So I’m not at work this week, and it is a good thing. I am tired and needed a break, and despite having no travel plans of note I have been looking forward to this time off for a quite a few months now. I’m still not sure what I’ll do with myself and the first day is almost fast behind me as I write this.
My wife and I got up this morning and decided to take the motorcycle out for a spin. We needed a few things from town and thus the opportunity presented itself for a short excursion - so we took it. It has been many weeks since we have ridden the bike due to work schedules, children, and other things that can make your life go by too fast. The weather has not been agreeable during the past month as well, with either temperatures that are just too hot or an overabundance of rain. Riding a motorcycle is not an agreeable experience in either of those two conditions.
As soon as we were on the road I remembered why I love riding as much as I do, and if you asked my wife she would agree. It is an exhilarating feeling of freedom when you ride, as long as you are careful and keep your eyes peeled for hazards at almost every turn. It is the feel of the wind on your skin and the comforting rumble of the bike’s engine under you as you ride. It is also the smells; though that is hard to describe it to someone who has never ridden. In a car you don’t notice the smell of bacon frying in a house that you may happen to pass, or the sharp fragrances of flowers in bloom alongside the road that you travel. We also had the opportunity to ‘smell’ the rain a little this morning, but we didn’t mind it too much. We were free. Had the rain not hindered us, we may have continued to ride for quite a while longer, losing track of our responsibilities and the various commitments that seem to pursue us in our daily lives.
Jesus said, in John 8, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” What He is offering is a different kind of freedom than what one would experience on a motorcycle, hang-gliding, surfing, or any of the other activities that people feel inclined to word-associate with true freedom. I wondered about that verse for a long time, pondering what Jesus could offer me in this day and age that would result in my true ‘freedom.’ He even punctuated the statement with ‘indeed’. As in not just free, but free indeed.
We live our lives and despite what anyone will tell you, there is a sense of guilt about us. We can deny the existence of God, choose to ignore Him, and pretend that all of reality is only what we can determine through our physical senses. But deep inside of us, because He is our creator, we have it ingrained in our hearts to know that He is. Some may hide this better than others, but it is absolute in all of us. We are spiritual beings, created in God’s very image. Because of these things, we have a sense of foreboding. We know that death is promised and that we will all face it one day – no one gets out of here alive. Even those that would deny the reality of God cannot alter their own destiny. Death itself is proof of God; for death is the wage that we earn from sin, as Paul writes (much better than I do) in Romans.
With death comes final judgment, and we are promised that we will face it one day. The judge will be God Himself, and all of our deeds will be revealed, including our innermost thoughts. It is surely enough to worry about. It is more than enough to feel guilty about. Our impending death and the judgment that is certain to follow, coupled with the role of sin in our lives each and every day all serve to bind us as we wait for the other shoe to drop. And it will.
So we go to church a few times. And on occasion we may try and do a few good deeds. We work on being good parents or good neighbors, good employees or good bosses. We may even throw a little money toward our favorite charity every now and then. We do these things in an effort to ‘measure up’ to what we think that God would surely expect from us, hoping against hope that in the end it will prove to be enough. But it never will be. As a result, hidden deep within us is a guilt that we all share, and breaking free from that chain that binds us is an impossible feat to accomplish. When you sin, you are a slave to sin.
Jesus offers us freedom from sin. No more guilt or doubts, and no more shame. He offers us the chance to break free from our chains, and all we have to do is accept Him. There are no hidden costs and no fine print to mull over; we are only required to take Him at His Word. In return we get freedom, and the promise of an abundant life. We also escape judgment and gain eternity. In other words, Jesus offers us the chance to be free indeed.
The feeling of freedom is very hard to beat. It is also quite a load off of your mind.
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