Are You Free?

Last week the pastor shared with us what a blessing our freedoms are here in America, and what an even greater blessing is the freedom that Christians have through Jesus. However, we all know that a price had to be paid for those freedoms, and that is why we are so thankful.

Then Monday morning, I read about King Ahab in 1 Kings. He was an evil king. The prophet Elijah told him, “you have sold yourself to do evil.” When I read that I thought, Ahab paid a price too. His price was himself, and he probably did not even realize it. And I thought: how many people have sold themselves to sin, and they don’t even know that they are captive?

It reminds me of Patrick Henry’s famous speech in which he said “Give me liberty or give me death.” I teach this speech to my students each year, and one of the things that stands out to them is the fact that men like Patrick Henry had to convince other Americans that they needed to fight this fight. In one part of the speech, Henry tells them, you do not realize that if we don’t fight, we will be slaves! In order to convince them to fight, he had to convince them that they weren’t free, that they were captive. And only when people realized that they weren’t free were they willing to sacrifice their lives. Patrick Henry realized they would not be willing to pay the price for freedom until they realized they weren’t free.

And there are so many people in this world, in this country, who are in the same situation today. They don’t even realize the price they have paid–that they have sold themselves to sin. They don’t know that they need the sacrifice Jesus made for them because they don’t know that they aren’t free. 

But unlike our brave forefathers, we don’t have to fight in order to earn that freedom. Our freedom is through Jesus alone. 

So today, may we praise God and give thanks for the prices that were paid for the freedoms we have today. Thank you, Lord, for the people who revealed to others that they were not free, and for those who fought for our freedom in America. And thank you, Jesus, you have set us free from the curse of sin and the grave. 

Jesus paid it all.