We Are Free

Point of Relation

When I came back to Christ in 2004 after several years away from the Church,

I carried an incredible amount of guilt.

I honestly believed I had so much to apologize for that almost every prayer began the same way:

"Lord, forgive me.

Lord, forgive me.

Lord, forgive me."

For years, I prayed that way.

Then one day it finally dawned on me.

I wasn't asking God to forgive me because God hadn't forgiven me.

I was asking because I hadn't forgiven myself.

Paul says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

The only person still carrying condemnation...was me.

Things to Consider

What does it really mean to be free?

Is freedom simply being forgiven...

Or is it becoming someone new?

And if Christ has already set us free...

why do so many of us still live as though we're condemned?

What Scripture Says

When most of us think of Romans 8, our minds immediately go to the end of the chapter.

"If God is for us, who can be against us?"

"Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Those are some of the most beloved words in all of Scripture.

But Paul is a meticulously practical theologian.

He doesn't begin with the celebration.

He begins with the foundation that makes the celebration possible:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Notice what he doesn't say.

He doesn't promise there will be no suffering, no hardship, or no struggle.

He says there is no condemnation.

That's a courtroom word.

The verdict has already been rendered.

Christ has done what the Law,

weakened by our humanity, could never do on its own.

Through Christ, sin no longer has the final word over our lives.

But Paul doesn't stop with forgiveness.

He says the Spirit has set us free.

Free not simply from the guilt of sin,

but from its power to define us.

Christ has not simply erased our past.

Christ has opened a new future.

What This Means for You

Maybe you've been living as though you're still condemned.

Maybe you've let guilt, shame, fear, or failure

convince you that your past has the final word.

Paul says otherwise.

Christ has already spoken a different word over your life: free.

So don't come to this table trying to earn what Christ has already given.

Come ready to receive it.

Then leave this place not as someone still carrying chains,

but as someone learning what it means to live in the freedom

Christ has already won for you.

What This Means for Us

If Christ has set us free, then we cannot leave this table unchanged.

We receive grace so that we might become people of grace.

We receive freedom so that others might experience freedom through us. \

Every time we gather at this Table, we practice Jubilee.

Amen? Amen.

Written by Rev. Todd R. Lattig with the assistance of ChatGPT (OpenAI).