One
of the most disturbing sentences in the entire Bible is this: "the
Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin." (1)
Imagine it! The planet we live on is one great prison and everyone
held down on it by the force of gravity, and having to breath its
air and drink its water to live is a prisoner. The Queen is a prisoner.
Mike Tyson is a prisoner. Bill Gates, the richest man in the history
of the world, is one too. And Madonna. The children who consider themselves
to be 'wardens' in any role-play are in fact prisoners too. So is
the one who has got to play the part of the 'prison governor.' Bosses
and management, white collar and blue collar workers alike are in
chains. Karl Marx was also bound in more profound ways than he ever
realised when he described men in chains. His diagnosis of a captive
proletariat simply did not go deep enough.. Those who boast of being
free-spirits are in fact prisoners.
What
are they free from?
They are
'free' from keeping their marriage vows, 'free' from being sober,
'free' from self-control, 'free' to take drugs, 'free' to lie and
steal. The country-singer says, 'Freedom's just another word for nothing
left to lose.' That one single person in the world who is most offended
by what this verse in the Bible is saying - maybe that is you - is
still a prisoner, though an outraged protesting one. The Word of God
is not prepared to make any exceptions: "the Scripture declares that
the whole world is a prisoner of sin." How are you a prisoner? In
this, that you can only do what you want to do. That is the confinement
within which you must live your narrow little life. You want to be
free of God, and you are. You want to have nothing to do with the
Bible, and you have it. You will not pray, and you do not. You refuse
to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and you don't. You will not go to a
gospel church and you never do. You are so restricted to that unreal
world where the prisoners do not acknowledge their Creator, his Son
Jesus Christ nor his Word, the Bible.
Who
has got you imprisoned?
That sentence
tells us it is 'sin'. A few questions will prove it. When sin says,
"Don't think about God!" do you obey? Yes. When sin tells you to spend
your life ignoring the Bible what is your response? You ignore the
Bible. When sin tells you not to consider the death that is coming
up to you nearer and nearer, what do you do? You say to yourself that
thinking about your certain death is morbid, and so you live as if
one day you were never going to die. But you are, and by the time
you have read these words you are that minute nearer to it than when
you started - if sin will let you read one word more. When sin tells
you to change the direction of the conversation when a Christian is
talking to you nervously and humbly about someone she calls her 'Saviour'
- what do you do? You obey sin, even though the words you may hear
are the most beautiful life-enriching words anyone can hear - words
like these - "When the Son of God - Jesus Christ - makes you free
you will be free indeed." Sin tells you then to think automatically,
"That is religion." Sin wants you always to say to yourself, "I have
settled that long ago," but you know that you have never read one
of the gospels all the way through. Mark's gospel takes just an hour
to read, but the prisoners of sin never read it. Sin won't allow them.
Every prisoner ignores Christianity because of prejudice. But sin
says, "Call your prejudices 'freedom'." But you are not free to read
the Bible, nor listen to sermons, nor think seriously when someone
talks to you about Jesus Christ, nor pray to God very earnestly and
continually, "O God, if you exist, let me know you for myself as the
living God!" Because you are a prisoner to sin.
A Prisoner
or a Slave?
Read these
words of Taki's who writes a column called 'High Life' in the
'Spectator' each week and ask yourself is this written by a
free man or a slave: "My mother who died last week, was a true Christian.
She forgave those who transgressed, starting with my dad, who sure
did transgress. She never retaliated, always forgave and forgot, and
prayed for her husband's soul until the end. Some modern thinkers
among you might see her as a fool, a doormat, even a victim. She was
nothing of the kind. She knew she could not change my father because
human nature simply does not change. She made the best of it, and
my dad treated her like the saint she was ...My mother's death last
week made me feel awfully guilty, however. Looking at her for the
last time while she was being lowered to sleep forever next to my
dad, I wished he hadn't been as promiscuous as he was. I guess the
same thing goes for myself, but, like him, I can't help it, and don't
really want to help it!" (Spectator, 15 August 1998, p.48). Taki the
slave. "Be promiscuous," said sin to his father, and his dad obeyed.
"Be promiscuous," said sin to the son, and Taki obeyed.
What
can Jesus Christ do for you?
He can
make you free from the prison of sin. He can free you from loneliness,
depression, anxiety, guilt and fear of death (sin is saying to you
now, "Only words: pay no attention"). The real living Jesus Christ
whom we learn of in the Bible rose from the dead (read the narratives
yourself), and now is Lord over death and sin. He is willing to become
the Lord of those who come to him and who ask him very earnestly that
he become their Lord, deal with their guilt and deliver them from
the power of sin.
Find
freedom !
There is
something desperately undignified in men and women created unto freedom
living their entire lives in chains while boasting to one another
of their liberty, and saying, "Poor deluded followers of Jesus Christ!
What slaves they are to loving God with all their hearts and loving
their neighbours as themselves." "Yes," we say, and in that happy
service we have found the meaning of being free." Ask the Lord Jesus
Christ to make you free. Plead with him. Who knows? He may have pity
on you and give you your first experience of liberty.
GEOFF
THOMAS