To me, nothing is as captivating as a movie. When good acting meets great storytelling and those things collide with beautiful cinematography, almost nothing is more entertaining. I recently watched the movie Braveheart. While maintaining a simple plot this movie draws the audience into the thirst for freedom of Scotland .
Freedom is often talked about in the United States, because freedom is supposed to be something that sets us apart. In this movie the Scottish people long for their freedom from the tyrannical reign of the English. However, the freedom in both of these examples is so very different than the freedom that Jesus talks about in John chapter 8.
In Georgia a common topic of discussion were the practicalities of living in the freedom that Jesus Christ offers through his death and resurrection. Jesus says in John 8:31 and the following verses that “if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” These are the steps to freedom, true freedom.
Paul explains further in Romans chapter 6 that “we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.” The purpose of freedom is so that we that we must no longer be bound by our sin, slaves to it, as instruments for unrighteousness. The wage for our sin, which we were formerly bound to, is death and Jesus paid for that so that we might taste true freedom.
However, the good news continues. Unlike William Wallace in Braveheart we do not just seek after freedom for freedoms sake. Rather true freedom through the blood of Jesus Christ brings the true Gift of God. This gift is eternal life. What is eternal life you may ask? Is it to live forever with God? Yes. But it is also that we may know the only true God and his son whom he sent (John 17).
In Georgia this semester I learned that the greatest gift I could have ever received is the opportunity to be reconciled with my heavenly Father into a relationship with him. However, the beauty of this relationship is that it is not a one time interaction, rather it is a lifetime of “seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” so that I might know him more intimately.
In Braveheart, near the end, William Wallace says something very thought provoking. He says, “every man dies, but not every man truly lives.” The Lord has revealed to me what it means to truly live, what it means to have eternal life, and what it means to not live under the law but under the grace of the Father.
