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Slave or free person? by Deon Crafford

John 12:46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Our entire faith is based on the person of Jesus. If I believe in Jesus Christ, I affirm that He came to save and that some will go unsaved. The world today though will not live with the absolutes of heaven (spiritual freedom) and hell (eternal slavery). It cannot tolerate the fact that a line is drawn and your either on one side or the other. The world today is obsessed with the concept of “ inclusion”, so it won’t accept that some people may be saved (or chosen) and others may be not. It will not live with absolutes, because it believes absolutes destroy the concept of human freedom.

If hell is equal to slavery, then it is very prevalent today. People are enslaved by the pursuit of all things they believe to constitute human greatness, and in the process they have to reject God. The pursuit of money, power, recognition, longevity and all such things enslave us, because it causes guilt, anxiety, anger or obsession. They become the things we worship and sin is worshipping anything but Jesus.

Spiritual freedom is living without the shackles of enslavement, without having to continuously prove my humanness or my human greatness, having to comply with a myriad of expectations and social norms that are thrown in my face constantly, so as to be included. Freedom is knowing that I am good as I am, not because I achieved it but because it was gifted to me, in Jesus Christ.

If I am not saved I remain enslaved and I may remain so forever. If human greatness or freedom, discounts or dilutes the glory of the gift of Jesus Christ, I have chosen hell as my destiny. As CS Lewis states “hell is the greatest monument to human freedom”. In hell there is no one to turn to (ask the rich man who knew Lazarus the beggar). Hell is where Jesus went in order to save me. When He cried out Eli Eli Sabachthani (my God, my God why have You forsaken me), He concluded the inclusion in God of those who invite Him in. If you won’t recognize hell, you don’t recognize Jesus.

Love to all

DC