The Price of Freedom

“And all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” - Romans 3:24

When something is free, it doesn’t cost us anything. Often we hear salvation described as “God’s free gift.” And that is true. Salvation is free to the one receiving the gift. But the reason it costs us nothing is because it cost Jesus everything.

The Apostle Paul describes mankind as “slaves to sin” before salvation. Long before governments offered poverty assistance programs, if a person fell into debt they could lose their land, become completely destitute and totally impoverished. The only possible means of avoiding prison or starvation was to sell yourself into slavery in exchange for the debt being repaid. Or, you could be born or forced into slavery. Regardless of how you became a slave, the only way to get your freedom was to be redeemed. Someone either had to pay off your debt or purchase your freedom. The term for that became “redemption.”

The truth is every single one of us was born into slavery. Our master is sin. We are born into spiritual slavery under the domination of sin. Just like any other slave, we have no means and no ability to free ourselves. Jesus Christ redeemed us. He bought us out of captivity with His blood.

Father, thank You for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Because of Your gift of grace, I am no longer a slave to sin. Thank You for buying my freedom. In Jesus’ name, amen.