For one of my seminary classes, I was assigned to write a 1000-1200 word blog post on an application of Romans 3:21-31. I decided to share it here as well since, well, this is a blog after all...
When Captives are Set Free
A Blog Reflection on Romans 3:21-31
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” – Galatians 5:1
For whatever reason, Christians in our country have gotten very good at downplaying sin. We convince ourselves that sin is really not that big of a deal. At least, we are better than fill-in-the-blank (whoever we see as the “true” sinners, the ones who absolutely need Jesus). We are so ingrained in our Christian micro-culture, speaking our Christianese and attending church, lining up a few different Bibles on our shelves, putting a couple dollars here and there in the plate, and telling people “God bless you”, that we figure, we’ve got this Christian thing down.
But, do we?
It is interesting that in the book of Romans, Paul addresses another group of people who thought they had it all together. He addresses the Jewish community. They were God’s chosen people, after all, holders of the law and of the promise. They presented their gifts and offerings at the temple, went to the synagogue for spiritual guidance, celebrated every religious holiday, and kept the Sabbath holy. Wasn’t that what God required? They could hardly be lumped in with those other people, the Gentiles.
In Romans, Paul argues against this sense of privilege. He tells them – no. We are all sinners. We are all separated from God. This is a condition we all share. In Romans 3:9, Paul states, “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin”. In Romans 3:23, he reiterates this point stating, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (emphasis mine).
Paul says we are “slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6). We are captives, bound by the hold of sin over our lives. We may think sin is “not a big deal”, but God knows differently. God knows how sin robs the image of God we were meant to reflect. God knows how sin prevents us from living fully in love with Him and in service to others. God knows how sin separates us from His presence. And ultimately, God knows that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
I’ve heard it explained this way: if there is a person standing at the very bottom of the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean, and another standing at the top of the highest peak, who is closer to reaching the sun? While technically, the one on the peak would be a small amount closer, there is still such a significant gap between them and the sun that the difference, which seems enormous to us, is in fact trivial. We can’t reach the sun while on Earth. It’s too far away! Similarly, the gap between the “greatest of sinners” and we who think we have only “minorly sinned” may seem massive to us, but in comparison to the Son, it is trivial. We still cannot reach the righteousness standard of God on our own.
So, God provides a way – a means to set the captives free since we could not free ourselves. This way is provided through Jesus. Sin must be a serious matter indeed if God’s one and only Son had to leave Heaven and come down to Earth to deal with it!
Romans 3:24 states, “And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Praise God! All – all – are justified, set right with God, declared righteous before Him, through the grace God extends to us, not because we earned it, not out of our own merit, but because of Christ’s faithfulness to the cross. We have been redeemed.
This word, redeemed, is significant. In Paul’s original context, writing to the church in Rome, they would have understood this word differently than we do. We may think of “redeemed” like redeeming a few coupons at the grocery store or redeeming a prize at a carnival or redeeming oneself by making up for a mistake. Back then, being redeemed would have referred to a slave who was purchased and set free from captivity. Slaves were unable to free themselves, but a benefactor or a family member or someone who cared about them could buy their freedom.
We are unable to free ourselves from the bonds of slavery to sin. All the church attendance, all the rituals and ceremonies, all the voting “correctly”, and all the trying to say and do the right things – are insufficient to set us right before God. Sin is our oppressor, holding us in captivity. God is our Redeemer, providing the payment for our freedom.
This freedom is for everyone who will receive it. There is no difference, as Paul says, regardless of an individual’s race or ethnicity or background or social status. The invitation is for everyone, anyone, all. Because we are all sinners in need of saving, and because God’s grace, mercy, and love are boundless.
Consider John 8:34-36, “Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’” What, then, were we freed for? We were freed to be sons and daughters of God.
As sons and daughters of God, we are part of the inheritance. As sons and daughters of God, we follow after the heart of the Father and the things that are important to Him. Yet we must not fall into the trap of thinking that our obedience or our Christian duty now makes us more worthy of the gift we have been given. We may take a few steps up that mountain, but we will never reach the Son through our own efforts. Our redemption is still once and for all through Jesus Christ. We must not boast of anything except for Jesus. It is all about redemption. It is all about Him.
Rather, our redemption should humble us. We did not receive it because we are somehow better than others. We received it only through God’s grace and mercy. And in that humility, we should be moved to one, share this freedom with others so that more might be released from captivity and from under the thumb of the oppression of sin. Shouldn’t we want to see all the captives set free?
Two, that freedom should move us to live in thankfulness, love, and gratitude every day, in obedience to our Father and in good stewardship of all He has given us. For after all, without Him, we would still be slaves. But now, we are sons and daughters of the King.
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