God Time 10/22

Who Are Your Slave Ancestors?

When I say, “slavery” what immediately comes to mind? Undoubtedly this. Black African slaves coming to America beginning in the colonial era and lasting through to the end of the civil war in 1865.

If this is our picture of slavery, it is a skewed view.

Yes, we all know about Black African slaves, mainly in the southern colonies of America, at the birth of our country. They are legally the personal property of their owners, forced to work, receive no wages and can not own property.

But, you probably didn’t know that 55% of the White European colonists who made up America in 1776 are also the personal property of owners who force them to work for no wages and treat them just as harshly as they want, in the North and South? 55% of the White colonists also cannot own property. They are indentured servants and prisoners.

Now, what if I told you that every single one of you almost certainly has slave blood running through your veins? Even those of you who are not Black? Someone in your family tree was almost certainly a slave. You just have to trace your family back a bit further to serfdom and other forms of involuntary servitude that existed throughout the world.

Yes, for almost everyone, if you go back far enough, you have someone in your family who was owned by someone else and forced to work for him. You have slave blood and probably don’t even know it.

Jesus talks about slavery. He says that everyone has slave blood in their veins. We are all enslaved, and need someone to redeem us. Someone to set us free.

Why do you think Americans have such a limited knowledge about slavery?

The Early Christians Are Jews

The Pharisees and other religious leaders are trying to trap Jesus. They are questioning his credentials. They are calling him a liar. But, not every one of them.

Then many who heard him say these things believed in him.

It is important to remember that not all the Jewish people during the time of Jesus are against Jesus. Even before his resurrection, there are those who follow him beside his 12 disciples. After his resurrection, all the people who first follow Jesus come out of a Jewish background. It is only later that non-Jewish Romans will start believing.

This continues today. About one third of all American adults of Jewish heritage, are now Christian. Jews who become Christian are influenced because of marrying a Christian, being connected by Christian friends, hearing the gospel and seeing the prophecies in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, about the coming Messiah and realizing they point to Jesus. Scriptures like Isaiah Chapter 53 have a strong impact.

Do you have Christian friends who come out of Jewish heritage? Talk to them about it.

The Truth Will Set You Free

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?”

Oh, Oh, right away there is a disconnect between what Jesus is saying and what the believers have in mind. It is interesting that these Jewish believers would say they have never been slaves to anyone. The key narrative in their faith life up to this point has been that God freed the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. This is the central story of the Jewish experience. The Exodus and what follows.

But, Jesus has something else in mind.

Why would someone not want to know about their slave heritage?

Whatever Happened To Sin?

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.

Jesus is telling his Jewish audience there is a slavery much worse than the slavery they experience in Egypt. Worse than the semi-slavery they are currently suffering at the hands of the Romans.

No, this is a slavery that that grips us as all as individuals, groups, nations and families of nations. This slavey that chains us is what we call, “sin.”

Sin is what separates us from all the good God wants to do in our lives. Sin is turning away from God and his ways and following our own path. But, in our culture, we don’t talk about sin a lot. Hardly at all.

We confuse our talking about sin by placing it into categories of personal morality, especial sexual morality. But, we speak of this as old-fashioned thinking. We don’t want to call sin, sin. Because we are so obsessed with sex and the idea of personal freedom, we try to avoid connecting anything sexual with sin, unless of course we mean, the sin of calling something sexual, sinful.

But, there is more to sin than sex. As NT Wright says,

“When people rebel against God in whatever way, new fields of force are called into being, a cumulative effect builds up, and individuals and societies alike become enslaved just as surely as if every single one of them wore chains and was hounded to work every day by a strong man with a whip.”

Sexual relations are God-honoring when they are between a husband and a wife. When you read this sentence how does your body react? What comes to mind?

We Can Have What Jesus Has

So, what is the truth that will set us free?

The truth is Jesus. He is the one who sets us free.

John 1:14

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

Jesus sets us free by showing us how to live as God always wanted us to live.

John 1:18

No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

Jesus sets us free by giving us access to the Father’s heart. The heart that embraces all his children and adores them.

John 14:6

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

It is truly Jesus who sets us free.

A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.

A slave doesn’t have the assurance of a future. Only true family members have that assurance. And because Jesus is God’s special and unique son, as he sets us free through his death and resurrection, as he gives us God’s glory, we share in his status as children of the Father.

We are called to shine this light of freedom onto others. Nothing can hold back God’s love for us. Not even our sin. We are free from the effects of our sin, because we are slaves to it no more. We can walk another path. And we need another path. The path we take without Jesus is a path into darkness.

But we can be set free. And we can help others be set free from their own slavery to sin. Even if they don’t know they are slaves. We can shine the light of Jesus, and Jesus will set all people free. They only have to receive him to begin new life. To begin a new life of true freedom.

Do you want the freedom Christ brings? Ask him into your life.