Reason 23 – Jesus Came to Die So That We Might Belong to Him

“The ultimate question is not “who” you are but “whose” you are. Of course, many people think they are nobody’s slave. They dream of total independence. Like a jellyfish carried by the tides feels free because it isn’t fastened down with the bondage of barnacles. But Jesus had a word for people who thought that way. He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But they responded, “We . . . have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” So Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:32-34) The Bible gives no reality to fallen humans who are ultimately self-determining. There is no autonomy in the fallen world. We are governed by sin or governed by God. Most of the time we are free to do what we want. But we are not free to want what we ought. For that we need a new power based on a divine purchase. The power is God’s. Which is why the Bible says, “Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart” (Romans 6:17). God is the one who may “grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26). And the purchase that unleashes this power is the death of Christ. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And what price did Christ pay for those who trust him? “He obtained [them] with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). Christ suffered and died that we might be set free from law and sin and belong to him. Here is where obedience ceases to be a burden and becomes the freedom of fruit-bearing. Remember, you are not your own. Whose will you be? If Christ’s, then come and belong.”

Reflecting on this reminds me that I am not a boundless autonomous creature. I am free to act here on earth, but my life, my actions along with the workings of the universe are ultimately bounded by the will of God. So by default, since I am an earthly creature, I belong to the world and serve the desires of the world. And the world I serve is far from perfect. My desire to serve what gives me pleasure, rules my life. However, earthly pleasure leads nowhere. The old adage, “you can’t take it with you” is very true. King Solomon’s book, Ecclesiastes, was a laboratory on life. In it, he chronicles his earthly pursuit of pleasure, indulging in every pleasure money could buy. The end result he discovered was that money or pleasure ultimately do not satisfy. His conclusion was the even the wisest man will die a fool, if he serves the pleasures of the world and not God. The good news is that God invaded the world with grace and mercy and bestows this grace and mercy on undeserving, even ill-deserving people. This grace and mercy transforms sinners from slaves of the world to bond servants of God. The grace and mercy shown was through the death of Christ.

George Sarris, a well-known voice-over artist on radio and TV, who I met a few years back, has an interesting little pamphlet on Solomon’s experiment with live and pleasure. You can find more about it here http://www.ecclesiastesbysolomon.com. You can read George’s blog Engage the Culture here http://www.georgesarris.blogspot.com/

Questions: Have you ever thought about the fact that you can only serve one whom you know? Do you know God? Who are you “really” serving?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.