I don’t know about you, but when I think about slavery I think of the movies
I’ve seen, the books I’ve read, and the things that I have been taught in school about
the history of slavery in America. In the origins of our nation, people were captured
from their homeland (predominantly in Africa), taken in slaver ships, and forced to
work on farms and in fields in what would become the United States. Slavery is an
abominable thought for most Americans, because we have been raised to believe
that people have certain unalienable rights that should not be stolen or taken from
us. And to take those rights from someone else and force them into servitude boils
our blood.
But slavery is as old as sin. Today, slavery is still a lucrative business.
Although it is abolished in every country in the modern world (the last to abolish it
was actually a country in Africa, Mauritania, in 1981), slavery is still occurring. In
fact, there are more slaves today than at any point in human history. There are still
people being forced to work against their will, but the largest growing and most
predominant slavery is human trafficking that includes sex trafficking of all ages and
genders.
Some have challenged the character of God over this topic because part of the
Levitical Law in the Bible talks about rules in having slaves. But those forms of
slavery are referring to debt bondage, serfdom or bonded labor. When God
delivered his people from slavery in Egypt, they set up a new nation. And so He had
to create a new government different from the one they had to come from in Egypt.
And in this new government everyone had land. But in situations where a person
lost their land or money either by bad investment, natural causes or wasting it away,
they were in need of help. And so a person could become indentured (or enslaved)
to another person for a period of time in order to provide food and shelter for
themselves or their families. Once the debt was paid, they were released from their
slavery and were once again free to work and provide for themselves. God also
established the “Year of Jubilee” where every 50 years everybody got his or her land
and stuff back. No matter how poor their decisions or bad their luck, it was a reset
button so everyone started back with what they had 50 years prior. No more. No
less.
So why did I take the time to explain all this about slavery? Because the
Apostle Paul in the book of Galatians used slavery as a living metaphor to explain
Jesus’ birth and reason for coming into this world.
Galatians 4:1-7
Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young
children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up,
even though they actually own everything their father had. 2 They have to obey
their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 3 And that’s the
way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves
to the basic spiritual principles of this world.
4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to
the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so
that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his
children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to
call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own
child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.
Now most of us shudder to think of ourselves as slaves or as not being free.
But Paul puts our condition as gently as he can for he compares us to children who
are due an inheritance from our father. But that inheritance is a future hope because
our current state is that we are children who have not matured to an age where we
can receive that inheritance. And so until we are old enough and mature enough to
handle that inheritance, we are forced to obey the guardians who are entrusted to
our care until we reach that age.
I really like this illustration because it shows the relational aspect of our
condition. When we think about being born into sin, we can often think about a stiff
life of doing good and avoiding bad to get free from the consequence of sin like in a
legal sense. But that is not what is really going on. Yes, we are born into sin in a
fallen state separated from the God who loved us enough to create us. But life is a
process of maturity where the Ten Commandments and other Laws are not meant
to hinder our freedom or growth, but guide us into sharing the character of our
heavenly Father so that we can receive the inheritance waiting for us.
But the problem with living under the law before Christ was that none of us
could keep the law. Our sinful nature was too strong. Our rebellious hearts would
sabotage our progress and so we were incapable of maturing to the point of
receiving our inheritance.
So what did Jesus do? He became a slave like us. A child under the law to live
out and fulfill that law and also pay the penalty of our sin. Why? So we could be free!
So we could be adopted by God the Father. So we could finally receive the
inheritance we were always intended to have.
Now we live a different life. We are no longer in bondage separated from God,
but we are now adopted into his family. If we have any need or are lacking strength,
we call out “abba, Father” and the Holy Spirit empowers us to live in victory and true
freedom in the new life.
Now, let’s talk a little bit about freedom. Because in our culture we often
define freedom as license to do anything we want. That is not entirely true. For
although Jesus died and rose again to give us the freedom to choose. Some choices
put us back into slavery that is harmful. There are always rules and truths for life.
The freedom that Jesus was enslaved for and died and rose to give us was not to
make us our own “gods”, but to make us “God’s.”
In fact, Paul once again uses slavery as an illustration to relate the truth that
our freedom is always in a structure where something or someone else is in control
of us.
Romans 6:15-23
15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean
we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the
slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads
to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous
living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly
obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to
sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration
of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be
slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you
must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become
holy. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do
right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you
used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the
power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that
lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but
the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
“You become a slave of whatever you choose to obey.” That is a huge
statement in verse 16! For freedom is not license to live however you want without
rules or boundaries. The reality is we either live by God’s design or the only other
choice is to live according to the sinful nature. We are not autonomous and our own
masters…ever!
That is what the Christian life and maturity is about. Let me illustrate this
example further, just one more time. Because this is not a theoretical metaphor, but
one lived out in the reality of Israel’s history. Remember how Abraham was
promised the land of Israel (that is why it is called “the Promised Land”). This was
the “inheritance” of his descendents. But 400 years later they have grown into a
large family and are slaves in Egypt: separated from their inheritance.
But in the midst of this period of time, God sent a child, Moses, to deliver his people.
Moses tried with his own strength and failed at the age of 40. But at the age
of 80, by God’s guidance, brought deliverance to God’s people through the ten
plagues. Even though they were free from the Egyptian bondage, the people were
not free now to go and do whatever they wanted.
They had been rescued by God and were to follow Him. Where did he take them? Mt. Sinai. The location where God gave them the Law and Instruction for what it meant to be in relationship with him: no longer slaves to sin but now slaves to righteousness.
The goal of the law was not the land, personal freedom or autonomy. It was
so God could live and dwell in their midst and the people could learn to live in such a
way to reflect the character of the God who loved them enough to adopt them as his
children.
But the Old Testament is full of examples where the Israelites lost sight of
why they were free. They stopped living by God’s law and design. And found
themselves back in slavery time and again. Many times it was emotional bondage to possession, and other times it was physical chains. The law was hard to live up to because they could acknowledge it with their head, but their hearts just wanted to rebel.
Now when Jesus came and delivered us from the slavery of our sin, he freed
our hearts from the spiritual chains of sin so we now have a new nature that desires
to follow Jesus not out of obligation but love and empowered by the Holy Spirit to do
so.
So as we reflect on the infant Jesus this morning I want you to think of him as
God being born to slaves as a slave to free us from our slavery. And just to make sure
we get this point, where did Jesus spend some of his childhood when Herod wanted
to have him killed? That’s right: Egypt, the place of Gods’ people’s bondage.
So today, I want you to realize that you live in freedom. Your debt has been
paid. You have been adopted by God and your inheritance awaits. But as part of his
household you live by his standards and rules. This should not be a heavy weight in
the life of a believer, but should be a passionate pursuit to become everything we
have been designed to be.
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