On the day before Easter a few years ago, my family and I were enjoying a laid-back Saturday afternoon, uncharacteristic of our normally soccer filled Saturdays in that season. Thinking toward Easter, I had a passing thought…“What if Jesus hadn’t died? Then, what if He hadn’t risen again? Who would I be? What would life be like?”
I hopelessly answered my questions in my own pondering thoughts - If Jesus hadn’t died, then I’d be a slave to sin, held captive by my unrighteousness. I’d owe the Lord a debt I could never pay back. If Jesus hadn’t risen to life, death would think it held the victory. The enemy would think He won.
Praise God that nightmare will never be!
Immanuel, God with Us, came to earth, suffered, and died to set us free from the law of sin and death! Not only did He die for us, He lives to intercede for us! He bridges the gap, once and for all! What FREEDOM!
So, from this short ponderance, came great joy and testimony in the form of a song. The lyrics proclaim the freedom we have because of our redemption. Jesus came to save us knowing we could never save ourselves. He endured the cross then defeated death for us!
“I was the captive,
but Jesus proclaimed my release.
So if the Son has set me free,
I am free indeed!”
HALLELUJAH!
Romans 8: 1-4
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Romans 6:6-23
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, 18 and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.21 So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. 22 But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:54b-55
Death has been swallowed up in victory.
55 Where, death, is your victory?
Where, death, is your sting?
John 8:36
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Titus 3:3-7
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Hebrews 7:24-28
… but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
My Liberator
(Verse 1)
Had it not been for the cross,
I’d be imprisoned in chains.
with a debt I could not pay,
I’d be labeled a slave to sin.
(Verse 2)
But you carried my sins
upon the hill of Calvary,
and You suffered and You died
to pay the price for me to be free.
(Chorus)
My Liberator
has set me free.
Because of my Savior,
I’ve been redeemed!
Jesus fought the battle,
and triumphs in glory.
My Liberator
has set me free.
(Verse 3)
Had it not been for the resurrection
of Jesus, God’s own Son,
The grave would have conquered
and death would have won.
(Verse 4)
But you rolled away the stone
and you live to intercede for me.
So, now death where is Your sting,
O grave, where is Your victory?
(Bridge)
I was the captive,
but Jesus proclaimed my release;
and if the Son has set me free,
then I am free, indeed!