(Previously Published on Mrs Words Blog & Hillsong Creative Devotionals)
“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.”
Galatians 5:1 (NIV)
When my daughter was just a toddler, we would sometimes take her with us to building sites. We would give her a piece of chalk and designate an area for her to draw on – usually on some timber panelling that would later be covered over. Every few minutes, one of us would check on her. One day, my husband quietly calls me over to see what she’s doing – she was drawing crosses of all shapes and sizes all over her little area, as she was saying “Jesus died on the cross for me”.
At 4 1/2 years old, this little girl already had an understanding that Jesus died on the cross FOR HER! I was absolutely blown away by this. I have to admit, I stepped in and added a second line to her little phrase, telling her “He rose again to set me free!”. From that day on, this was her favourite thing to do. She would draw crosses everywhere with her little piece of chalk and tell that simple phrase to anyone who would listen.
Colossians 1:14 (NLT) tells us that He purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Take a moment to think about that. Christ’s death – the death of the most perfect human being to ever walk the face of this earth, occurred in order to set you, me and every other average, normal, imperfect sinner free.
What a sacrifice! What an act of complete and utter selflessness. The debt He paid was His life for ours! Because He chose to obey and follow God’s will, WE ARE FREE! Through His death, all our transgressions have been passed into the sea of forgetfulness. And because He died and was raised to life again, we can live to be all He has called us to be. To be FREE!
Free from sin and shame; Free from burdens and heaviness; Free from failure and brokenness; Free from heartache and pain; Free from eternal damnation; Free from ourselves and our selfish ways. Sure, we all feel those things, but the truth is, we don’t have to. He has taken all that pain upon His shoulders.
Forgiveness undeserved gives us Freedom unreserved!
So, as we journey through this Easter Season, I pray that you too would have the childlike understanding that my 4-year-old daughter did – “Jesus died on the cross for me, He rose again to set me free!”
