The United States of America is built upon the ideal of freedom. Though it has not always lived up to the true meaning of its creed, the great struggle in the conscience of America has been the struggle for freedom. On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry spoke the immortal words in defense of freedom and the American Revolution: “Give me liberty or give me death!” For Henry, it was liberty or death. For Jesus Christ, it was liberty by death. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ set us free. Yet, as all Americans know, freedom is not free. This is never truer than of the freedom we have in Jesus.
The Good News of the gospel is that Jesus died and rose again so we would be free from sin. Sin is a power that enslaves. From the beginning, the sin of Adam and Eve became the sin of all (Rom. 5:12). Consequently, being born in Adam is being born in bondage to sin. This is much like the great evil of human slavery we see in our history; one of the tragedies of the American slave system was that children born to slaves were slaves as well. But Christ broke the curse of sin in Adam and thus set the children of Adam free (v. 19). No longer slaves to sin, but now slaves to righteousness. No longer bound by the yoke of bondage, but now free in Christ. Nevertheless, that freedom is always under attack.
Following the Emancipation Proclamation and the formal end of slavery in the United States, there came a new kind of slavery, namely the oppression of Jim Crow laws. In some regards, this was more insidious and demeaning than the first. It gave the impression of freedom, yet it systematically and institutionally kept black Americans in bondage. This new slave system was not formal bondage, but it was oppression and bondage nonetheless and, as such, needed to be broken. Similarly, when a person has been set free from the penalty of sin through the cross of Christ, often that person may remain in bondage to the guilt and shame of his or her sin. The Cross sets us free from both slavery to sin and its guilt. This is where the promise and pronouncement of Romans 8:1 is critical to the Christian life. Anyone who is in Christ Jesus is no longer under condemnation for sins committed. In other words, Jesus not only paid the debt but also carried the guilt and shame often associated with it.
Guilt is one of the Devil’s most-utilized weapons against the Christian. Because sin yet remains in our lives and many live with daily struggles to overcome it, the Enemy of our souls often seeks to convince us to doubt the efficacy of God’s grace and the assurance of his mercy. He knows feelings of guilt and shame can be overwhelming and can lead to despair. If the Enemy can get you to despair and to wallow in your failures, he can keep you from living in the freedom Christ secured for you on the cross. And thus, he can bind you in a new kind of slavery—daily living below the dignity of your freedom in Christ and the joy of your salvation.
Yet Christ would have us remember that he put an end to all condemnation for sins past, present, and future. As the Bible asks and answers, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Rom. 8:33–34).
The Irish hymn writer Charitie Lees Bancroft said it well:
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
The work of Christ sets us free from sin and guilt in the past so we can live free today. This freedom is complete and demands we proclaim it.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech ends on an emphatic and unforgettable note. He reminds the nation that his dream was for a day when all peoples—regardless of race, gender, color, or creed—would be able to sing together, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” The apostle Paul used a similar tone when he wrote to the Galatians; he wanted them to hear him loud and clear: Free at last! Free at last! Because of the cross of Christ, we are free at last!
There may not be a more emphatic statement in all the inspired writings of the apostle Paul: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). If the nature of sin is bondage, the nature of the gospel is liberty. Christ died to free his people from the bondage of slavery to sin (Rom. 8:2). When Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia to emphasize again the extent of the freedom they had in Christ, the wording he chose drove home the importance of living as freedmen—free from the condemnation of the law, free from the guilt of sin, free to worship and live for our Lord Jesus Christ. Never before have men and women been so free. And never need they be in bondage again.
Consequently, of all the people in the world, Christians should be first and foremost in the cry for freedom. The gospel demands it. Our deliverance from bondage to sin is a theological truth that should bear the practical fruit of freedom from all kinds of human bondage. Human trafficking and slavery are incompatible with the gospel, as is the bondage of physical and emotional abuse. Because we preach the gospel of freedom from sin, we also preach freedom to live free. As Christians, we are free to live and love in Christ. And as ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20), we are called to help others do the same.
Therefore, to preach the gospel is to preach men and women free. Though this freedom can primarily be understood in terms of our relationship with God and our freedom from sin and guilt, it also touches our human relationships as we seek freedom for others. For “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
Anthony J. Carter is the lead pastor of East Point Church in East Point, Georgia. A graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando, he is the author of several books including Running from Mercy, Blood Work, and Black and Reformed.
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