Prisoners Set Free

Sixty-seven years ago, on April 29, 1945, combined allied forces marched in Dachau and set the remaining prisoners free from their horror and imminent death. Dachau was the location of the first of the Nazi concentration camps. Records indicate that at least 32,000 inmates died there. Numberless others were transported from there to extermination camps throughout Poland. The Nazis during the war at these camps senselessly murdered over nine million people. It is hard to imagine the elation they must have felt at being set free. But, there is another freedom much greater than that! So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. (John 8:31-37 ESV). Radio personality Paul Harvey tells the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into the consuming, self-destructive nature of sin. First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more—until the dawn finds him dead in the snow! That is the power of sin and death in our lives. It is this “slavery” that Christ has died to set us free from! There is only one thing necessary to receive this freedom. We must accept the pardon. About 1830, a man named George Wilson killed a government employee who caught him in the act of robbing the mails. Wilson was tried and sentenced to be hanged. The President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, sent Wilson a pardon. But, Wilson did a strange thing: he refused to accept the pardon. No one seemed to know what to do because of this, so Wilson’s case was sent to the U. S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice Marshall wrote the opinion: “A pardon is a slip of paper, the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.” And he was. The cross of Christ is a revelation of God’s love for all people. We may do cowardly and disappointing things and bring deep pain to the Father’s heart, but in the cross we see that He never gives up on us. Something happened that day on Calvary that forever makes a difference in the relationship between people and God. Even when the love of Jesus was thrown in His face with spitting, mocking and cursing, it remained unbroken. The death of Christ on the cross is the pardon God has sent. But before it becomes a pardon, we must accept it in faith. It is through the cross, and only through the cross that we can be saved from sin and its consequence of eternal separation from God in hell. Have you accepted God’s pardon in Christ Jesus? Be free today!