Sin as Slavery; Jesus as Emancipator

As sinners we get so used to sinning that we scarcely recognize our
bondage. Exodus gives us a powerful picture of what it really means to be
enslaved. Just as the children of Israel were held prisoner in the house of
bondage, so we too are incarcerated in the prison-house of sin.



The Bible teaches
that Jesus came to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery” (Heb.
2:15). Jesus is the mighty deliverer who rescues us from our captivity to
Satan, the strong Savior who frees us from our bondage to death, and the
great emancipator who liberates us from our slavery to sin. He does all this
through the cross, which was the death of our sin, and also through the empty
tomb, which is the guarantee of our release. It is through the crucifixion and
resurrection of Jesus Christ that we pass from slavery into freedom.
Everyone who trusts in Christ is released from the servitude of sin in order
to live for the glory of God: “To him who loves us and has freed us from
our sins by his blood . . . to him be glory and power for ever and ever!”
(Rev. 1:5b, 6b).





--Phil Ryken