Day Twenty Seven

Romans 8:18-22

18.) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

19.) For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

20.) For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

21.) that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

22.) For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

         What is freedom? Someone might say that freedom is the ability to do as we like. Not a bad definition, I suppose, but even in a free country we cannot walk into a gas station and rob the place. We are not free to rape or beat someone or kill someone. Well, then, we are free to do as we want as long as we do not hurt someone else in the process. But then, are we truly free? I want a dog, but I have to buy a license. I want to race down I-69 at 150 mph, but I would be ticketed or worse (since I wouldn’t be able to do that in my car I would have had to have stolen someone else’s vehicle). Freedom, then, only allows some freedom, but not all freedom. When you think about it, freedom is kind of tricky.

         We hold freedom dear. We say that freedom was given to us by God. Yet, in the Bible there are passages that explain how a slave is to behave toward their master. Slavery existed and was common and we don’t read about the Lord urging slave revolts. And with that going on, we also read of the desire for freedom in the Word.

         How, then, do we define freedom?

         Verse twenty one says this; that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

         So freedom is stepping away from sin and stepping closer to glory. That hardly sounds like our definitions of freedom. Really, that doesn’t work. And…..bondage to corruption? What does that mean?

         People, Christians and non-Christians alike, embrace the world. We accept the sin that is out there and sometimes even cross the line ourselves. Maybe more than ‘sometimes.’ We allow ourselves to be put into bondage almost without noticing it. The filth on TV and movies and books fails to register on us. Our actions, our language our very thoughts betray us to others, but not to ourselves. We are in bondage.

         Freedom is getting out of that bondage and being free to live a life that is pleasing to the Savior.

         This is a rich little passage of Scripture. Paul says in verse eighteen; For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Paul encountered so many things! He was stoned, he was in prison, he was shipwrecked, he had a physical infirmity that he didn’t identify but that evidently plagued him. He asked the Lord repeatedly to remove it from him. Chased out of towns, sometimes barely enough resources to live, often hated by the very people he was trying to reach. And yet, for all of that, he says that it will be nothing when he goes to meet Jesus. Folks, that is freedom! Freedom from concern, freedom from the world’s bondage.

         Satan, who rules the world, drags us down. We don’t even know it, but Satan is doing everything he can do to pull us away from God. And while it is happening, we begin to feel more stress and more discontent. Paul says here that all creation longs for the Lord. Most don’t know what would make them happy. But the freedom to be content is right there.

         We lived in Miami, Florida in the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Once a week we would take our Youth group to one of the large racetracks there to minister to the people who worked there or even lived there. Stable hands, groomers, people who kept the viewing stands clean, folks like that. Marsha and I would take a pretty large group and the Youth would sing and put on puppet shows and then I would speak for about fifteen minutes. The kids were always ready to go. One day some friends of ours called and asked if we would go with them to play miniature golf. Marsha and I really enjoyed that and where we would go was very cool. So our friends, good church going folks, asked us to go. No, I replied, that is our Youth night at Caulder race track. To which my friend replied, Do you really have to go? Playing miniature golf isn’t a sinful thing at all until it becomes more important than serving the Lord. I told Jeff that we didn’t have to go, but we wanted to go.

         Real freedom is being free to follow the Lord.

         Our prayer today is to pray that Christians, even ourselves, will seek the freedom that can only be in the Lord.