelt the other way) and applied to certain foods. I think Jesus has something rather different in mind. In Bible times people might be enslaved for non-payment of a debt and under Roman law criminals often became galley slaves who rowed the large ships of the time.
Redemption is one of the key words found in the New Testament is. It is a term which was used to describe how a person could be bought out of slavery and given their freedom. It is the word which is used to describe how Jesus has given his own life as a ransom to secure the freedom of all who commit their life in trust to him. Jesus was referring to himself when he said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed”. Paul. Writing in the New Testament says: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.” This sets us free to live life in a new way. Imagine a massive Airbus A380 firmly planted on the runway. It is kept there by the law of gravity. But as the power is applied and the aircraft builds up speed a new set of physical laws takes over and it lifts off the runway and begins to fly. Jesus offers the power to live life in a new way. He wants to enable us to soar to new heights as we begin to live the kind of life which God always intended for us. Jesus offers the freedom to choose. We should use this freedom well.