He Came To Set Us Free

We just finished celebrating Advent and Christmas, a time when we look back the Son of God entering flesh. The 'incarnation' as it's called, marked the point in time when God became one of us, entering our world with all its pain and brokenness, and creating a restored
humanity. He became the "second Adam" (Rom. 5:12-18 and 1 Cor. 15:22) who totally overruled the actions of the first Adam, reversed course and set us all back unto harmony with God.

Jesus began to teach after his baptism, and one of the first things he had to tell us about was that he came to set us free. At the time we didn't know we were enslaved, or captive; but we needed freeing nonetheless.  In Luke 4, Jesus defeats Satan by using truth instead of doubting, overturning once and for all the disbelief of Adam and Eve. He fully relies on his Father rather than trying to work out something from human logic or intuition. Next, in that same context, Jesus goes to the synagogue in his home town, Nazareth, and boldly preaches his mission:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
How very much is put into those few words. Humanity had been in abject poverty while trying to create a civilization devoid of true knowledge of God, because they had turned their backs on him. We had been captive to the same devil that Jesus had defeated (see 2 Tim. 2:26), blindly following all the temptations we'd been handed and never really being free to follow the Lord God. But with Jesus' coming, all that changed. He healed the breach between God and humans by his own death on the Cross, gave us eternal life by his resurrection, and set us free to follow him by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (see John 14:15-27, for instance)

Freedom in Christ means true freedom (Gal. 5:1) to live as Jesus did and still does, to love as he loves, and not to be captive to our own selfish emotions and lusts. We are free to follow him in saying "NO!" even to the devil's temptations, because Satan has no more power over us. We are free! We can live free, full of peace and joy, even in a society that is still captive to fear and frustration.

"It's a Wonderful Life" is the title of a classic movie, and I'd have to say, the Christian life is that in spades. If you don't yet feel free, let's talk -- so you can start enjoying what is already yours!