Author: Paul Nordman

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives.” — Ephesians 4:8 ESV

Published in 1955, Milton Mayer’s nonfiction, They Thought They Were Free, explores how people in WWII-era Germany did not recognize fascism’s increasingly erosive impact on their own freedoms. His interviews with 10 working class residents exposed their tendency to compromise their own value systems and to consider themselves “free,” as long as their own personal needs were being met. History, however, shows they were not free.

Speaking to a crowd one day, Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”¹ They had been a “friendly” crowd to this point — “the Jews who had believed him”² — but now the people took offense at Jesus. They replied, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”³ They, too, thought they were free. And they, too, were not.

For Jesus spoke not of a political freedom, but a spiritual one. Centuries prior, Isaiah foresaw Him and foretold His mission: “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”⁴ And indeed Jesus has. Teaching in Antioch’s synagogue, Paul declared, “Let it be known to you . . . that through this man [Jesus] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.”⁵

Then from what shackles are we now free? What prison doors swing meaninglessly in the wind? What sentence is expunged? “We were held captive under the law,” writes Paul, “imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.⁶ The apostle continues, “The law was our guardian until Christ came . . . But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.”⁷ Moreover, we live in Christ and He lives in us, so His death becomes our death and His resurrection is our own. “Our old self was crucified with him,” writes Paul, “so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.”⁸ In all of this, Jesus “delivers us from the wrath to come.”⁹

We know we are free. Then what do we do? First, stay that way! Paul, to the Galatians: “Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.”¹⁰ Then return to servanthood, but this time in the release of forgiveness, the joy of liberty, and the assurance of love.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. — John 8:36 ESV

Father, Thank You for freeing us from sin and making us Your own. We savor this. Send Your Spirit to lead us in “the obedience that comes from faith.”¹¹ In Christ we pray. Amen.

¹ John 8:31-32 ESV
² John 8:31 ESV
³ John 8:33 ESV
⁴ Isaiah 61:1 ESV
⁵ Acts 13:38-39 ESV
⁶ Galatians 3:23 ESV
⁷ Galatians 3:24-25 ESV
⁸ Romans 6:6-7 ESV
⁹ 1 Thessalonians 1:10 ESV
¹⁰ Galatians 5:1 NLT
¹¹ Romans 1:5

We met several faculty and administrators the weekend we took our son Matthew to school in St. Louis. One shared his observation of how society stereotypes its own. “When we moved here, one of the first questions people would ask us was, ‘Where did you go to high school?’ But when we lived in North Carolina prior to this, the question was, ‘What church do you go to?’” We peg people in various ways, quite often by asking, “Where are you from?” But what do you do with the man who answers, “I came down from heaven?” How do we categorize that guy?

We try. Consider the crowds’ attempts to stuff a 3D Jesus into their 2D frame of reference. “Who are you?”¹ “Where is your father?”² “Are you the one who is to come?”³ “Are you the Son of God?”⁴ “Are you the king of the Jews?”⁵ “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?”⁶ “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”⁷ And of course, “Where are you from?”⁸ Oh, how we try.

Yet Jesus made His origins clear. To the crowd of 5000 who sailed after Him in search of another miraculous meal, He said, “I have come down from heaven.”⁹ Perhaps for clarity, context, or emphasis, Jesus then doubled down, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”¹⁰ They said among themselves, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”¹¹ But there in heaven — and from before the world existed — Jesus lived with the glory he had with the Father.¹²

Jesus is a category of one. No other has come down from heaven to live among us.¹³ “No one has seen the Father except the one [Jesus] who is from God; only he has seen the Father.”¹⁴ Moreover, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”¹⁵ For having shed His blood to cover our sins — His life for ours — Jesus “entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence,”¹⁶ as only He can. He will come again to take us to be with Him that we also may be where He is.¹⁷ No longer will we ask, “Where are you from?” We will see for ourselves. For “we will be with the Lord forever.”¹⁸

So, “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”¹⁹ It’s where He’s from. It’s where we’re going.

Father, thank You for sending Jesus from heaven, that we would live there, too. Grace us to live this life with our sights on the next. In Christ we pray. Amen.

¹ John 8:25 ESV
² John 8:19 ESV
³ Luke 7:19 ESV
⁴ Luke 22:70
⁵ John 18:33 ESV
⁶ Matthew 13:54 ESV
⁷ John 7:15 ESV
⁸ John 19:9
⁹ John 6:38 ESV
¹⁰ John 6:51 ESV
¹¹ John 6:42 NLT
¹² John 17:5
¹³ John 6:42
¹⁴ John 6:46 NIV
¹⁵ Acts 4:12 ESV
¹⁶ Hebrews 9:24 NIV
¹⁷ John 14:3
¹⁸ 1 Thessalonians 4:7 NIV
¹⁹ Colossians 3:1 NIV