“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
I always thought I was free. I thought I understood the concept of grace. It was comforting to think that, even though there was compromise in my life, God would always forgive me because he is gracious and kind. I might displease him, but in the end, grace would trump disobedience and I would waltz into heaven.
I had learned how costly grace had been to the Savior, even though it was free for me. I had heard of “cheap grace” — treating God like a kindly grandfather and taking his love and mercy for granted — but that certainly was not my attitude, or so I reasoned. I would not have expressed it quite that way, but my behavior certainly showed it.
Did I really understand the freedom grace brings? Clearly not.
In John 8:34, Jesus told the Jews, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” They too thought they were free. They had “never been enslaved to anyone” (v. 33).
Jesus made it…
