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By Mike Caton

John 8:36, So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

People look in all kinds of places for freedom. Some folks think freedom is doing whatever they want to do, having no one giving them orders. And I suppose that might seem like freedom, until the bills come due. We need to remember there are consequences for our actions. And if we are doing something today we will have to pay for later, that is really not freedom. It is like an extravagant purchase on a credit card, you end up paying more for the thing than it is worth.

But Jesus, the Son of God, has come to pay the debt we could not pay. That doesn’t mean we get to live like we want, knowing someone else will come along and pick up the tab. It means the debt that was crippling us has been paid in full, wiped away. That debt is not gone so that we can wrack up more, it is paid so we can live in freedom. Peter will write later in I Peter 2:16, Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. And Paul will write in Romans 6:1, What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? The freedom that Jesus brings us will change our whole lives, our whole perspective. Instead of looking for ways to sin, we will be looking for ways to honor God. We will want to become more like him, and will strive for that, not because we must, but because we can.

Think about this for a moment, and examine your own heart. Has the Son truly set you free? Have you accepted that freedom and are you living in that freedom? Or are you still hanging on to some of the debt, the baggage, the sin from your former way of life? We need to give all of that to Jesus and we need to let him remove that from us. It is only in that full commitment that we truly find the freedom Jesus speaks about here.

Father, set me free. In Jesus; name, amen.

Mike Caton is the preacher at Mount Olive Church of Christ in Belhaven. He volunteers at the Ponzer Fire Department and works part time with Hyde County EMS. If you would like to receive daily devotions in your inbox, email mikecaton@centurylink.net.

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