Many of us say we are free, forgiven, sinners saved by grace, and so on. We constantly remind ourselves of the past we’ve been redeemed from and act as if we are rid of it.
Many of us are also liars.
What kind of miracle would it be if a blind man Jesus healed continued to walk around slapping a stick back and forth in front of himself. Would he be acknowledging the validity of the miracle, the fact that he had been blind but now sees? Not at all. But that is what we do when we claim to be saved from something, free of it, yet continue to let it rule our lives. We are people of clean skin refusing to leave the leper colony, we are fully functioning bodies stuck on crippled beggar’s mats. Jesus commands us to pick up our mat and walk, do not continue to walk around as if we were still dead in our sin.
During his reign over Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar and his army lay siege to Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, captive back to Babylon and he remained a prisoner there for 37 years. It was in the first year of King Evil-Merodach’s reign over Babylon that Jehoiachin was released from prison. We are told in 2 Kings 25:28-30 that the king spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings in Babylon. Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and ate regularly at the king’s table for the rest of his life and he was given an allowance from the king day by day.
The book of 2 Kings ends with this story. I am no Bible scholar, but I’d like to believe it stems from the author’s hope that these final statements would resonate with the reader. The book is full of stories of kings (most of them who did evil in the eyes of the Lord), battles, and the wickedness of God’s people. Story after story of bad king’s and their even worse successors. So what is significant about this story, this king? Why not end with an epic battle or a “happily ever after”? This story is significant because it preaches the exact message that so many of us are missing in our Christian lives and everyday walks with God: we are prisoners who have been set free and have no need of walking around as if chained by sin. We are alive in Christ and the Spirit- and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom! (Romans 6:11, 2 Cor. 3:17). How crazy would Jehoiachin have been if, when offered freedom and a seat at the king’s table, said, “No thanks, I enjoy sharing this dark jail cell with rats and inhumane smells. And these prison clothes, well they’re quite comfy. I think I’ll just hang out here for another 40 years or so. This is who I am now, a prisoner, not a king.” Yeah right.
Romans 8 speaks of life through the Spirit, saying that if we live according to the sinful nature we will die, but if by the Spirit we put to death the misdeeds of the the body, we will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are SONS and DAUGHTERS of God. We call Him ABBA and share in His inheritance. Sean Smith, AIM staff, said during our last debrief something that has stuck with me since the words left his lips, “It isn’t arrogance to know who you are in Christ, but it is a shame to neglect your inheritance.” We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, we share in suffering and glory (v. 16).
Don’t be the person that blames your every failed relationship on your parents’ divorce or say you can’t tell someone how you feel because your father never said he loved you. Don’t allow yourself to commit a sin because that same sin was committed against you. Don’t keep yourself from trying something because you failed at something else before. Don’t let what a teacher told you in high school keep you from chasing your dreams now. Don’t think you aren’t worthy of greatness because of the shame and guilt in your past. Never settle for less than the inheritance that awaits you. Never let any person’s voice be louder than the voice of God. Do not deny the sacrifice on the cross and the resurrection from the grave its power.
Your sin is not your identity. Christ didn’t give His life on the cross for you to throw a pity party for yourself. Live in the freedom God has given you.
“Walk in the light as He is in the light.” 1 John 1:7
COME, remove your prison clothes and dine at the King’s table. Accept the seat of high honor He has given you and the love He extends day after day.
“But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you NOW are.” Deuteronomy 4:20
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” 1 Peter 1:3-4.
